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Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Weekly Reflection Supports Growth #NerdyCast #EdChat

One of the things I have challenged myself to do this year is to reflect more on my teaching. I've done this on my blog, but I felt like I only focused on isolated events in the classroom. I wanted to spend more time thinking about how the week went and what types of things I could change. I also wanted to set little goals for myself each week. This could be in relation to students or something instructional. No matter what it was during the week, I wanted to spend some time thinking about it and sharing it out there.

The traditional way would be to just write about it, but that can be very time consuming and I did not want to give myself any excuses as to why I was not doing something. So, I decided to add my reflections to #NerdyCast. It is a perfect place for me to sit down and share my thoughts on how things went in my classroom over the past week. I will always keep the videos around 4 minutes long and focus on what works and, most importantly, what didn't work.

I'm not a perfect teacher, but I feel that image is inadvertently displayed when I only write about the awesome lessons and the exciting things in class. By looking at the whole week and talking about it, I think I will be able to have a deeper reflection on how all things I do in class are connected, not just isolated events taken out of context. That's the thought process anyway. Here are my first 3 weeks of reflections. You can always jump to #NerdyCast to see the weekly reflection on Fridays after 3:30EST.

Please leave your thoughts in the comment section of the videos. I'm using this as a way to grow as a teacher, so feedback would be great. Thanks for watching!



3 comments:

  1. This is awesome, Nick! I may "steal" this idea. I heard a couple things I'd like to use in my own classroom. I use Remind, also, but I'd pretty much used it for assignments. I love the idea of using it for fun links like Kid President and as a way to encourage and thank kids. I also liked the idea of having past students come in to talk to current students. This would be really easy for me to do since I teach both 5th and 6th. It would work great for 6th grade students to talk to my 5th graders. Thanks for this reflection - great stuff!

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  2. I like the idea of a blended reflection. The video piece, as you pointed out, should definitely come as close to the end of the day/experience as possible. If could even serve as a "first blush" of your thoughts. Revisiting later and then composing a blog post give you time to think about the experience, let it ruminate around in your head.

    I'm wondering if the more of these you go through, if some narrative thread might come out of it; or at least you'll find yourself gravitating towards focusing on just one area (the relationship piece you mentioned). Regardless of which aspects of teaching the reflections might stumble into, you're right about the perception that a LOT of edubloggers put out, not just you. We have an inclination to want to celebrate and share successes, so when we experience a failure we either hide it, or try to keep it in until it becomes a success, and then present it as a celebration from the very genesis of the failure; I'm not sure how helpful either of those paths are, but I'd love to see more honest reflection from educators about how their day went, bad or good.

    Keep going with the video, see where it leads you. Oh, and maybe use a normal chair when recording...the wobble plays all sorts of havoc with my ADHD :)

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  3. Great idea Nick. I love the idea of reflecting. While I do it, I dont always recored it on paper or video. As a building level administrator you have inspired me to try this with our staff and see where it goes. I am glad I am not the only one that cannot sit still in a chair that swivels. Our secretary has sent me to my office more than once because I was making her sea sick. :)

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