Here's a little tip for you: active listening is not easy while surrounded by children who don't always follow the social custom of waiting until you finish one conversation to try to start another. I truly believe that part of my inability to focus on one thing only half the time stems from the many years I've worked with children.
Having said that, I also noticed today that the bus ride was a little more pleasant for me when I actively engaged in a conversation with one of my students. I always try to be a good listener, but I'll admit sometimes I'm not fully there as a kid chatters away. This morning, I was, and it made a huge difference. The child in the seat next to me and I connected more than we have all summer. It was nothing big (a huge conversation topic was the many cornfields we spotted), but it made us both happy.
Another consequence of this whole active listening goal is that I caught myself a couple of times trying extra hard today with people that I knew have been reading! Didn't want to get busted not even trying! This is not necessarily a bad thing.
The other thing that I did today was to clean up a mess I found. We stopped at a park to eat our lunches today, and I noticed balloons everywhere! Upon closer inspection as I tried to clean them up, I also found several plastic toy soldiers. Several of them had been extremely mutilated (one was mostly just a torso and not much else) but I found a couple that were still intact and gave them to one of the kids standing nearby. I also found a car-shaped silly band and gifted that as well. It was something small, but it made them smile. And caring for the planet He created seems like a great way to serve God to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment