To : T h e t h i r d - y e a r t e a c h e r s a n d m e n t o r s
From: Bena Kallick
Re: Yesterday’s session
Reflecting on the day, I am still mad at myself for not listen-
ing more closely to your needs for the afternoon session. I wanted
to share some of my thoughts with you.
First, I find that I can use the Habits of Mind as one lens for
reflection. As I reconsidered yesterday, there were four habits that
I focused on: listening with understanding and empathy, think-
ing flexibly, managing impulsivity, and remaining open to con-
tinuous learning.
Listening with understanding and empathy. One of the
strengths in my work is my capacity to stay immersed in the work
of others. I need to be able to listen to the surface text of the work,
pay attention to the subtext of the individual (the context of the
classroom, the personality of the teacher, the intentions and val-
ues that are expressed as the person presents the work), and make
certain that my comments and critique are in tune with the per-
son who I hope will be able to make use of them. I felt that our
group was tuned to the work that was presented and that I was
able to model that level of listening. As a result, I think that the
presenters were able to listen to their own work more deeply.
The other half of my listening, however, was not as attuned.
Patricia tried to suggest that we make time for you to share your
own work in the afternoon, but because I lunched with Michelle
and was involved with some of the issues and problems she was
working on, I lost some of my perspective on where the group
was. As a result, I jumped in with the plan to look at the possibil-
ity for “brand x” rubrics. Although I cast the afternoon for the
possibility of your working on your own rubrics, I observed that
almost everyone either worked on the general rubric (with energy
and commitment) or started to do their own work for the class-
room. I thought that most people were using the time produc-
tively, and so I did not listen carefully to Patricia’s concerns. I
should have lunched with Patricia and David, talked through226 Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind