We do a lot of waiting.  In line at the coffee shop, in the lobby at the doctor’s office, to get through the TSA screening at the airport, for meetings to start, movies to start, for our kids to get home…

Sometimes I welcome the opportunity to wait.  It gives me a chance to catch my breath, check in on my email and social media, read a few pages of my book, text my sons, daydream, or just take the time to reflect on my day.  These trees remind me of that good waiting…patiently waiting in line, enjoying the sunshine and the view…

The worst kind of waiting is when you have to stay alert and attentive.  When you’re waiting in traffic, about to board your flight, trying to be on time to that afternoon meeting and behind the person with 50 coupons in the grocery store…  At those times you can’t turn your attention to something else and take advantage of waiting as down time.

My students do a lot of waiting too.  They wait in line after recess for us to pick them up and walk back to class, they wait for directions, they wait for their classmates to take their turns ahead of them…

So I find myself thinking about good waiting and frustrating waiting…and wanting to make sure my students have time for reflection and to catch their breath.  But not spend precious time spinning their wheels when they could be doing something more productive.

Today my students were amazing.  They were about to embark on a sewing project (I’ll expand on that in another post) and needed to wait for supplies and wait for help with needle threading, knot tying…  And yet, they were not frustrated.  Instead I saw them watching carefully as they waited, making plans as they waited, and studying every move of someone nearby who started before them.

Attitude is everything.  They were ready to wait today.  They knew waiting was inevitable given the complexity and newness of the task ahead of us…and they waited with joy and anticipation.  This is going to be a great project…my students demonstrated that today!