Holding a Mirror to Our Professional Practice

Keynote #5 “Holding a Mirror to Our Professional Practice” by Derek Wenmoth

Derek very cleverly used the analogy of a mirror reflection as to how we as educators need to reflect upon our practices used in the classroom and the value of reflecting being so important. All too often we are too busy with lesson plans, grades, testing, etc. to take time to look at our own teaching practice. Getting feedback from others, forum sharing, diarying the learning journey through blogging, collaborating, subscribing and reading professional journals are all means to gain new insight.

Time seems to be the biggest factor as to why so many professionals let this go by the wayside. As shown at the end of this podcast, through a grant, selected teachers were awarded a one year sabbatical to share ideas with colleges and coworkers. Their comments on the benefits of this endeavor stated that this opportunity gave them time to think about their practices and share with others, collaborate with others, personal growth in relating with others and see what other schools are doing. All of these things seem to revolve around taking time (which is so precious) to do this for yourself and your teaching practices.

The presenter also posed the question, “ What have you been doing to reflect on your current practices in the classroom?” Some of the suggestions given were opportunities that are readily available and doable without seeming to be overwhelming time consumers. These included: soliciting mentors that provide you with feedback, subscribe to professional reading journals (online or print), join a community of practice either online or face to face, subscribe to RSS feed, present at workshops. If a person would start with a few of these ideas and be diligent in staying with it the benefits would be great and the time factor less of an issue.

Almost all teachers realize the importance of self reflection and self study. The challenge is taking the time and finding the right tools that best suit the individual.Holding a Mirror