Reflection in life is vital to growth. This is true of our personal lives and our professional realms. John Dewey said, “We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” As part of the teacher-leadership program in Spring Lake Park, we have spent time reading Reflective Practice to Improve Schools: An Action Guide for Educators by Jennifer York-Barr, William Sommers, Gail Ghere, and Jo Montie. Through conversations and introspections, I have realized how important reflection has been to me in the past.
In 2012, I completed a blog of 366 entries: one for each day of the year. These were focused on technology integration topics. Some were deep, thoughtful reflections. Others were a quick entry to share a new tool or app that I may have found. Still others were short, reflecting on how I had unplugged from tech for the day. I started the year planning a 1:1 program in Farmington, Minnesota. In the summer, I switched districts to Spring Lake Park to be closer to family. I was part of the rollout of their 1:1 there also. My writings recorded these journeys and the thoughts and research that went along with these adventures.
At the end of 2012, I will admit that I was burned out. The thought was daunting to write another post at 11:30 when I had forgotten to do it earlier in the day. I was not really running out of ideas, but I felt like I had repeated some of the same themes often. We were staging out house to move, and with two young children, I wanted to focus my time back on “real life.” So, I abandoned my blog for all of 2013.
Many times over the year, I thought about writing a post here or there. I was part of a rollout of 5,000 devices in SLP. I was part of a Tech Coach team that inspired me. I worked with great teachers, and met other incredible professionals from whom I learned. But, life got in the way and I didn’t write. I never sat down to write again.
And I felt something was missing. I couldn’t put my finger on it. While I was part of great things in my personal and professional life, it didn’t feel solid. When reading the Reflective Practice book, I began to realize what was missing. Reflection. Chapter 3 was the point that really hit home. “Reflection is a highly personal practice that offers great potential for illuminating meaning, purpose, and learning in your professional life” (65). The piece that I was missing in 2013 was “finding and guiding time and spaces in our lives for significant pauses” (67).
The book expresses how Identity, Ethics, Courage, Caring for Others and Self, Voice, and Practice are all essential elements to individual reflective practice. The chapter offers many ways to do this important reflection, from post-it notes on lesson plans, journals, calendar prompts, visual diaries and more. My form of reflection was my blog. While it was a public site, I never wrote to attract an audience. I didn’t go and advertise my blog, except to automate a post to Twitter. My blog was truly my personal reflection, which I happen to share with the world.
So, 2014 begins today. I don’t want to spent another year without meaningful reflection, and the blog worked for me. And writing every day made it happen. My writing and reflection time was intentional. I plan to do that again. While another 365 seems daunting, that is my goal. I need to bring reflection back into my professional life.
We are at such an exciting- and I feel critical time – in education. Tools in the hands of students are bringing the world to their fingertips, making the way we presented information to students in the past obsolete. This is exciting to me, especially as my children enter the school system. I have been on the frontlines of this movement, and I look forward to where the river of change will bring me.
I am hopeful that 2014 will be an extraordinary year, where I can reflect on my work, on my passions, and on creating the best learning environment for the teachers and students that I touch each day.