November 2, 2007
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Ever been walking up some stairs, realized you were concentrating on those steps, and then almost trip yourself because you were thinking too hard about walking up some stairs? That would be my thought process at work, probably daily.
So, yesterday afternoon, I had a GREAT pick-our-brains session with Anne (earlier in the day, a thought-filled lunch with Ronda). It was nice to reflect with someone who could say, “Oh, that’s not going to work for me, but kudos to you.” I reflected upon reflection… gee, so much of my past weeks have focused around reflection. The GPACW presentation could be a “I’m going to wing it” presentation & it’d still work. Reflection is like that.
More talk of reflection, from a portfolio I found online? (Gerriets Portfolio): “My experience in this teaching circle illustrates my habit of reflective practice; I teach, and then try to make sense of it, often with informal writing in a journal to test out my ideas and see what really works.”
“But generally anything that produces spontaneous student praise is worth keeping, and things that get mentioned positively on feedback tools likewise. But paradoxically, things that are most resisted are also to be examined carefully, as they may be the thing really worth doing because it’s hard. So this suggests that the bits they don’t mention are most suspect.”
“I think most teachers have a tendency to have a feeling that something ‘worked’ when they feel energized. And that isn’t trivial and shouldn’t be dismissed.” “And there is some value in doing things that make me excited, that make me want to go to class.”
“[...] because learning is complicated, and just because they didn’t learn exactly what you thought they would on exactly your timetable doesn’t mean they haven’t learned or that nothing happened.”
“Theoretical consistency: For me, this is pretty important. I’ve encountered a number of practices that didn’t work for me until I could learn how to make sense of them with the rest of what I do, or how to integrate them into my overall philosophy.” This is crucial; not everyone should use others’ activities or assignments. They may not fit into every philosophy or teaching method.
*It’s crucial to ask yourself: “Why am I doing this?”
