Reflection Reflection

Yesterday I realized what I find frustrating about Institute and the TFA training process: reflection. In reflecting upon reflection, I realized that a lot of the program is teaching us how to reflect. We are being taught how to reflect on our lessons, our students, our preconceived notions, and our assessment scores. It seems, though, that this is something that I have already done. As a writer, I spend a lot of time reflecting, even if I am not conscious of it at the time. As a writer, my reflections are recorded so I can go back and look at them later, even if I never really wanted to see them again.

The problem is this: if I knew we would be given 10 or 15 or more minutes of quiet time to fill in boxes with specific reflection questions in it, I would not have spent the time earlier reflecting on what I've accomplished this month. Not only have I done the reflecting already, but I've done it in a natural and free-flowing manner, rather than in an overly-guided MS Word table like the many that TFA loves to give us.

Today, our assignment was to reflect (on specific things) on index cards, which we would glue (with a glue stick) to a manila folder to keep forever.

I guess I understand the purpose of this exercise; reflection is important, and is necessary for being good at anything, especially a new endeavor. But. But I don't need the guide. I don't need to be forced. Not only does it make it harder, it also makes me instinctively take it less seriously. It's like if you were handed a crossword puzzle, and then given a list of answers to the clues. And then you were told you had 15 minutes to sit and fill in the clues. I'm sure it's a challenging puzzle, and probably fun to do, but not if they give you the answers. I'd rather take the puzzle without the answers. Or, don't expect me to fill in the answers we are given.

I write anyway. I reflect anyway. And I love it. But forced guided reflection ruins it for me.

On the bright side, it got me thinking about differentiation. How do I give students interesting projects that challenge every student at every different level? How can I make sure that every student is feeling included, even though their abilities differ considerably? For every student who isn't understanding the lesson, there's another student who is bored and unchallenged.

This will be challenging. I will have to make enrichment work for different levels. I plan on providing my students with a classroom library for extra "science" education (Ender's Game! Fahrenheit 451! Ray Bradbury! Robert A. Heinlein!). I hope to provide extra credit opportunities at all levels.

(Today, our forced guided reflection involves writing letters to our future teacher selves.)

Differentiation is challenging for all teachers at all levels.