This is one of the most beautiful posts I’ve read. Today is a day when I really needed to think about processes rather than outcomes. And reading this reflection reminded me to breathe and let go of some things. So thank you for sharing this with us. And I’m ever so envious of the students who will be experiencing your diversity statement in the years to come.

Hi Kathryn! I can relate to the challenges of writing a statement like this… I am working on one, but I am by no means ready to share it! (Which is why I wrote on multitasking this week! Ha!) You may be critical of yourself because we tend to be harsh on ourselves by nature– but I am impressed, as always, with your ability to articulate your thoughts in such a beautiful way. Your statement was concise and lovely. You point directly to the issues and then offer yourself in a humble way. It is obvious that you love people, that you are an educator, and that you are a philosopher. It is so genuine. I can’t help but admire you more when I read this. Thank you for sharing your work.

There is a line of thinking in educational psychology and in pedagogy studies that teaching students to focus on what they know and do well will be more productive than focusing on correcting errors or deficiencies. In my classrooms, I have often used this line of reasoning with students who tend to dwell on their inabilities rather than capitalize on their strengths.
After reading your post – and about Bezos’ philosophy about focusing on strengths – it reminded me of a man I once heard talk about his learning math conceptually when in middle school. He talked about not having to ‘worry’ about arithmetic and instead focusing on the ‘way’ mathematical concepts worked and how it seemed to liberate everyone from always thinking about how to get the right answer, and instead focus on what understanding the concept(s) could help them do/figure out.
I wonder: if we (humans) had a perception of what access to the technology could help them do better or learn more of, instead of thinking how it could fill their immediate needs for attention and gratification if we could improve productivity overall?
Thanks for the rundown, Sofia. It is illuminating.

Digital distractions are like double-edge sword, even myself will constantly check my phone for incoming emails and/or messages. Still, I prefer keeping the classroom setting simple and trying not to use too many technologies except PPT slides, if I’m the instructor. I took the communicating science class, and any digital devices were not allowed. The instructor just let us sit in one circle and talked to us in person without PPT slides. The class environment was quite inviting, and we were all engaged in this class actively throughout the 3 hours.

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I feel you’ve hit the hammer right on the head. I will argue that being engaged with the “outside world” is a great thing, but I feel that a line has to be drawn somewhere. Did we not have distractions before cell phones? We clearly did. Did some of us (including me) not phase out in our classrooms? I definitely did. But I would always constrain myself beyond a certain point. If I phased out in the last class, I would try to make it a point to listen to atleast half of the lecture before I allowed my attention to wander away. Maybe we are simply losing self control.

It is interesting that people spend an hour or more watching a movie but seem to have a hard time doing the same thing in a class. I guess my thoughts would be that I can’t really compete with movies – their high budget lighting, stunts, plots, aesthetics. I’m also not sure I want to be a performer so students will listen to me. Perhaps some teachers are good performers but they probably don’t see themselves as performers. They probably are passionate and knowledgeable about what they teach and it shows in their presentation.

Hey Zhulin! Thanks for reading and commenting on my post this week. I really appreciate the feedback. You make a nice distinction between good and bad interruptions and switching attention. I like to think that when I multitask or break my concentration that it’s not just because I’m unable to hold onto a thought or focus on a task! I agree with you about the aimlessly picking up of a phone–the habit of being tempted away from real life for the sweet fix of a social media check-in. It is a bad habit that even I have had trouble with! I am better about it now, but I have been guilty of the circumstance that you are describing and I’m ashamed of that.

I really appreciate the iPhone tip. I had no idea there was a setting that would do that. I’m definitely going to use that from now on. It seems like a really healthy compromise to the issue. I have long distance connections I would hate to lose (mostly family and loved ones who update with pictures of their children and I really love to see those.) Thank you for sharing! ?

So interesting that the word “multitasking” was originally used to describe computers…

Brilliant, as usual, Sara. Thank you for taking the time to post this thoughtful chronology of your day. I remember being a young mother, and totally in love with my daughter, and very often thinking “how” did I manage to get through that day?” I wasn’t a student at the time, but was trying to run my own business attending to the needs of 5-8 very busy and demanding clients.
At the time, multi-tasking wasn’t a ‘thing’ yet: i referred to what I did as ‘maximizing the seconds’ – meaning I often ate while driving and listening to the news (15 minutes x 3 tasks = 45 effectiveness minutes, or something like that). And, you’re right, your executive functioning and ability to maintain focus does change over time – particularly when you have young children. It’s actually a biological way to keep you focused on caring for your child(ren).
I really appreciated your reflection on being mindful: I have been working on that myself, and just taking a minute to think about what I’m doing and why can help put me back on track … sometimes. But I am often impacted by those around me who are more interested in what I can do for them than how they can support me, which makes the mindfulness practice tricky.
I think one of the keys is keeping a sense of humor and maintaining connections with people who feed your soul creatively, energetically, intellectually, supportively and spiritually. I am a bit envious of your work group and the support you seem to be able to derive from it. Glad for you!!

Keep up the brilliant work. And, by all means, find the time to do what makes you happy. You’ll be glad you’ve developed those habits in the future.

Multi-tasking is not that easy in a classroom setting with only 50-min length. I feel like every time I was given some time to complete a online reading quiz just before the class, even it only requires 5 mins, the whole class will need to spend at least 10 min to complete them. After that, we tend to discuss it a little bit and express our feelings. By the time the instructor finally have all our attentions, it has been 15 min. Fortunately, this is a 2.5-hour class, so the professor does not worry too much about the time left. Same problem can be identified in the some programming class that instructor talks about some examples while students need to run their own program on personal computer.