This post gives you an opportunity to reflect on your reflections for this course.
a. In what ways has your reflective writing helped you to understand yourself and
others?
b. What biases, stereotypes, preconceptions, and assumptions did you have about doing reflections?
to what extent have they changed?
c. What changes will you make to ensure you continue your
self-learning and self-development in the future?
ReplyDeletea) Engaging in this reflective writing has allowed me to dig deeper and understand who I am as a prospective teacher and who I want to be in the teaching profession. I think that quite often we tend to go about our day to day activities without actually taking the time to sit and critically analyse ways in which we can develop and improve as prospective teachers. By doing these reflections I realize that I have a lot of potential to be a very inspiring teacher to my student. Sometimes I may lack the confidence in myself to do that but I’m working on it. Additionally, reflecting made me realized that I do have the drive and the enthusiasm needed to continue as a prospective. Sometimes I fall short because I tend to blame external forces for my downfalls but it takes the right mind-set to take on the challenges we may face as students and future educators.
b) One of the first things I was introduced to when I started the Bachelor of Education Program is becoming a reflective practitioner (our first practicum course). In the beginning I thought that it was difficult to reflect. There were no questions to guide our reflection. We were required to write about our ‘beliefs about teaching’ and ‘beliefs about learning’. I found it difficult to reflect because I was never required to do so. Therefore, upon receiving this assignment, I thought to myself ‘What can I gain from reflecting?’ What is the point of this? This is a waste of time? ‘Reflecting is so difficult’. However, as I continued to reflect on the previous geography courses that I have done, on the weekly blog posts as well as on my lesson appraisal/reflections, I have recognized the value and purpose of reflecting. Taking the time to sit and think about the ways I can do certain things differently has helped. For example, with reference to blog number 1, now that I have a greater understanding of equality and equity, I've tried to promote equity in the classroom during my practicum field teaching, with reference to blog number 4, I am now conscious about the products I consume from multinational corporations and began to consider not purchasing products produced by these various companies. Reflecting has made me more aware of areas I can improve on and things I can try to do in the future. Therefore, this means that my biases, stereotypes, preconceptions, and assumptions has changed to a great extent.
c) I recently came across a quote “The more reflective you are the more effective you are” - Pete Hall and Alisa Simeral. Therefore, to ensure that I continue my self-learning and self-development in the future, I will definitely put this quote on my vision board so that I will be constantly reminded of the importance of reflecting and will better be able to execute my duties to the best of my ability as an effective teacher. Additionally, I will work towards making improvements through the teaching/learning process.
a. In what ways has your reflective writing helped you to understand yourself and others?
ReplyDeleteReflective writing help me better understand myself and others since it develops your skills and review their effectiveness, rather than just carry on doing things as you have always done them. It is about questioning, in a positive way, what you do and why you do it and then deciding whether there is a better, or more efficient, way of doing it in the future. In any role, whether at home or at work, reflection is an important part of learning. You wouldn’t use a recipe a second time around if the dish didn’t work the first time would you? You would either adjust the recipe or find a new and, hopefully, better one. When we learn we can become stuck in a routine that may not be working effectively. Thinking about your own skills can help you identify changes you might need to make.
b. What biases, stereotypes, preconceptions, and assumptions did you have about doing reflections? to what extent have they changed?
From the beginning of the Practicum, the main focus was on reflective writing. Without even a guide or a format to follow it was difficult to reflect back on the past. What was taught? What were the resources? What went well? Did my students understand the lesson? What could I do better? These are all questions I would answer to help me write a reflective piece. Yea r one to now I can say that I have learn to write reflections for all my lesson plans. But only now I fully understand what is expected from my reflections.
c. What changes will you make to ensure you continue your self-learning and self-development in the future?
Self-learning is a necessity in being a teacher since you never stop learning and figuring out a lot on my own. If I already have self-study skills, I can apply them in my classroom and work place. I will be empowering myself to become fearless when encountering challenges. Self-learning will help me develop the confidence I need to tackle challenging problems and obstacles in the future. The self-learning skills that are important for this career in teaching since it will help me in reflections. Since it will help me understand myself better and be able to make changes to adapt to different situations.
In what ways has your reflective writing helped you to understand yourself and others?
ReplyDeleteMy reflective writing has really helped me to understand myself and has allowed me to critically analyse and see improvements in myself without having to depend on others to inform me.These reflections have also allowed me to appreciate who i am as an individual.It also helped me to re-focus my goals and aims as a teacher and my own personal goals.It also helped me to have an open mind and understand people especially those that i interact wit on a daily basis.
