The Most Useful Reflection Technique

If you are like so many teachers, reflecting on your own performance seems to come naturally. A  stickie note reminder on a lesson plan, a scribbled note in a margin, or even making an entry in a formal reflection journal are just some of the ways teachers can think about and review their days. Too often, though, especially after a tough day those reflections tend to center around what went wrong.

It's only natural that this should happen. After all, negative events tend to have a stronger emotional impact on us than positive ones. We seldom replay the positive things that happen in class on the way home from school, for example. Instead, we focus on the problems and challenges that we encounter during the school day. It's all too easy to obsess about what went wrong, the irritating things that happened in class, and our subsequent stress.

As helpful as reflecting on what went wrong in class may be, thinking about what went right is even more powerful. Instead of focusing entirely on the "Maybe I should haves" a more productive way to reflect about your performance is to think about what you did well and how you can repeat that success. Here are some questions that can guide your thinking along a more positive path so that you can use your strengths and successes to build a better classroom.

1. When was I flexible enough to notice that something was not working and change it? What was the positive outcome of this action?

2. What worked in today's lesson? How can I use this in the future?

3. When were my students most engaged? What did I do to create that engagement?

4. How did I help students make connections to the material they were studying?

5. What classroom management problem did I handle better today?

6. Which students seemed to have a good day? How can I help them continue this success in the future?

7. What am I most grateful for today?

8. What progress did I make today in becoming the teacher I want to be?

9. How did I help students interact well with each other?

10. What did I do today that I can be proud of?

Fourteen Resolutions for the New Year

It’s a natural combination at this time of year—New Year’s resolutions and a reflective teaching practice. While Winter Break gives us a few days away from school, we have an opportunity to gain perspective. No matter how busy our holidays are, most of us can’t resist the impulse to think about school and our students and the work that we need to do as soon as our break ends.

Now is a good time to use that impulse to create resolutions that can bring your dreams for a well-run classroom filled with successful, high-achieving students closer to reality. In honor of 2014, here are fourteen productive resolutions that you may want to consider adopting as part of your own teaching practice in the year ahead. Pick and choose what will work for you. If you would like to share your own resolutions, feel free to make comments. Learning from our colleagues is a great way to begin a new year.

Resolution 1: Respect your students. I know this seems simple, but too often we overlook what our students are capable of achieving because we are focused on what they don’t know or can’t do. Instead of seeing them as competent learners, we see them in terms of what they lack instead of what they are.

Resolution 2: Manage your stress. The last day of school is a long way away. Start employing as many simple strategies as you can to keep your work life and your personal life in balance. Using brief, purposeful actions to ward off the ill effects of chronic stress every day will make a huge difference in your fatigue levels.

Resolution 3: Plan as far ahead as you possibly can. For example, if you know that you are going to be giving a test in two weeks, you have time to create and photocopy it well in advance of the long line of frustrated teachers waiting their time at the copier on the day you want to give it. Knowing what your students are going to be doing for the rest of the year is a positive step that will make it easier for you to use class time wisely.

Resolution 4: Shake it up. No one says that lessons have to be dull to be effective. Use as many different strategies as you can to reach your students. Let them be creative and messy and loud if they are still learning at the same time. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Resolution 5: Explore different ways to increase your own productivity. If, for example, you have a tall stack of papers to grade, instead of plowing through it with a red pen, investigate other ways to use those papers to help your students learn. Ask your colleagues. Use your imagination. Again, don’t be afraid to experiment.

 Resolution 6: Use the resources available to you. Create a PLN, open a Twitter account, explore Tumblr, check out the images on Pinterest, invite community members to speak to your students…the list is endless.

Resolution 7: See your students as partners in learning, not little vessels waiting to be filled with your expert knowledge. Involve them in planning, listen to their ideas, and ask important questions. Encourage your students to assume more responsibility for their own learning and then watch the positive results that can happen.

Resolution 8: Make every minute count. Use those tiny blocks of time that can go to waste in any classroom to keep students engaged and learning. Think door to door when it comes to instruction.

Resolution 9: Make a deliberate effort to try a new strategy or technique each week. Some will be fantastic, some will be okay, and some will stink, but you will expand your repertoire of teaching skills and that’s always a good thing.

 Resolution 10: Use your students’ strengths. When you expand on what your students already do well, you will find it easier to remediate their weaknesses. Don’t just focus on the strengths of individual students; capitalize on the strengths of the entire class, too.

