Something we'll learn about in an upcoming chapter is active listening. I realized today in church that I was showing all the signs of an active listener from eye contact, head nods, and verbal responses. I looked around at one point and realized there were quite a few people looking in other directions, holding non-responsive facial expressions, and even playing with their phones. I kept my eyes on the pastor and his face when he looked at those individuals, and realized he kept coming back to me, maybe because he knew I was paying attention still.
This got me thinking about my own classrooms. There are times when I am teaching a new concept that I can start to see students glaze over or get distracted by something else, not actively listening any longer, but there's always a couple in each class who keep the active listening signals going; I often look to those faces for reassurance just as my pastor was doing to me.
Seeing that full-circle really struck me.
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