Receive is one of those words I have to think about before I write it.  You know, “i before e, except after c.”  (Really, I have to do this every time.) But after doing Yoga (pretty much for the first time) the other day, it took on a whole new meaning.  Our TIC summer book group which is reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert spent the morning experiencing India as we had a private yoga session with Jeanne Russell of Portsmouth Center for Yoga and the Arts and then enjoyed a lunch at Kittery Estates.

One thing Jeanne kept coming back to was the idea of receiving.  After we came out of a move she gave us a moment to pause saying, “…and we receive…,” at which time I would close my eyes and feel my body tingle amidst my surroundings.  I had a sense of accomplishment.  My whole body was happy to have been cared for, stretched and noticed.   Jeanne went on to say that  she likes to give people the opportunity to receive their movements so that they are not moving and rushing right into the next move.   This truly resonated with me.

In my whirlwind of a life I need to learn to pause and receive.  I have been experimenting with this for the last few days: after a workout, at church, after playing with my kids, after getting off Twitter, after finishing a meal, and I have to say, there is something to it!

So, of course, I now must relate this to education since all that we do relates to our wonderful profession of learning and teaching.

At my school, our motto is Respect, Responsibility and Reflection.  The last word is something that many teachers could work on in their classrooms.  I know I can!  Each year I set out with great intentions to have my students reflect on all the great learning they do throughout the day: in journals, with each other, in writing prompts, blogging, letter writing, talking out, share time, etc.  But the fact is that this rarely happens on a day to day basis.  So, I think we can at least do it on Friday afternoons to reflect on our week.  But then some activity happens, they run late in another class or we simply run out of time.  Ugh!

But this idea of receiving is different.   Receiving is a form of reflection and it takes, seriously, 10 seconds.  Imagine giving your students a moment to pause and think to themselves about what they accomplished during an activity, what they did while out at recess or collecting themselves after lunch.  Putting the word receive into their reflection vocabulary could be very powerful and practical.  It has been for me.  I don’t need a journal to do it or another person or any object for that matter.  All I need is a moment to take one or two deep breaths.  And as I make this type of reflection something tangible my own life, then I can make it real for my students.

Maybe I’m cookoo, maybe I’m idealistic, maybe I’m having a hippie-flower-love moment, but allowing the opportunity for my students to receive their actions throughout the day as they work and play and learn is something I’m going to make a point to do this coming year.

What do you think of this idea of “receiving?”

Related posts:

1. Make Me a Guru

In the second section of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, Gilbert travels to India to study the discipline of Yoga.  Early on in the section she takes the time to explain some of the important words used (that we can tend to take for granted).

“The word Guru is  composed of two Sanskrit syllables.  The first means ‘darkness,’ the second means ‘light.’  Out of the darkness and into the light.  What passes from the master into the disciple is something called matravirya: ‘The potency of the enlightened consciousness.’  You come to your Guru then, not only to receive lessons, as from any teacher, but to actually receive the Guru’s state of grace.” (location 2404)

What a beautiful way to think of teaching … bringing your students out of the darkness and into the light … allowing them to learn in such a way that they become more enlightened and if we are to pass on, not just simply knowledge but a sort of demeanor.  How much more impact it seems, then that we really do have on students.  If I really think about this for a moment, it makes sense.  Every encounter we have with children (and peers) determines whether or not they want to learn more from us or resist us.  hmmm….

Then Gilbert goes on to say,
“Such transfers of grace can occur in even the most fleeting of encounters with a great being.” (location 2407)

Imagine being thought of as such a great being, or teacher, that even a fleeting encounter with a student might move them in the progression of their learning.

Taking a moment to really look at these words in the context of education makes me think a little more about this ever so important profession to which I have dedicated my life.  I want to become a Guru!

Click one of the tags from this post to find related posts.

This past Wednesday, I went out with 8 other women, all but one are teachers , to an Italian restaurant to enjoy some great food and discuss the book we are reading together in our online book group .  It was an amazing time!  We dined, wined, smiled, laughed and dined some more… and then smiled even more!  From the first moments of ripping off a piece of warm bread to the last lick of a cheese cake covered spoon, our evening was full of enjoyable collegiality.

And that’s the point!

