The highest levels of performance come to people who are centered, intuitive, creative, and reflective - people who know to see a problem as an opportunity. -Deepak Chopra
I believe that reflecting on my teaching practice is one of the most important tools for growth, for both myself and my students. Through purposeful reflection, I examine my teaching choices and style and find areas of strength and opportunities for growth. Because of this reflection, I become aware of things I missed that students need in regards to the lesson, as well as how well they are understanding my teaching of the curriculum. At my year long student teaching placement, we asked students to think about the "glows and grows" of their school day and to debrief lessons. I do this everyday in my own teaching journal that I created at the beginning of my pre-student teaching. I talk about the glows (things that went well) and the grows (things that I need to work on to improve). My goal and purpose of this teaching journal is to grow in my understanding of my practice and how I can further support my students active construction of knowledge. I am committed to keeping a growth mindset for the rest of my career, as I believe educators should never stop learning themselves. I have noticed that the more I reflect upon my teaching, the more I am using higher level thinking questions with students. I am also growing in my language I use with students; my directions are becoming more clear and my feedback is becoming more specific and meaningful to their learning.
Teaching Journal
When I began my pre-student teaching at Mark Murray Elementary, I decided to start a journal specifically about my teaching practice. I am able to put down all my thoughts about my successes and struggles that I face in the classroom. I often write an asterisk next to things I want to work on, or questions I want to bring to my mentor teacher so I can work on those aspects of my practice. Often when I am in the classroom, I will think back to something I wrote in my journal and become more mindful of how I want to effectively support my students growth. My journal has been especially helpful when I am struggling with behavioral issues. I write about the behavior, when it happens, and why I think it is happening. When I return to the classroom, I can approach the student differently in an effort to support their needs.
In my semester of special education student teaching, this journal became imperative to record notes on students, as well as track their progress. I wrote down things I noticed about students, what their interests were, and what their behavior triggers were. My teaching partner and I combined notes on our students and noticed a pattern of inappropriate behaviors at certain points in the day for two students in particular. These 2 students did not like coming to the resource room, and made that very clear. We were able to adjust the schedule to see if we saw improvement at other parts of the day. We were blown away. These two students have shown so much growth since we did this. In order to be an effective teacher, I must never stop being a student and continue to learn and grow. My teaching journal helps me reflect and improve my practice.