I can't tell you how important being reflective is to your professional growth.
Without my like-minded teacher friends and reflecting on our instruction, we would not have grown and our learners would not have benefited.
Being reflective is not only of benefit to you but it directly impacts your learners.
When you take charge of your professional growth to extend your knowledge as an educator, your learners will show greater achievements because you are engaging them in the freshest instructional ideas that will nudge their learning further ahead.
It is always the PERFECT time to ask yourself,
Do I reflect regularly on my instruction and professional growth?
Do I make my professional goals and action steps visible?
How can I directly impact my learners' achievement?
Start thinking reflectively right now. Which one below best describes you...
WHEW...When will this craziness end?
I just want to see my kids because building relationships is super important!
I need a structured normal routine!
WOW! I stepped out of my comfort zone and learned! Now what?
Any time is PERFECT to make the decision to be more reflective and take control of your own professional growth. HA! We all know the #TeacherLife!
Teachers think about
school,
students,
instruction
and
classrooms
ALL! THE! TIME!
We are naturally reflective about our teaching philosophies and teaching style and how we can make our classrooms better and increase our learners' achievement. We can’t see a basket in Target without thinking about how we could use it in the classroom. Or a notebook, or a folder or a set of colored pens or… Is that just me? I hope not!
My path to being a reflective teacher started in a conversation circle of like-minded professional educators. We would gather at the end of the school day in the hallway or at a table in one of our classrooms to decompress from the day in a natural, authentic, open and honest way.
The reflective teacher talk just flowed.
It was natural.
It was authentic!
It was open and honest!
From this natural, open talk, we developed spectacular grade-level projects, helped each other through classroom struggles and worked out plans to make the next day’s, week's, and month's lessons better.
We pushed each other to reach our professional goals!
It was all in the spirit of improving ourselves as educators and improving the achievements of our students!
The individuals in that conversation circle had similar goals—to grow professionally, increase student motivation and improve student achievement.
What better way to meet all of those goals, than with daily written reflections.
My challenge to you is this…
Find one or two like-minded professionals that want to grow their teaching craft. Take the Reflective Teacher journey together.
Ask yourself:
Do I make my professional goals and action steps visible?
Do I reflect regularly on my instruction and professional growth?
What can I do to directly impact my learners' achievement?
Think about setting up a Reflective Teacher Journal to guide you on your teaching journey.
👉Now is the time to reflect and make some decisions about how you want to grow professionally.
👉Now is the time to write it down and start documenting your Reflective Teacher journey!
Grab a notebook and start documenting your teaching career. Any old notebook will do.
Create a journal that you visit for about 10 minutes at the end of each day to reflect on the day's experiences and document your thoughts.
Do you want a little guidance in recording your reflections?
Do you want to be reflective but don't have a lot of time...
I know...we are all teachers here...we understand!
Use these statements for your reflective thinking. Which one below best describes you...
WHEW...When will this craziness end?
I just want to see my kids because building relationships is super important!
I need a structured normal routine!
WOW! I stepped out of my comfort zone and learned! Now what?
Need a little guidance with tools and tips? Take your reflective teacher journey!
Until next time...