Resolution 11: Keep moving forward. At this time of year, it’s easy to get mired in the muck of undone tasks and a seemingly endless curriculum. Take a deep breath. Plan ahead. Look ahead. Bit by bit you can build your students’ skills and knowledge.

Resolution 12: Solve problems. If you wanted to, you could spend your entire planning period complaining about your students and trying to fix blame for what goes wrong in your class. Instead of wasting that time, look at the setbacks in your school day as problems that you need to solve. With this attitude, you can move forward.

Resolution 13: Be the role model your students want you to be. For some of your students, you are the only one who will take the time to show them how to be successful, how to read, how to write, how to speak well, how to behave. Whether you want to be or not, you are a role model and far, far more important than you can imagine. Rise to that challenge.

Resolution 14: Take time to enjoy your students. Share a laugh. Appreciate the unique qualities that they bring to school each day. Rushing through each day robs you of the available joy sitting right there in front of you.

Thirteen Resolutions

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.”
~Abraham Lincoln

It’s a natural combination at this time of year—New Year’s resolutions and a reflective teaching practice. While Winter Break gives us a few days away from school, we have an opportunity to gain perspective. No matter how busy our holidays are, most of us can’t resist the impulse to think about school and our students and the work that we need to do as soon as our break ends.

            Now is a good time to use that impulse to create resolutions that can bring your dreams for a well-run classroom filled with successful, high-achieving students closer to reality. In honor of 2013, here are thirteen productive resolutions that you may want to consider adopting as part of your own teaching practice in the year ahead. Pick and choose what will work for you. If you would like to share your own resolutions, feel free to make comments. Learning from our colleagues is a great way to begin a new year.

Resolution 1: Respect your students. I know this seems simple, but too often we overlook what our students are capable of achieving because we are focused on what they don’t know or can’t do. Instead of seeing them as competent learners, we see them in terms of what they lack instead of what they are.

Resolution 2: Manage your stress. The last day of school is a long way away. Start employing as many simple strategies as you can to keep your work life and your personal life in balance. Using brief, purposeful actions to ward off the ill effects of chronic stress every day will make a huge difference in your fatigue levels.

Resolution 3: Plan as far ahead as you possibly can. For example, if you know that you are going to be giving a test in two weeks, you have time to create and photocopy it well in advance of the long line of frustrated teachers waiting their time at the copier on the day you want to give it. Knowing what your students are going to be doing for the rest of the year is a positive step that will make it easier for you to use class time wisely.

Resolution 4: Shake it up. No one says that lessons have to be dull to be effective. Use as many different strategies as you can to reach your students. Let them be creative and messy and loud if they are still learning at the same time. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Resolution 5: Explore different ways to increase your own productivity. If, for example, you have a tall stack of papers to grade, instead of plowing through it with a red pen, investigate other ways to use those papers to help your students learn. Ask your colleagues. Use your imagination. Again, don’t be afraid to experiment.

Resolution 6: Use the resources available to you. Create a PLN, open a Twitter account, explore Tumblr, check out the images on Pinterest, invite community members to speak to your students…the list is endless.

Resolution 7: See your students as partners in learning, not little vessels waiting to be filled with your expert knowledge. Involve them in planning, listen to their ideas, and ask important questions. Encourage your students to assume more responsibility for their own learning and then watch the positive results that can happen.

Resolution 8: Make every minute count. Use those tiny blocks of time that can go to waste in any classroom to keep students engaged and learning. Think door to door when it comes to instruction.

Resolution 9: Make a deliberate effort to try a new strategy or technique each week. Some will be fantastic, some will be okay, and some will stink, but you will expand your repertoire of teaching skills and that’s always a good thing.

Resolution 10: Use your students’ strengths. When you expand on what your students already do well, you will find it easier to remediate their weaknesses. Don’t just focus on the strengths of individual students; capitalize on the strengths of the entire class, too.

Resolution 11: Keep moving forward. At this time of year, it’s easy to get mired in the muck of undone tasks and a seemingly endless curriculum. Take a deep breath. Plan ahead. Look ahead. Bit by bit you can build your students’ skills and knowledge.

Resolution 12: Solve problems. If you wanted to, you could spend your entire planning period complaining about your students and trying to fix blame for what goes wrong in your class. Instead of wasting that time, look at the setbacks in your school day as problems that you need to solve. With this attitude, you can move forward.

