As a teacher, I often ask my students to reflect on what they have learned, what progress have the made, and how they can make improvements. I do this because it is best practice. Reflection helps a student to take a step back and take a clear look at what he/she has been doing and how his/her actions have impacted their understanding of the material. Through reflection, those actions become more meaningful and more productive. My primary goal as an educator is to teach skills that will help them be life-long learners and to continually grow as students, learners and individuals. Having students reflect upon their actions, to evaluate the effectiveness of those actions and to design a new action plan helps students to continually asses, modify and reassess what they are doing so that they can be successful. I believe this holds true for educators and administrators, as well. We have so many demands from many different sources on us. Taking a step back by taking time to reflect helps us to maintain sight of our ultimate goal and to take a less subjective look at what is working and what is not. Reflection is an important part of action research for that very reason.
Blogging is an effective way to share our thoughts and ideas. By sharing we can get feedback and support form other administrators. Others may have had similar concerns/issues, while others can provide a fresh, objective viewpoint. Blogging is another means of taking the principal out of the isolation of day-to-day operations of school and provides a support network of and collaboration with peers.
I am a member of your Lamar class. Being reflective is also a life skill that can improve the way you deal with relationships. Being a reflective learner, like you said, can be a launching point for being responsible for your own learning. I am a middle school teacher and I try and teach reflection from day one. I hope to try blogging this year with my 6th graders. I am not sure of the district's policy but plan to look into it. What is the policy in your district about teacher/student blogging?
ReplyDeleteReflecting on your research is important. It is important that we can see where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. This also lets us see if we need to revamp our path. Sometimes we can see things after the fact instead of when we are doing it. Also, sometimes others can see it rather than us. We use blogging in our district in our classrooms. There are some teachers that use it on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful idea of asking students to reflect on what they have learned. I like Terry's idea as well about using blog in the classroom. I teach 6th grade Math and I am also planning to use wiki and blogs in my class. Let's see how it goes. Good Luck!
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