affirmations or denials--what part of reflection is that?

2008-03-17T17:55:00.000-07:00

Part of Karen's comment is:

"some teachers don't allow themselves to truly reflect, simply because they resist change--their reflections consist only of affirmations."

I believe they may also consist of denials, too. I know that when things get hard--low scores on significant tests, too many initiatives, too much to do in too little time, etc., that I hear a lot of excuses. . . . it's human nature in some measure, but it sure defeats/slows down/stops growth and change.

for me,

2008-03-16T07:56:00.000-07:00

Reflection often has two components. . . me thinking about what I am doing and a conversation with another who may ask questions, seek clarification or express their own opinion. Reflection involves growth or change for me--even if that is simply an affirmation as I think over what happened.

For example, I often happen upon a workable strategy "in the moment" and I have found others do too. . .

Recently I read on the British Columbia Math teachers forum a link to a site that explained another way of doing long division, using only the multiples of 100, 10, 5, 2 and 1. When I showed it to my teammates (5th grade teachers) one of them said, "Oh, I created that in my differentiation class" and then proceeded to pull up an explanation that was very similar. So, for her, as we talked about how this would work in a classroom it was an affirmation of her earlier work, while for me, the conversation afforded an opportunity to think through with a trusted colleague, the steps and procedures we would use as we team taught. (She, by the way, is the Special Ed resource teacher and I am the Gifted Resource Teacher--and we combine our math classes three times weekly to differentiate and share strategies. . . talk about action research!)

Check out this link and share your opinion: http://mindfull:wordpress.com (about halfway down where it begins "Division is about sharing.")

Enjoy!

Paula

Teach and Reflect

2008-03-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

teaching--good, best-practices teaching cannot happen without reflection.

TCHRFLECT

affirmations or denials--what part of reflection is that?

for me,

Teach and Reflect