My Moment - Day 25 - Don't Forget to Stop

As I mentioned in my blog, my #oneword is a call to action for me to be mindful of the moments that make up my day. The moments at home, the moments at work and the moments that happen in between.

Do you ever sit in the middle of your day and just stop? It does not have to be for very long. It might only be a minute or two, but in that brief moment of time, do you stop? If you are anything like me, you are tempted to just go, go, go. How else will it all get done?

We are in the midst of our middle of the year student progress and intervention meetings, in which we discuss student growth, celebrate success, brainstorm and challenge ourselves to come up with innovative ways to ensure success for ALL students. We go into this week with a schedule and do our best to stick to it, but more often than not, we fall behind and do our best to catch up.

How often are we guilty of that in education? We fall behind and just as soon as we do, we feel this pressure to get "caught up" causing us to go an inch deep and a mile wide, instead of diving in a mile deep. When we get that feeling, like we are being suffocated by everything that needs to be done, we need to stop. We do not stop teaching and we certainly do not give up, but just for a moment, stop.

After day one of our meetings, we were ahead of schedule. Our teachers entered into these meetings with focus and purpose. They knew which students needed to be discussed, they knew the needs of each individual student and had already brainstormed what we can do differently to support each individual student. Knowing we were ahead of schedule, we had the option of working ahead or stopping.

We stopped. It was not for very long, but it was long enough for me to collect my thoughts, have one or two conversations with teachers and staff about things that really matter in life and set course for the rest of the day.

In the midst of the moment today, I was reminded to stop. The next time you fall behind or get ahead will you be able to stop?

If only for a moment, stop.

What was your moment today?