It may have taken me more than a decade of teaching, but I’ve finally come to the conclusion that my level of preparedness is no real indicator of how successful my students are in their learning outcomes. What does affect their success, however, is the intention I release for the 50 minutes we have together.
Setting an intention is different than creating a learning outcome. It’s not the same as teaching a lesson objective or outlining the skills they'll learn. All of these are essential to the core of any good lesson, by the way. Setting intentions is about creating an environment; in fact, BEING the environment for our students to fall into the space for learning. It's not the "Big idea" that drives the unit plan, it's the "Big Embrace" that holds the student with just enough room for growth and security.
In Yoga philosophy, there is an important teaching about setting a goal but not getting attached to the outcome. It’s called Abhyasa and Vairagya. There are many ways to apply it in life. In the classroom, I’ve been practicing it by setting intentions for the feel and atmosphere of the lesson, the classroom, and my own vibration, then letting go and letting the energy unfold. I take some quiet time before a lesson begins. I may do this as early as in the morning before I leave the house, or just a few minutes before a class starts, closing my eyes and feeling into what feels right for the activities, the lesson, for the climate of the day. Some questions I ask are:
Who can I be for my students today? (ex: Someone to listen to their story ideas, to be fully present for any questions they have, a window into their vision of success/achievement/secure relationships; a guide, a mentor, a place of calm)
How do I want to feel at the end of this lesson? (Organized, connected to my students, moderator, facilitator, etc.)
What type of energy do I want to model/create/yield in the classroom? (Peaceful, excited, open, workshop feel, creative)
Setting intentions allows me to hold space for all of us, teachers and students, to stay in the present. It keeps me less focused on the results and more focused on staying in the same parallel as my students. It's a collective effort. We feel what it's like to learn for the sake of learning and to manage our emotions around outcomes.
We teach students to set goals all the time. Setting your intention, however, is the first of many accessible approaches I teach in my Delivering Conscious Curriculum workshops for Educators and for which I'll outline in the coming posts. For now, I invite you to try it. Don't expect results overnight, but notice the small subtle changes in the room. Be with it and just notice what happens over time.
Leave me a comment and let me know how it goes.
Always in collaboration,
Miriam