This summer, one of my main focuses for my educational career was to read for pure enjoyment – just like we expect our children to do.  Together with my sister-in-law, Kristina Peterson, I organized an online book club to read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  (our wiki)  It has been so enjoyable not only to read, but to interact with other teachers in online discussions about the book and our lives, and to meet face to face.  (photos)

I mentioned already our fabulous Italian dinner meant to celebrate Gilbert’s trip to Italy.  Besides eating (too much), we also did a little soul searching as we pondered, wrote down and reflected on the three things we wanted most out of life.

At the end of the month, we will be getting together to explore meditative yoga and to enjoy lunch and more discussion.  Of course, we are also going to the movie in mid-August together as well.  I am so looking forward to meeting again and again with this group of women as much as I look forward to the emails from wikispaces informing me that a new post has been made on our discussions.

Inevitably what we read, discuss and experience affects our teaching because it affects our lives.  That’s important to remember as we work and play through the summer months.  PLCs, PLNs, study groups, book groups, whatever your flavor, getting together with and enjoying the company of other teachers, whether you meet them in person or not, is an important part of being an inspired teacher.

How do you cater to your need for collegiality?

Click one of the tags from this post to find related posts.

In Elizabeth Gilbert’s New York Times Bestseller, Eat, Pray Love, she and a friend discuss the fact that every city -and every person- has a word. Rome’s is “sex”, the Vatican’s is “power,” New York’s is “achieve” and L.A.’s is “succeed”. When the friend turns to Elizabeth and asks “what is your word” she struggles to answer, and only later on in the novel does she discover her word. (Join the book group to find out what it is).

While turning this idea into a discussion question for the Eat, Pray Love book group, I decided I would try and also turn this “what is your word” idea into an end of the year project for my freshmen honor’s classes next year. I asked my husband his opinion and while bouncing ideas off him, he asked what I thought the word for the class of 2013 would be. “Heartbreak” was the first word out of my mouth, and “sadness” was a close second. Teaching this freshmen class was just that – heartbreaking and sad.

In February, we lost a freshman to suicide. The pain that class felt was palpable, and lasted right up until the last day of school. Unfounded accusations ran rampant that the student was bullied, and even after the parents issued a statement that the student had been dealing with depression his whole life, the rumors continued. Then, a couple of month’s later, tragedy hit the freshmen class again. We lost another student to a fatal car accident.

As a new teacher, I was at a loss as to how to help these students. Even the veteran teachers I work with were at times at a loss for words. We dropped our units on Romeo and Juliet and Antigone because we knew the pain was still so fresh. But it still seeped in. We were told that we needed to name what happened- that we needed to use the word suicide and not dance around the issue or romanticize what happened. Each time I said the word, I felt like I was piercing the hearts of my kids. I felt like I was treading water, even more so then usual.

So I joined a yoga class. Mostly because I wanted 10 minutes where I would just relax and not think. Detachment is one of the principles taught in yoga. Through this detachment, we are asked to “relinquish our need for control, thereby allowing creative solutions to emerge from the wisdom of the uncertain”. We were asked to also try this in our own lives. Easier said then done, if you asked me, but I decided to try it with my students.

I sat down and had a long talk with my kids. I discovered that the deaths most affected my special needs kids. I asked them what we could do to better help the climate of our school. The said they wanted to raise awareness about bullying by selling anti-bullying bracelets. So, that’s exactly what we did. We ordered 300 blue and white bands that said “Be Your Own H.E.R.O.” on one side and “Help Everyone Reach Out” on the other. They sold out in 1 week. We also started a Facebook page and have over 200 members. It was an amazing experience.

On the last day of school, many students popped in to say their goodbyes. While watching these mature, young adults leave I realized two things. First, the word for this class is in fact not “heartbreak” or “sadness” at all – but “strength”.  And second, I think I may have learned more from them then I thought I did.

What is your word?

Click one of the tags from this post to find related posts.

While in Sicily, Elizabeth Gilbert tries to understand a piece of the pleasure seeking Italian culture. In her book, Eat, Pray, Love, she refers to Luigi Barzini, an Italian journalist and author of The Italians who provides her with a large piece of the puzzle.

