Today my fifth article was published on Edutopia!
Story
The Importance of Story and Deep Listening
As a teacher and as an instructional coach, I’ve tried to improve my listening skills. It is such a gift when one feels deeply listened to and I strive to provide this for others. Deep listening continues to be a goal for me. I have always been intrigued by the power of telling stories. In classrooms making space for, and deeply listening to students’ stories, insight, and feedback is critical. In this blog I want to highlight some of the ideas in Chapter 4 of Street Data as they relate to listening. Continue reading “The Importance of Story and Deep Listening”
Organization Storientation
“The human brain is hardwired
to understand the world through stories.”
-Shane Safir
In The Listening Leader: Creating the Conditions for Equitable School Transformation, Shane Safir discusses five core tenets of listening leadership. The first is that “Organizations have core memories.” Stories bring us together in community, help us see each other’s humanity, and celebrate oral language. Today I want to summarize some of what I took away from the book, with respect to collective stories.
The Power of Story
With my core values of Justice, Belonging, and Gratitude, the power of story comes up often and resonates with me as a human and as an educator. Story is a means of creativity, healing, resilience, learning, community, and belonging. Recently I read the article Strengthening Resilience Through The Power of Story, by Jude Treder-Wolff and want to discuss this powerful read in today’s post.
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
It is said “you don’t know what you don’t know,” which is why it is critical to lean in, listen, and leverage voices and stories of others…. and to check your assumptions and biases, to learn. Have you ever noticed that once you realize or come to know something, it comes up in multiple ways? It may have been coming up all along, but now that it is in your conscious mind, you see it in many places. This happened to me this week while reading a memoir, Untamed and a book on conversation, Compassionate Conversations: How to Speak and Listen from the Heart.