Silence. Just by looking at the word I can feel its power. Silence is such a treasure, and to teach its value to my young students is quite the challenge. A teacher’s environment is naturally noisy. It should be. Chatter means communication is happening…and communication is a key component in life. The challenge comes to play when the communication or thought process of others becomes interrupted. This is the struggle many of the young humans in my classroom go through everyday…the self-monitoring of their own desires to talk, to share, no matter what environment they are in or what is going on around them. To truly listen, we must practice silence. To truly focus on certain tasks, we must practice silence. Silence not only allows us to listen intently to others, but to also listen deeply to what is within us. Silence can make the difference between confusion and enlightenment. A Japanese architect once said, “you don’t necessarily get silence from an environment that is silent…you feel silence when you expect noise”…and for me, in particular, this man describes silence perfectly. The next time silence has descended upon you, marvel at its superpower. Watch what silence does and listen to what silence is trying to say.
SILENCE.
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AN EDUCATOR'S PATH 
Oh my goodness. I love this post. Silence, perceived “boredom” in a world where everything is so instant, and curiosity are things that need to celebrated. I fear they will no longer exist in our “noisy” world of technology. I try to instill in my students every single day how curiosity will make you a better learner. I love this post. Thank you!
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Oh I love this. Sharing the power of silence with children is wonderful. Keeping space for silence in this noisy world is essential. You’ve left me thinking.
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I seem to need a little more silence now than I believe I once did. I create little pockets of it through the day. As for the students, it’s interesting while considering your thoughts I realized that I’ve been less rigid about silence in classrooms and while working. My target audience seems to need conversation to process their thinking.
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I love your Slice. I totally relate. I particularly love ‘To truly listen we must practice silence:’
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“The sound of silence” , especially in today’s world – priceless. I agree with you and it has to be taught & modeled -to be appreciated. 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 (Sign language for clapping…even that can be communicated beautifully with no sound)
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So glad you are teaching your kids the value of silence. Listening is as valuable as talking – and couldn’t we use more of that right now in our world. I love the quote by the architect.
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I love the way you are writing off of words … and how you connect them to super powers. You are a beautiful writing. I am inspired!
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I enjoyed your post. I am trying hard to embrace the silences in my life and stop trying to fill each moment with background sounds.
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You are right, silence is so powerful and little bu little the value of it is indeed getting lost. I connect silence to boredom. A month or so ago I read an article about how boredom can lead to brilliance. Couldn’t agree more. In silence you observe and you listen and then you think and think and come up with ideas you’d never thought of amist so much noise. This year I have been very very consistent with quiet time in my class after lunch. The kids love this time, except they have had trouble understanding it means choosing an independent task, not talking with a friend. But I have hopes that little by little they will find the value in it. Love how you use single words to express so much!
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Interesting read when I’m sitting in silence, even though I’m not alone. I’m thinking about how there have been times in my life when I was really uncomfortable with silence and it made me feel lonely. And now (maybe with age?) I kind of like it. Gives me a little balance after leaving a busy school. I wonder if our kids ever get opportunities to feel that balance?
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This is the struggle many of the young humans in my classroom go through everyday…the self-monitoring of their own desires to talk, to share, no matter what environment they are in or what is going on around them.
This is the nutshell!!! Words just tumble out of their mouths! They can’t help themselves. You have reconvinced me to help them embrace some silence! Wonderful post!
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