Garlic scene from Goodfellas

She writes, “Because the world is so corrupted, misspoken, unstable, exaggerated and unfair, one should trust only what one can experience with one’s own senses, and this makes the senses stronger in Italy than anywhere in Europe. This is why, Barzini says, Italians will tolerate hideously incompetent generals, presidents, tyrants, professors, bureaucrats, journalists and captains of industry, but will never tolerate incompetent ‘opera singers, conductors, ballerinas, courtesans, actors, film directors, cooks, tailors..’ In a world of disorder and disaster and fraud, sometimes only beauty can be trusted. Only artistic excellence is incorruptible. Pleasure cannot be bargained down. And sometimes the meal is the only currency that is real.” (locations 2283-2290)

Love of the arts – the

Italians seem to have that down. The pleasurable things they do become art forms from singing to cooking. It is TRUTH and RAW and REAL. And I wonder where is our culture’s love for that? Sure, we love entertainment, but that isn’t always art. We not only don’t seek pleasure (without guilt), but we also don’t appreciate it as an art form or an extension of ourselves.

As an activist for arts education and integration in all schools, this troubles me. If we cannot assist and encourage our children to experience things with their own senses, they will not be able to seek pleasure for themselves and their loved ones. And we cannot begin to teach this to our children, if we cannot do it for ourselves first.

In the arts, one learns to experience something fully, to be in the present and later reflect upon it. John Dewey explains an esthetic experience in his Art as Experience. It is a “wholehearted action” that “moves by its own urge to fulfillment.” (p46) There is an initiation and an end, after which you know you have just had an experience worthy of being label esthetic. It is this “esthetic quality that rounds out an experience into completeness and unity (and causes us to be) emotional.” (p48)

Concluding her thoughts on her encounter with this Sicilian man, Gilbert states that “…the appreciation of pleasure can be an anchor of one’s humanity…” (location 2298)

I believe that it is through this type of appreciation for and seeking of pleasure in artful ways that we can truly experience life and become whole people: complete in our own individual selves as well as an effective contributors to our communities.

What artful pleasure do you seek and appreciate?

Related posts:

1. Seeking Pleasure
2. Dewey's Art as Experience
3. PLaiC – Experience, Reflect, Apply

Liz finds pleasure in gelato while in Italy.

In her book Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, travels to three countries to find herself once again.  The first place she travels to is Italy – in an attempt to seek and experience pure pleasure.  The Italians she comes across have no problem with this idea, in fact they applaud and encourage it.  However, her American acquaintances have a different view, thinking this journey self indulgent, luxurious and irresponsible.  I can relate to this.  It does seem that we Americans put so much emphasis on purpose instead of pleasure.  And of course, I can’t help but wonder what this means for us as teachers, educators and students.

Gilbert commented on how at first she “wanted to take on pleasure like a homework assignment or a giant science fair project.  I pondered such questions as, ‘How is pleasure most efficiently maximized?’  I wondered if maybe I should spend all my time in Italy in the library, doing research on the history of pleasure.  Or maybe I should interview Italians who’ve experienced a lot of pleasure in their lives…”

When summer approaches, I feel like I’m supposed to justify it with all the work I intend on doing.  Even this month’s blog series is about the purposeful things teachers do during the summer months…  why??

Why can’t teachers take a break without feeling guilt or getting backlash from those in other professions?  Even the most well intended comment I get from someone as I start my summer is seen as a slap in the face.

And what does this say for our students?  As we teach, are we supposed to make sure everything we do is headed toward an end result (a test? an assessment?)  Or can we do things for pure pleasure?  And learn from them too??

This past school year, I took a chance and gave my students a studio day: a day where we spent nearly four hours in the art room creating individual pieces of artwork to be given for Mothers’ Day.  It was an exercise in the creative process and in working in and being in the present.  There was no assessment, just reflection.  And so many students commented on the sheer enjoyment they got out of our time.

I guess what I’m saying is that it’s OK to do things for pure pleasure – as teachers, as students, as humans!  We need to have the balance of responsibility and pleasure… or we can just burn out!  Sometimes this might mean we have to work at it, fight for it, make time for it, SEEK it!

Do you (attempt) to seek pleasure in life?

Click one of the tags from this post to find related posts.