Listen and stop talking

I love listening to Sunday sermons and wondering how I can apply them to the classroom. This Sunday, the pastor talked about listening. He loved listening to the people in the church and especially the children in church. During the week, he mentioned how he listened to people in the community. He also mentioned that it was easier to listen now that he was retired (He was filling in for our pastor who is recovering from CoVid).

I know when I was a beginning teacher, I talked too much. (Of course, people may say I haven’t changed at all even 40 years later.) I wanted to share my knowledge, I wanted to push all this education into my students’ heads and then miraculously be educated! I wanted to be the best teacher in the world and show my students that I can make them better people.

I remember taking a class where we were encouraged to give “wait time” when we asked questions. Don’t be in such a hurry to give the answers if the students were struggling. Some students took longer to process the question. Do you know how hard it was for me to keep my mouth shut? Eventually, I got better at this and stopped being in such a hurry.

I also learned that we ask students how they are without really listening to their answers. Students are used to this question as a greeting and rarely answer honestly. I have tried to stop using that question as a greeting if I’m not really interested in the answer. Now when I ask that question, I make sure I have time to listen to the answer. I stop and look at the person I’m asking and when they answer the usual, “fine,” I encourage them to continue with more information. I may even ask, “No, really, how are you?” Sometimes this little attention can help a person open up when they are in need of someone to listen.

I try to practice this in front of my students. We even discuss how listening is important and ways we can show we are really listening and not just hearing the other person. Sometimes, we might even role-play situations. Students like to give real-life examples when they felt like someone wasn’t listening to them. We role-play what they say actually happened and then we try to think of ways we wanted the other person to act. This can be a very enlightening activity for all because many times it can lead to discussions that might clarify a situation for someone.

I think listening is a skill that we should practice. It is easier to push it aside for other things, especially if we have busy lives. But listening is cheap and it’s free. It is a way to show caring and love towards others. It is a simple thing to do but can mean the world to someone else.

How do you teach listening in the classroom? Please share.

Photo by saeed karimi on Unsplash