I was attending classes with my mentor Wylla Waters at the school where I started as an intern. Wylla was an experienced English teacher. One warm May morning, she noticed that the students were captivated by the bulldozer outside. We were working on elements of a story in class.

Wylla took the students outside with pens and papers. She suggested, “We have a guest in our garden; let’s ask him some questions.” The students met Ali, the driver operating the bulldozer. They learned why he was there, and even got on the bulldozer to try to find differences from other vehicles. When we returned to the classroom, our story was ready.

We wrote a story titled “Ali the Bulldozer and his friends at school.” Wylla had provided her students with the opportunity to use the curriculum for a meaningful purpose. She seized the opportunity presented by the moment. While we often strive to bring the student’s attention to the classroom, Wylla followed the student’s attention, managing to extract meaningful content from there.

Mindfulness requires us to embrace what the moment has to offer. In a different scenerio, Wylla could have reminded the students to bring their attention back to class.