This past Tuesday's class gave us insight into the many aspects involved in the teaching cycle while stressing the importance of reflection as a teacher. Our assigned chapter to read also focused on reflection in the classroom. At first I believed that reflection took place after a lesson had ended, but now I understand that this is false. So much reflection occurs before and during a lesson that it seems it should come naturally to a teacher. Reflection should occur in all lessons throughout the day no matter what subject is being taught whether it be language arts, social studies, mathematics, or science. Reflection should be an integral part of the school day for educators.
Let's break down the three steps as described during Tuesday's class by my professor Sydney Bontrager. First, we have the step of planning the curriculum. Now this step is very complex and involves a lot of reflection. As teachers we must reflect on our students' abilities and background knowledge in addition to applicable standards, resources, and assessments just to name a few. During instruction, we must ask ourselves "Is this working?" and if the students are really understanding the material. If not, we need to have a backup plan. Many more aspects of instruction also demand reflection as well. Moving onto the assessment piece of the lesson, we need to reflect on how we will grade students, whether or not they have met the objectives, if possible extensions or reteaching needs to take place, and what the next step will be as the teaching cycle continues.
It is extremely important to be a reflective educator in all phases of the teaching cycle. I look forward to using reflection in my future classroom and during the rest of my education program at Indiana University South Bend. I foresee myself learning how to also be a more efficient reflector while I get better at reflecting with every lesson I teach.
I have found an interesting blog entry written by Mr. Kevin Bibo as he describes his take on reflection in the classroom. He describes numerous ways to reflect on one's teaching such as sending out surveys to students, watching yourself on videotape teaching a lesson, and having others observe you. Feel free to check out his blog entry at the following link:
http://calteacherblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/teacher-reflection.html
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