Listening

Yesterday, I listened.

Doug Peterson recently spoke with Stephen Hurley on VoicEd Radio and together they discussed one of Doug’s blog posts which highlights some of the work by educators in Ontario.  I paused when I listened to these gentlemen discuss Jennifer Casa-Todd’s post, “Blue Whale App:  What is it and what should I do?”.  I hadn’t read her post at that point but I’m glad I finally sat down this morning to absorb her message.

What I appreciate most about her post is that it serves as a reminder to us, to listen.

Two days ago, one of my students spoke to me in class about the interactions between two of her classmates that concerned her.  The next day, I made sure to follow-up on her concerns by sharing two videos (shown below) and then explaining the reasons why we weren’t jumping in to our academic class activities right away.  I also let my students know that sometimes we forget to act like the people we hope to be.  Sometimes we make mistakes, but we have friends (and teachers) who are there to catch us when we fall.

*I also shared this clip from Will Ferrell’s commencement speech.

Yesterday, my student came and spoke with me about the messages I shared because she wanted to check if I had done this because of what she told me.  Then she smiled and thanked me.

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Thank you, Jennifer, for your thoughtful post.

 

 

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