More on Reflection

I finished reading the book Teaching for Biliteracy by Karen Beeman and Cheryl Urow.  I felt Chapter 3 reinforced a previous Esperanza BLOG entry on the importance of reflection. 

Chapter 3: Teachers: Capitalizing on Life Experiences and Diversity

• The cultural and linguistic background of teachers affects their understanding of students and their interpretation on how to instruct in Spanish and English.
• All teachers of Spanish literacy require specific professional development on how to teach literacy in Spanish in the U.S.
• Literacy learning is enhanced when teachers are reflective and aware of their own strengths and challenges.

Teachers need to engage in ongoing professional development and collaborate with other teachers. True collaboration requires trust, flexibility, and shared philosophy. To prepare for collaboration teachers need to reflect on their own experiences and professional development.

The more teachers reflect on their practice, the better they teach. Keeping a journal is one effective way for individual teachers to keep a consistent focus on their practice. Journaling can start by asking these three questions:

1. What went well? Why?
2. What surprised me? Why?
3. What do I want to improve? Why?

The Power of Reflection

I recently read the book 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John C. Maxwell.  I am now reading it again--a chapter each week.  This week's chapter is "The Law of Reflection." 

Peter F. Drucker said, "Follow effective action with quiet reflection.  From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action." 

Maxwell notes that studying the lives of great people will reveal that they speak a considerable amount of time alone--thinking/reflecting.  Therefore, I am going to encourage each Esperanza staff person to keep a reflective/growth journal. 

Maxwell suggests that good questions lead to better answers.  Some possible questions:

• Am I growing daily?
• What am I doing daily to grow?
• How am I growing?
• What are the roadblocks that are keeping me from growing?
• What were the potential learning moments I experienced today, and did I seize them?
• Am I passing on to someone what I am learning?

It would be beneficial to write these questions and answers in one's reflective/growth journal.

It's important to schedule time to pause and reflect.  Maxwell suggests the following:

1. Every day--10-30 minutes
2. Every week--an hour or two
3. Several times a year--half a day
4. Annually--as little as a day or as much as a week

This type of reflection turns experience into insight. 

Take Time to Ponder

As I listened this morning to the fireside talk by Elder Jay Jensen given on January 8, 2012 I was reminded of a story told by Boyd K. Packer in his book Teach Ye Diligently.
He reports the story by saying, "I have a friend who bought a business.  A short time later he suffered catastrophic reverses and there just didn't seem to be any way out for him.  Finally it got so bad that he couldn't sleep, so for a period of time he followed the practice of getting up about three o'clock in the morning and going to the office.  There, with a paper and pen, he would ponder and pray and write down every idea that came to him as a possible solution or contributions to the solution of his problem." 

I would encourage all of our Esperanza educators to take time often to ponder and reflect on their teaching/leading--with a paper and pen to write down the impressions that come.  I had heard once to have a goal of writing 20 ideas each day and then at the end of the week choosing the best ideas to implement. 

I believe it will be in the quiet and the still--and not our busyness--that we will build Esperanza into the school we want it to be.

A Reading Life

Donalyn Miller, the author of the Book Whisperer, recently wrote this on her BLOG.  I feel this would be a great challenge for all Esperanza stakeholders to do as well. 

On Tuesday [after Christmas vacation], when my students return to school, we will reflect on our reading lives over the past year and plan ahead. Whether my students decide to read more books, or finish that series they never did, or spend a little more time reading every night, or reread The Hunger Games before the movie comes out in March, they will all commit in some way to continuing their reading lives in 2012. How and what and when we read doesn't matter as much as our willingness to keep reading. That's the only reading resolution we need.

Being a Reader and Writer

When I left the Dual Immersion Academy charter school on May 14, 2010 I made a commitment to continue growing and learning to be prepared for the next chapter in my life. Because of that commitment I read 289 books since that day. I intend to continue reading this next year with a special focus on doing some narrow reading like reading all Ann Rinaldi's historical fiction books.

Yet, a quote by Arthur Helps, a writer (1813-1875)-- "Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought"--gave me some food for thought. Therefore, this next year I'm also going to focus on doing some writing:

• Write in my reflective journal


• Write a daily BLOG posting


• Write poems based on the book Rose, Where Did You Get That Red? by Kenneth Koch

Being readers and writers is important for all Esperanza educators to do if we are going to set the example for our students.