Reflective Practice

            According to Norman Vincent Peale, "One of the greatest moments in anybody's developing experience is when he no longer tries to hide from himself but determines to get acquainted with himself as he really is."  Reflection is necessary for growth in any area of life.  Through reflection, we are able to gauge where we are, in comparison to where we want to be.  This is applicable in education.  While being aware of what one should be knowledgeable of at a certain point, through reflection, one can determine what it will take to attain the desired result.  The crucial piece of this process is the action that is taken post deliberation.  Throughout the process of pursuing my certification, I have learned many things about myself as a leader and about the positions I seek to hold.  Much of this I have learned by pondering on different experiences I've had as a teacher, teacher leader, and as an administrator.  I have been able to identify my strengths, as well as areas of need through reflective writing and self-assessments.
            Early in my professional career, my reflective practice was limited to “learning from my mistakes.” When bad things happened, I would contemplate my actions in order to determine what went wrong and what could I do to prevent this from happening in the future.  Through learning the practice of reflection, I now know that I do not always have to cogitate on failure alone.  It is acceptable to reflect upon success as well.  Reflective practice is used to assess all areas of an event.  What did I know prior to the event? What did I learn? What areas have room for ongoing improvement? What must I do to improve? Reflection gives me the ability to deliberate upon activities in both my professional and personal lives.

            When reflecting on various experiences over the past nine months, I have been able to identify areas of needed improvement.  One example is communicating effectively in tense, high stakes conversations.  I have become cognizant of my facial expressions and body language when in situations where I dislike or disagree with what the other party is expressing.  I have historically responded verbally in an appropriate manner, but my facial expressions and body language would betray me.  Others were able to see my disagreement through nonverbal signals.  When dealing with parents and top level administration, I know that I have to better control my nonverbal responses even though I may not agree with their point of view.  After reflecting on this issue, I have responded by learning to master my nonverbal responses during conversations to allow for a true exchange of information that leads to specific action without confrontation.  Reflection has taught me how to pinpoint a specific issue and how to seek an appropriate solution.

            As an assignment in one of my classes, I completed a self-assessment to ascertain my areas of strengths and deficiencies as a future administrator.  The subject in which I was most deficient was knowledge of the school facilities planning.  After this self-assessment and the required reflective writing assignment, I had to identify methods in which to gain knowledge and confidence concerning the budget.  I decided to interview the Associate Principal at my school to obtain a better understanding of the budgetary process.  My time with him was very informative and made me feel more at ease with understanding a school budget.  He also served as a source of additional resources.  Following his suggestion, I later spent time with the financial secretary on my campus to gain even further insight to the budget.

            The use of blogs in this course has certainly affected my reflective activities.  It is easy to think about an activity, assignment, or discussion.  Inner reflection is what I most commonly practiced.  But blogging publicly makes one much more aware of what they are writing.  Knowing that my peers and the public at-large were able to access, read, and respond to my blog postings made me much more aware of my words, thoughts, and attitudes.  I feel that it has improved my reflective practice more than any other activity.  I plan to continue blogging through two websites I own as well as an active twitter feed.

            Course and campus supervised blogs provided a place for private contemplation following activities and assignments.  I found that the privacy allowed for a deep reflection on the activity.  Also, it provided a place for my initial feelings (gut feelings) following an activity.  What I found during the course of my program is that often, when I would go back and review a log, it provided me with a snapshot in time of where I was professionally at that time.  I found that it also allowed me to compare current feelings and thoughts to those in the past.  Doing so, I often found further growth.

            Reflection serves as a significant part of the learning continuum.  It directly affects practice because it should be used as a tool for future improvement and can potentially improve the quality of performance in any area.  I find myself reflecting more now than I did before.  For example, following meetings of our Professional Learning Committee (PLC), I reflect on how the meeting was conducted.  Did we accomplish the intended goals? Was everyone heard? Was the meeting effective? Were my thoughts conveyed clearly? As facilitator, what can I do during our next meeting to improve our meetings? Sometimes I will even ask others for their opinion so that I can use their input to make necessary changes.  Reflection has affected my practice as a teacher and a leader by allowing me to seek and implement new ideas and strategies.

            I will benefit by using this strategy (reflection) in the future because it will aid in my professional development.  It will also allow for the evaluation and improvement of programs, teacher development, and the overall growth and development of students.  Reflection must continue to be practiced and improved.  As my professional responsibilities increase, it will be difficult to continue the practice of reflection, but the growth of faculty, staff, students, and myself will increasingly be dependent on my commitment to have an ongoing reflective practice.