Reflective Writing for Students

Today I had another Rigor Relevance and Relationships (RRR) meeting.  I was surprised to find out the topic for the day was Reflective Writing.  I have just spent the previous week learning about Reflective Writing for teachers in my master's class.  What a great follow up to see what it should look like with the students.  I was introduced to several different strategies.  One of my favorites is a Confidence Log.  This is when the student rates himself or herself on how well he or she will do on an assessment and backs it up with 3 reasons why.  I plan to use this for an upcoming test.  This will be helpful to see how the students think they will do  and compare it to the actual outcome.  I am anxious to see what information I will learn from it.  I started to integrate some of these strategies into my lessons and the students seem to enjoy them.  They especially enjoy writing in their journals when they know I will respond to them with a quick question or comment.  The purpose is to ask thought provoking questions that go beyond the text and really get students used to connecting with themselves as well as what they read.  Click here for some examples of questions I found.
Here is an article about Reflective Journals and why it is important.

Connect to Succeed

I began working on my Masters in Education this year.  I am currently near the end of my first class.  I decided to enroll with an online college.  At first I was afraid I would not be able to handle all I might be required to do along with everything I need to do for the classroom.  However, something inside me continued pushing me to do it.  I have been so inspired throughout this experience so far.  I have been able to connect with people from around the world and through our discussions, I have gained many ideas and new insights. It is nice to know that there are teachers in other areas that are experiencing the same stress and changes that my school is.  

I never thought of starting my own blog, however, after reading The Principal of Change by  George Couros.  I better understood the benefits.   Not only will this aid in reflective teaching, but I will also be able to receive input from other professionals. I am excited to start this new adventure and see where it leads me.

The greatest way to become a better teacher is to connect with other teachers who you inspire to be like.  Get ideas from them.  See what is working and what is not.  Remember you do not have to do this alone.  As a matter of fact, it is NOT a good idea to try and do it alone.  According to Couros (2014),  "Isolation is the enemy to innovation."  To read more about this click here Isolation.