I started really being faithful in blogging this summer as a challenge from Kasey Bell on her blog. I wrote about it in a previous post.
I am a total Math/Science person at heart. Structure, logical thinking, numbers, black and white thinking. But, I am also a person who reflects. I don't have a quick wit. I so often think of what I should have said or done long after something has happened. So, blogging affords me the opportunity to stop and think about my own learning and experiences and then become intentional about choosing my words and thoughts carefully. It also allows me to link my learning from a variety of places to a post so that I can find it later.
Blogging isn't for everyone, but reflecting should be. When I blog, I'm putting all my thoughts and written words out there for others to read and then make their own opinions about me and I have to say that not all my blog posts have been met with smiles, but with each one, I learn something. Reflecting should be a natural extension of our education. We do something, we reflect, we learn from it, and then we change something about what we do for the next time. Most teachers who have multiple classes see this in their day to day teaching, where they do something in their first class and depending on how well it went or if kiddos are "getting it", they change their strategy or activity. So blogging is to me. I write something, I reflect, then I take time to do something different from then on. I think we should be teaching our students how to do this too and giving them an opportunity daily to not only reflect upon their learning, but upon their day, their choices, etc so that in this they can learn to become deeper thinkers, and deeper learners.
I hope you take time today, this week, this month, this school year to really reflect. As one of my Master's Professors said, "We are in the business of practicing our craft." Which to me means, we are practicing, constantly learning from, modifying, changing what we do to better ourselves and what we do to help our students and staff. We will never perfect it, because we are reflecting and learning continuously.
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