The past few weeks I have been spending a lot of my time reading the reflections of first year teachers regarding their first year of teaching. So this week as I try to define learning I am gearing more of my definition to the reflective part of learning that comes after you have completed a task and are then looking back upon it and determining what it was you learned, what that task taught you, and now that you have achieved it what are you going to differently, if anything next time you need to accomplish a similar task. So much of our everyday learning happens this way, but we fail to learn from it by reflecting in this manner.
I have learned so much about the new teachers in my district by reading their reflections and I think this type of learning can be effectuated by having new teachers in the future read some of these papers before their first year begins, or even having some of them come back to the first new teacher training and have them hear first hand from second year teachers what was really important to them as they look back at their first year.
So in a nutshell, learning can be more profound and have an influence if we, as the learner, can look back on an experience and really analyze what it was we are walking away from the experience with and what we are going to do with that new found knowledge.
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When I first learned about metacognition I didn't quite understand it fully. Now that I feel I do, I realize the importance of reflecting on on learning. Everybody learns differently, and when we can think about our learning we can come to an understanding of how we learn best. When we understand our leaning process we can fully utilize it to learn more
ReplyDeleteSo to put it simply, I agree that reflecting on learning is important also.
Hey Camille,
ReplyDeleteI think you are right that it would be very helpful for second year teachers to pair up in some way with first years so that they can help them out with things that are very fresh on their minds. Having beginning teachers read those reflections would be a great idea. I know that after my first year I had learned a whole lot that I wished somebody could have told me! Have a good week!
Camille, I think a lot like you. It is always good for me to reflect on things that I have gone through to analyze if it was effective or not, and what if any thing would I do different the next time. Many times a seasoned teacher needs to reflect on the prior year, month week ,day... in order to know how effective you are. Thanks for your insightfully comments Camille,
ReplyDeleteJohn
Your point on reflection is important. In our last class on research, the journal was stressed as an important tool for reflection and research. This year I had lunch with four new teachers. It was fun to hear what they had to say and all the things they were learning. They too had to keep a portfolio which I'm sure it had a section on reflection. I hope to start a journal this year to reflect on what I am doing to help the students or what I need to do differently.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree! In my own reflections it was interesting to see what I was thinking about each day throughout the year.
ReplyDeleteI finally had my year end evaluation with my administrator, and as I mentioned in the last class, all the teachers at my school were required to do a reflection journal this year as part of our professional development. I must say, after reflecting on my year, it was interesting to see that it's not the academic achievements of my students that I chose to write about, it's the personal achievements of frustrations of my students. Their behaviors and routines is what I thought about the most. Then, when I reflected on that, it became obvious that with helping these behaviors and routines, the learning fell right into place! Isn't that nice? Plus, it made my job so much more interesting and less academic. What do you guys think?