with a man by the name of Mike. It was a completely overwhelming experience; one she has a great deal of difficulty putting into words. When asked about it by another person, she feels frustrated at her inability to accurately describe her feelings. Finally, she says, “When Mike’s kissing you, he isn’t doing anything else. You’re his whole universe.” In other words, the whole rest of the world disappeared and every single cell, fiber, muscle, and thought was fully immersed in the moment.
The secret to becoming a better lover—and a better teacher—is total immersion. Your ability to completely give yourself up to the moment and fully “be” with your students is an awesome and unmistakably powerful technique. I would love for one of my students to be talking with a peer about what it is like to be in my class on a daily basis and for that student to say, “When he’s teaching you, he isn’t doing anything else!” Students can feel it when you are truly present.
As easy as it is to sense immersion, students can also immediately sense when we aren’t all there. We all know when we are dealing with people who are distracted or are in some way dividing their attention. Whether it is a cashier, your doctor, a friend, or anyone else, a lack of full engagement can be annoying. It’s incredibly frustrating to interact with a person who is not immersed and fully invested in that interaction. A lack of immersion in the present sends a clear, although unspoken, message that this moment is somehow less important and not significant enough to be worth undivided attention.
Here’s one way to illustrate immersion. If you are out on the pool deck and someone asks you to focus on the swimming pool, what does that mean? Would you go stand at the side and stare at it? Would you climb into the lifeguard tower and watch from above? Focus is, after all, supposed to be a powerful and effective strategy. Now compare the concept of focus with the next scenario that defines immersion. You’re on the pool deck and someone tells you to immerse yourself in the swimming pool. What would this look like? What is implied when someone asks you to immerse yourself in a pool? You’re wet! You’re in the water! You’re either swimming or you’re drowning. It is a qualitatively different experience.
I can walk by the open door of a classroom and tell you after a couple of minutes whether the teacher is a lifeguard or a swimmer. A lifeguard sits above the action and supervises the pool deck. Although he or she is focused, there is a distinct sense of separateness both physically and mentally. In contrast, a swimmer is out participating and an integral part of the action.
Last summer, my son Hayden took swim lessons at the local YMCA two days a week. On Tuesdays, he had a male coach who stood at the side of the pool and gave instructions as he returned after each lap. On Thursdays, he had a female instructor who was in the pool with Hayden. She physically lifted his arms and showed him the proper strokes. She would take his chin and move his head to the side to demonstrate how far out of the water he should come to take a breath. He learned more on one or two Thursdays than he did on all of the Tuesdays put together.
It’s far more powerful to “swim” with your students. They need the benefit of your complete immersion. Now, it is important to point out that my son was learning the strokes for the first time as opposed to practicing and perfecting strokes that he had already learned. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that a competitive swim coach needs to be in the water with his athletes. I’m suggesting that when delivering first instruction, especially to struggling learners, you need to leave the comfort of the lounge chair or lifeguard tower and jump into the water with your students.
Immersion is felt by students in ways we don’t even realize. I missed a couple days of school recently and had my substitute teacher show a video. Upon return, several students complained that it just wasn’t the same watching with the sub. I said, “What do you mean? The whole period was going to be spent watching the video whether I was here or not.” To which one of my students replied, “Yeah, but you always pause the video to tell us cool things and build up anticipation for what’s coming. You make little comments the whole time. We like that you watch and react to the video with us. It’s just different when you’re here.” That eye-opening conversation offered dramatic proof of the significant difference personal power, attitude, and full presence of the instructor has on the learning environment. An instructor who is fully immersed in the moment has a special type of intensity that resonates with great power in the classroom, regardless of the activity.
The sun is a powerful source of heat, yet the Earth doesn’t burst into flames each day at noon. However, if you concentrate the sun’s rays through a magnifying glass and direct the narrow beam towards something flammable you can start a fire. That is the difference between dissipated energy and energy that has been captured, concentrated and directed into a powerful laser-like focus. Immersion works the same way in the classroom and will allow you to morph lukewarm lessons into supernovas that set the classroom on fire.
DON’T MISS THE MOMENT
I had a major reminder of one of my seminar principles over Thanksgiving week. I was home with my two children every day all week while my wife was working. Normally, this would be fine, but I also had several things I was working on…like sitting at the computer and brainstorming blog ideas. As my children competed for my divided attention, I felt the beginnings of frustration creeping in (OK, OK, more than the beginnings!). Right before I snapped, it hit me; sometimes I need to take my own damn seminar. I teach this stuff! I was not following the principle of “immersion.” Divided attention is ineffective and creates a major loss of personal power. I set my work aside and made the firm decision to just “be” with my kids. Immersion in that moment meant being fully present, going with the flow, and surrendering my need to be in control all the time.
How did it end up? We had an incredible day exploring the canyons of Tierrasanta and going wherever they wanted. As we chatted along the way, I witnessed the innate creativity children can show when not over-scheduled and “structured” to death. By the way, by personally letting go, I also freed my mind to come up with blog topics naturally. I got more ideas and clarity by taking a walk than I ever would have by staring at a computer screen. Sometimes we need to give our brain the vision and then let our conscious mind get out of the way and let the unconscious do its thing.
The practice of immersion and letting yourself fully experience the moment applies to the classroom in more ways than I can possibly mention. I’m a firm believer in having structure and definite plans for the direction of lessons, but sometimes things happen that demand a change in direction and a “letting go” of the plan. The teachable moment is called that because if you wait it will be gone! It’s OK to surrender your structure in the pursuit of something far more valuable in the moment.
“But wait…the state test is coming up soon. Surely my students will never recover and get back on pace.”
Well, here’s what I say: At some point in your career you have to decide if you care more about teaching to tests or teaching kids. My decision was made a long time ago. I teach kids. Don’t let the current overemphasis on standardized test scores lead to the loss of the teachable moment. Having the right structure and using your time in the classroom effectively allows you the flexibility to let “the moment” happen without any sense of guilt. Sometimes we need to just “be” with our students and take the figurative walk through the canyons with them.
The quote above from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is one of the greatest behavior management quotes in history. Ultimately, we don’t want to develop techniques to win behavior management battles, we want to develop techniques that allow us to avoid the battles altogether.
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