What are some ways to Reflect on Practice?
One of the things I liked the most about this course was the introduction to different models of Reflective Practice since I haven't had previous formal instruction about this specific topic.
In my personal experience I think I have always been reflecting about my daily practices by evaluating the exercises, lessons, units, homework, assignments and many other activities related to my profession in a very informal way; the problem is (and I see it now), I haven't created or structured an elaborated plan in order to document my data and show some kind of evidence of growth and improvement along the way. In my opinion all the several models proposed are a very helpful and valid options to reflect on our practices, sometimes you may choose one of them according to your grade level, your class population, your subject, your objectives, your beliefs, your skills, etc.; the important thing to me relies on applying these methods in order to gather information, evaluate your experiences and make adjustments looking for real and measurable results. All the methods reviewed during the seminar are available with a brief introduction, all different steps proposed and visual aids as sub menus of this tab for further assistance.
In my experience as a teacher, I have been reflecting on my practices on my own and with the help of the administration and with my colleagues.
1. Self-evaluation: In my role as a teacher I constantly reflect on my practices, I think is an innate skill educators have (just a theory). I have three instances of reflection on my practices, I like to do it before, during and after a given activity.
2. Administration: There is a constant evaluation from the administrators, during these sessions I have received the visit of the principal or vice principal in order to observe my classes and to establish a meeting afterwards to review their comments, advice and possible improvements. This strategy has definitely helped me out during my first years as a teacher in order to have a better adjustment to the school system, protocols, curriculum and specific objectives and educational standards; I have had access to all the different data from the evaluations conducted during the school year and I have made minor and major adjustments to improve my way of teaching.
3. Collegial support: I consider myself very lucky for being part of a very professional, thoughtful and caring community of educators. We have continuous visits of colleagues in order to practice peer observation; this is a very enriching activity since we all get to spend time with brilliant teachers and learn from their ways of teaching. A collaborative session is set up after the visit to evaluate what we saw and what we think went right or wrong, to point out any type of advice and to suggest adjustments or different strategies to improve the learning sessions. This definitely is a win-win situation for our staff, there is always a new approach, a fresh idea, a new concept or a diverse strategy to apply in order ti improve our performances in class.
In my personal experience I think I have always been reflecting about my daily practices by evaluating the exercises, lessons, units, homework, assignments and many other activities related to my profession in a very informal way; the problem is (and I see it now), I haven't created or structured an elaborated plan in order to document my data and show some kind of evidence of growth and improvement along the way. In my opinion all the several models proposed are a very helpful and valid options to reflect on our practices, sometimes you may choose one of them according to your grade level, your class population, your subject, your objectives, your beliefs, your skills, etc.; the important thing to me relies on applying these methods in order to gather information, evaluate your experiences and make adjustments looking for real and measurable results. All the methods reviewed during the seminar are available with a brief introduction, all different steps proposed and visual aids as sub menus of this tab for further assistance.
In my experience as a teacher, I have been reflecting on my practices on my own and with the help of the administration and with my colleagues.
1. Self-evaluation: In my role as a teacher I constantly reflect on my practices, I think is an innate skill educators have (just a theory). I have three instances of reflection on my practices, I like to do it before, during and after a given activity.
- Before: Whenever I come up with an idea for a new lesson, plan, exercise, assignment or unit, I start "sketching" it in my mind. I think ahead of time how am i going to present it to the kids, what kind of materials and resources are needed, how much time should I dedicate it in order to complete the task, is it appropriate for the entire group or do I need to differentiate?
- During: When a new activity is taking place I like to go around my students observing what they do and how they do it. I ask myself a few questions to analyze what is going on with them, for example I try to find out if the instructions were clear enough, if the software used is appropriate, if they need more or less support and guidance from me, if they have enough time to complete their task, etc. I constantly try to find out if they're having specific setbacks in order to identify the source of the problem; in my experience this process has help me a lot since the kids started to see me as a person who is more interested in teaching them something relevant and their personal growth. They consider me an instructor who is pretty similar to them, a more human and close educator if you will, someone who makes mistakes as any other, but is willing to recognize his faults and tries to make arrangements to make things work the best way possible for himself and for the benefit of the entire group.
- After: I feel very fortunate of teaching MYP technology for the IB since I have a specific method conducting my classes; the Design Cycle allows me to evaluate the success of my activities, the quality of my student's final product and their individual reflection on their performances and the development of the project. I get to review a vast range of information and take in consideration my student's thoughts, opinions, ideas, strengths and weaknesses in order to modify, adjust, improve or chance my lessons if I need to. The use of the cycle has been a very reliable tool for me as an educator and for my students as well, because we are building a community of reflective practitioners, we all are involved and have a huge impact on making our learning experiences relevant and successful.
2. Administration: There is a constant evaluation from the administrators, during these sessions I have received the visit of the principal or vice principal in order to observe my classes and to establish a meeting afterwards to review their comments, advice and possible improvements. This strategy has definitely helped me out during my first years as a teacher in order to have a better adjustment to the school system, protocols, curriculum and specific objectives and educational standards; I have had access to all the different data from the evaluations conducted during the school year and I have made minor and major adjustments to improve my way of teaching.
3. Collegial support: I consider myself very lucky for being part of a very professional, thoughtful and caring community of educators. We have continuous visits of colleagues in order to practice peer observation; this is a very enriching activity since we all get to spend time with brilliant teachers and learn from their ways of teaching. A collaborative session is set up after the visit to evaluate what we saw and what we think went right or wrong, to point out any type of advice and to suggest adjustments or different strategies to improve the learning sessions. This definitely is a win-win situation for our staff, there is always a new approach, a fresh idea, a new concept or a diverse strategy to apply in order ti improve our performances in class.