Reflection is Part of Your Work

Okay so this is me officially becoming a blogger. This first one is in response to George Couros' blog post, Another Reason to Blog; Proactive Through Reflection.  As teachers we've all reflected on our work either on our own or as part of teaching teams.  But let's face it, most of us last remember writing any of those post-lesson thoughts down during Teacher's College when it was mandatory.  I agree that reflecting on what we are doing is the only way to grow and continue to meet student's needs so it should be considered "part of our work", that's the only way we'll ever make the time for it.  

As Couros' pointed out in his original post, time is what we lack.  Taking the time to sit down and actually reflect makes you really slow down and take a look at things, rather than barreling through curriculum expectations, meetings and all the other day to day items that fill our plate.  Having attempted reflective journals before, as well as personal journals, photo scrapbooks etc. only to give them up after awhile, I can see the benefit of setting up a blog as your base.  Tags and categories mean you can actually find specific information when you need to go back to it.  That's why most journaling type activities failed for me in the past...I rarely went back to look at them again...and then the novelty wore off.

Hopefully by beginning my own blogging journey I'll finally have a way to keep my learning accessible and meaningful to me.  I'd also like to think I'll become more comfortable with the whole creative process in general and be able to use it with my students.  So far I have a classroom blog that I'd like to take beyond the simple posting of notes, videos and homework for my classes.