Danny Neville

The Eisenhower Urgent/Important tool struck a chord with me. Since I first saw the matrix, I find I’m regularly using the concept to organize my thoughts, actions, and plans at work. It has been immensely helpful. I love to use Google Keep as my parking lot of “To-Do Tasks” where I can pin the most urgent tasks, and keep less urgent but important items. I also feel a great sense of relief when I hit that little ‘garbage can’ button and delete the tasks that fall to the “Don’t Do” quadrant.

Of all the tasks that we sort into our own matrixes, here are two reasons we should never allow gratitude to fall into the less-important, lower quadrants.

I hope we all know what it feels like to be truly thanked for our actions. I’m not talking about receiving an all-staff email to thank you for a great term, or the quick thank-yous we receive for holding a door open or passing the ketchup. I’m talking about the ones you remember for months or years. I’m talking about the connection you feel when someone looks you in the eye and tells you how much your words or actions meant to them. When we receive specific, positive feedback from people within our organizations, it counts. It makes us want to do more, be better, and care more deeply about our communities. As teachers and leaders and colleagues, putting real gratitude into our urgent-important quadrants will have incredibly positive ripple effects that we can’t begin to imagine.

The second reason to keep gratitude in the top tier of our matrix is for our own well-being. In a Harvard Health Publishing article, the author says that “in positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness…and helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.” Saying thanks isn’t only beneficial for the recipient. It also greatly contributes to our own well-being and that of our organizations.

On Monday, my new pinned Google Keep post-it will be labelled “Gratitude.” I can’t wait to see where it takes me. 🙂

I have to admit that I hit a wall a while back. I was mindful of the wall, but it was there nonetheless.

I started my journey to bring mindfulness to my students earlier this year with a sense of urgency and vigour. I knew that what I had to share was not only worthwhile, but also vitally important for the wellbeing of my students. I took two online courses about mindfulness in education, bought some books, followed the tweets of the guru’s, practiced on my own, and taught the lessons to my students.

And then came the wall.

It appeared almost out of nowhere. Of course it had always been there, but now it was messing with my mindfulness. It was a big, messy, towering giant of a wall. It was made of stress and ticking clocks and looming report cards and coaching responsibilities and piles of marking and other unidentifiable detritus. It caused my enthusiasm to deflate and it made my brain hurt.

“But that’s exactly the moment in time that you actually need mindfulness the most!” said all the experts.

Easier said than done.

But they’re right.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my students was having a really difficult day. When chatting with him, he asked me if he could just stop and take a few mindful breaths. Now, admittedly, this came after quite a lengthy hiatus from the mindfulness lessons I’d been teaching. But he still remembered the techniques, applied them on his own, and was able to turn his day around.

My revised plan is to bring one moment of mindfulness to my classroom each day. It might be during a discussion with a student. It might be a whole class lesson or example. It might just be me taking a few deep, mindful breaths and feeling grateful for the gift of teaching such an incredible group of students. However it happens, mindfulness has taken root and can only continue to grow.

And as for the wall…

My student have me a gift that day. He didn’t shatter the wall or make it disappear or punch an enormous hole in it. He simply gave me a ladder. The wall is still there. It will likely grow and shrink with time, but now I can climb it whenever I please. You should see it some day…the view from the top is breathtaking. 🙂

What are my immediate next steps?

I have researched mindfulness in the classroom and found a couple of resources that are useful and applicable. I have taught the first 8 lessons of the Mindful Schools curriculum and plan to introduce the remaining 8 lessons before the March Break.

I would also like to review the way in which my students have been reflecting on each lesson. Right now, they are using a small paper journal to answer a couple of reflection questions after each lesson. I’d like to explore using Kidblog to encourage students to share their thinking with each other and have the chance to read and respond to different ideas.

When will I publish next?

I will publish next before March Break in order to reflect on how the implementation of mindfulness is going and what type of reflection tool is working best for my students.

How will I present my finding?

Although I haven’t found the perfect format to present my findings (suggestions welcome!), I would love to incorporate student voices into the presentation.

Today I learned about some new web-based tools (i.e. diigo) and expanded my understanding of tools that I’ve been using for a while (i.e. twitter). It’s been great to interact with other educators within the independent school community and begin to share new ideas and challenges. At the end of our first face-to-face session, I’m interesting in hearing about a variety of different ideas for action plans. Looking forward to the next session! 🙂

Welcome to Cohort 21. This is the first post on your new blog. This journal is an integral part of your Cohort 21 experience. Here you will reflect, share and collaborate as you move through the C21 learning cycle towards your action plan.

Cohort 21 is a unique professional development opportunity open to CIS Ontario teachers and school leaders who are seeking to explore  what it means to a teacher in the 21st century.