2013-2014 Reflection

Reflections . . . hmmm . . . where do I begin?  I reflect on my teaching every day.  In the shower getting ready for school.  On the car ride in.  On the weekend bike rides with my friends.  Mowing the grass.  I spend countless hours thinking about how the week or day went. How a specific lesson came off from one hour to the next.  I am very hard on myself and always striving for improvement.  That’s why it is so tough for me to write reflections down.  

I don’t believe that reflections are something you can write down on a portfolio website here and there and hope for improvement as a teacher.  I believe that meaningful reflections happen every day as part of a continuous thirst for growth.  If you truly believe in reflections as a valuable part of teaching, you don’t spend the time to write them down, because you don’t have the time.  You are too busy putting the reflections you have with yourself into practice, and that is what I do every day.

I looked back at some old work that the students turned in three years ago as I was preparing for a project I hadn’t done in a while for my video class.  It was amazing to see the difference.  What I thought was good then, is not today.  As part of the continuous, internal reflections I have on everything I do in my teaching career, my program has grown, improved, and expanded.  The quality expectations and way in which I draw quality out of my students changes almost daily.  I hope that people see that through my teaching and the results of my student’s work and don’t rely so much on an E-portfolio to show it.

I’m sure there will be a time when I look back and say to myself, I should have written things down.  But my hope is that it will be at that point in my career when I am old, tired and retired, that I can write that book about teaching I’ve always said I wanted to write.  Until then, I need to get back to work!  Thanks for reading.