Resolution 13: Be the role model your students want you to be. For some of your students, you are the only one who will take the time to show them how to be successful, how to read, how to write, how to speak well, how to behave. Whether you want to be or not, you are a role model and far, far more important than you can imagine. Rise to that challenge.

           

 

I Am the Best Teacher in the World...in the Summer

The school year has just ended for me. I always, always spend this time looking back over what I could have done better during the last year. Although I do spend time each school day reflecting about my teaching practices, I find myself better able to judge the way I designed and delivered lessons earlier in the term because some time has elapsed. That distance always allows me to see more clearly what I did, I should have done, and what I could do in the future to help my students succeed.

 After I have spent time looking back (and trying not to cringe at my mistakes), inevitably my thoughts turn to the new school year that will be here all too soon. I imagine the great lessons I will teach. My students will hang on my every word. They will all be so intrigued by the material that they will beg for enrichment work.

In my mind, I am the best teacher in the world when I can look ahead and see what’s possible. I will have learned from my mistakes and moved on to do a much better job—next year.

As my rich fantasy life as the best teacher in the world would indicate, I do believe that making a serious effort to maintain a reflective teaching practice is one of the best ways that teachers can improve their teaching skills.

Currently I am also working on the third edition of The First-Year Teachers' Survival Guide. In the opening section I have a piece about having a reflective practice that should help new teachers be successful. Here is a sneak preview…

Developing a Reflective Practice

“Highly effective teachers soon realize that no one is a natural teacher. Teaching is a deliberate act. No educator can just rush through the hurly burly of a school day with just cursory attention to what we are expected to accomplish and then expect to be successful at reaching our students.

            The deep thought required of educators is far more important than many teachers realize. Reflecting on our teaching should be part of every aspect of our professional lives. Such reflection needs to systematic, methodical, and purposeful.

            Veteran teachers have found many different ways to reflect on their practice. We can gather information about our performance from a variety of sources such as asking colleagues to observe us, surveying our students, joining staff discussion groups, or even videotaping ourselves. Examining the information that you gather in these ways will allow you to assess your strengths as well as your weaknesses. You will be able to discern trends and patterns in your teaching as you seek to improve your skills.

            One very common and useful method of maintaining a reflective teaching practice can also involve recording ideas and observations in a journal on a regular basis. Whether you choose to maintain a journal online, in a computer desktop folder, on paper, or even in an audio version, it is important to be diligent about recording regularly. The questions below can help you use the time that you want to reflect on your teaching practice as efficiently as possible.

1. Were my goals for this lesson reasonable and appropriate?
2. Were my students challenged to do their best?
3. Did students learn what they were supposed to master? How can I ensure that they always do this?
4. How would I change this lesson before teaching it again?
5. How engaged were my students in the lesson? How can I increase the level of engagement?
6. At what points in the lesson did I have to change strategies or activities? Why? How productive was this flexibility on my part?
7. How should I have changed the lesson?
8. How can I offer remediation or enrichment activities to the students who need them?
9. What data do I need to collect before teaching this lesson again ? How can I gather this information?
10. What data do I need to collect before moving on to the next unit of study? How can I gather this information?
11. What can I do to improve my skills at collaborating with colleagues?
12. What worked in today’s lesson? What did not work?
13. How do I want my students to interact with each other as a whole group?
14. What can I do to help my students collaborate with each other in small groups?
15. What is the most efficient way to ___?
16. How can I improve the way that I give directions?
17. How can I integrate technology into my lessons?
18. What problems did I have to manage today? How well did I manage those problems?
19. Where can I learn more about how to ___?
20. How can I improve the way to deliver instruction?
21. How well do I listen to my students? What can I do to make sure that I model good listening skills?
22. Which students were off task? What caused them to be off task?
23. When were my students on task? What can I do to guarantee that continues?
24. How did I show that I was enthusiastic about the subject matter?
25.  How effective were the motivation techniques that I used? How can I modify them for future lessons?
26. How can I foster an atmosphere of mutual respect and courtesy among my students?
27. How well do I manage my classroom? What can I improve?
28. What should I do to help my students learn to be self-disciplined learners?
29. How much progress am I making in improving my teaching knowledge or skills? What can I do to improve?
30. How can I use my strengths as a teacher to full advantage in my classroom?”