Reflective Blogging: Proactive Through Reflection

Response to Article: https://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/3531

I think it's important to take a minute to recognize all the decisions and calculations that happen in a split second during the school day - an answer to a single (and seemingly easy) question has a multitude of facets. For instance, a student asking "Can I take a walk" can spark "Does s'he REALLY need a break, or are they trying to avoid the task?", "What will admin/colleague think when they she him/her out there?", "Should I sent them with a task?", "Can I trust them to go alone?", "Should I document this for SERT or is this just a walk?" and the list goes on and on. Every single decision can have all these mini-decisions inside them.

But what does that have to do with the Reflection part... simply that taking the time to notice & name those mini-decisions can help us to actually hone in on what factors we use to judge a situation. If I'm concerned that my admin is going to question WHY I let a student go for a walk to take a break, then I probably need to focus some of my time and energy on that relationship with admin.

And how would that become apparent?!? I guess when you read back through how you handled situations, you can notice a theme. During my TPA this year, I was trying to explain to one of my admin about the value of digital documentation, and how we need time to see patterns emerge in young students. He had suggested that "really important stuff" be transferred to paper, and I told him I wouldn't know what the really important stuff was until I saw it over time. WOW! I was just defending my digital documentation... but I think I was really onto something! Maybe documenting my "rationale" for some of the decisions I make will help me to understand what's really important?!?