9. Now the fun begins!

Now the fun begins.

This we believe. (NMSA, 2010)
*Ongoing professional development reflects best educational practices. Professional development.

I took a 'writing for teachers' class at Epworth by the Sea, in Georgia, years ago. It included a writing workshop; and every day we engaged in different writing prompts and activities. Just like in the classroom, once we had multiple brainstorming experience, we chose one to work on more deeply. We practiced fluency writing, brainstorming, rewrites, and editing strategies for our classroom. We learned by engaging in the experience. I learned to think more deeply about the tasks I gave my students, and the importance of creating products to illustrate thinking from this workshop.

It is summer. I have just finished an amazing year in the classroom/school, and I have close to 100 prompts. I wonder how many teachers reflect on their year and use the experiences to begin to plan for future years? I am thinking many do!  Had I not purposely reflected throughout the year, many experiences, insights, and ah-ha moments would be lost. I must promote this process!

Advice

1. Write every month. 'Begin with the end in mind' (Covey, 2006)is a concept! I first read this in Steven Covey's, The 7 habits of highly effective people. I have also used it in planning with Wiggins and McTigues, Backward design (1998). My 'takeaway'  is that when you first start the year, the end is all theory and hope, which is a good thing. Once you finish the year, is when you really can begin to apply the concept. Thus, my first piece of advice is to keep a reflection journey document. I recommend categories so that at the end of each month, you can reflect on what happened and set
goals for the next month.  You may want to start with the following categories: students, colleagues,
parents, administration, staff, curriculum, assessment, classroom management, lesson planning, lessons, teaming. Next, use the categories to answer: what worked, what didn't work, what they loved, challenges, successes to celebrate, what drove me mad, what made me weep. You may want to set goals for each month based on your reflections.

2. Find someone to reflect with. Over the course of this year, I drove to work with a colleague. The time we spent driving to and from work became a think tank, a reflection pool of our day, of our students and colleagues, and of our personal insights and dreams. We celebrated successes, and sometimes just listened; well, actually we were participant-listeners. I truly believe this time together made us more reflective, and gave us uninterrupted time to process our days. We both agree that we are better teachers because we had the chance to debrief, sometimes vent, and to celebrate and advocate for one another.

3.In your journey, consider the big picture. There are so many facets to teaching, and so many expectations including, but not limited to: college and career readiness, critical thinking, literacy integration, technology, ethics, standards, objectives, civic engagement, social and emotional development, leadership, exploration, lesson planning, differentiation, assessment, parent involvement, homework, projects, communication, grading, collaborative planning, interdisciplinary units, clubs, safety wellness, teaming, and mindfulness, that focusing on academic excellence, developmental responsiveness, and focusing on creating environments that are challenging, empowering, and equitable can seem a bit daunting. Fortunately, there are tools to guide you. You can use This we believe (NMSA, 2010) as an overview to give you a framework, a common language, to remind you of the big picture. 

Remember that teaching is a journey to embrace and grow. You will never be the best teacher. You will have moments to celebrate, and I encourage you to document these moments and share them with others.

So now begins the task of sifting and sorting through my own experiences. My future posts will most likely be about using the experiences of this year to provide vignettes for those I will be teaching in the fall.