What biases, stereotypes, preconceptions, and assumptions did you have about doing reflections? to what extent have they changed?
Upon my start of my degree at Utt i was first introduced to reflections as a prospective teacher which allowed me to start looking backing at my day and my progress.I did not understand or see the reason and importance of reflections but as my understand for the importance of preparation in a classroom grow i understood how and why reflecting upon your activities for the day was most necessary and important.Now that reflections are most necessary especially has it has become part of a course my thoughts on reflections have changed where it has become part of me where everyday i share orally with my mother and reflect how my activities has been for the day.
What changes will you make to ensure you continue your self-learning and self-development in the future?
Self learning and self development is most important in the shaping of yourself and your teaching since the majority if my time will be spent among my students.An even after the completion of my course i do intend to continue with my reflections so that i can continue to improve myself as a teacher and as in individual.
ReplyDeletea. In what ways has your reflective writing helped you to understand yourself and others?
My reflective writing has me understand my way of doing things in a better way and improving on my various problems. My writing has also helped me grow as an individual and make the right assumptions about various things as well. When reflecting I learn more about my self, my actions, my friends , how I as an individual approach situations , how I speak to people, how I improve and develop, all of which help me to reflect on my assignments and experiences. While reflecting also I have learnt that constructive criticism is very important from your peers and teachers not only to build your self-esteem but to help you when doing anything.
b. What biases, stereotypes, preconceptions, and assumptions did you have about doing reflections? to what extent have they changed?
I did not life reflecting before when I now started UTT, but as of now I appreciate more an more because it helps me in making good decisions and following the right path.
c. What changes will you make to ensure you continue your self-learning and self-development in the future?
For one I will continue to strive for perfection and keep on trying each and everyday where it will help build my confidence and self-esteem. I will keep trying to improve my methods of speaking and confidence level in front of an audience even when I continue to teach in schools.
I also think as an individual everyone should always try to keep improving their daily lives and always use reflections to keep up with that improvement.
Like Shoba mentioned in her post, "Engaging in these reflective, has contributed to the deeper and understand who I am as a prospective teacher and who I want to be in the teaching profession" This I agree with 100%. However I must admit these reflections has helped me yo even understand myself more, that of my abilities and challenges. At one point I began to think these blogs/ reflection posting were useless, but I have no regret in doing them. To me these blogs became a life lesson, having to constantly reflect on my actions and discovering ways in which improvement can be made. Fro the past two months these blogs kept me conscious of my progression in and out of the classroom. This beginning said and being taken into consideration, i saw my development from then to now. One in which I am proud of, however there's always areas for improvements.
ReplyDeleteI believe as prospective educators, we should always be opened to constructive criticism. Often to conduct self examination, we would learn so much about ourselves. This be said, blogging s something i will definitely continue, as a life hubby as a method of self examination/ reflections.
The teaching profession is an on going Learning with series of experiences, experiments and surprises. Before I use to question myself about this career field, But i came to realize, being an educator is like being a superhero, well at least that is my perspective. You'll often hear this quote " Teaching is a work from the Heart." this I respect and agree to, Yes and content is an necessity. This practicum experience is thoroughly expressed in my (Atmospheric Blogs Week 10 - Presentation and That's a wrap)- which expresses my transition and experience I gained through the blogging experience and reflections
This post gives you an opportunity to reflect on your reflections for this course.
ReplyDeletea. In what ways has your reflective writing helped you to understand yourself and others?
Ans: Concerning myself, the reflective writing has helped me to express my thoughts, in so doing it was clear to see what I liked, didn’t like, favoured or preferred. It also lead to some deep thinking and the connection and use of prior knowledge. While writing these reflection I was also able to identify areas which needed to be improved, such as my general geographical content knowledge. I also made me appreciate the great aspects of myself which I usually by pass, for example, my dedication to multiple intelligence, my probing questions and concepts on geographical phenomena. I would think that this reflection helped others to know me better, as what they see may not be what is written in my blogs.
b. What biases, stereotypes, preconceptions, and assumptions did you have about doing reflections? to what extent have they changed?
Ans: The only change is that I am actually writing my reflections, prior to this I had the same thoughts, questions and enthusiasm. One of my biases is that in a public reflective forum, one cannot be completely honest hence it may be a waste of time. My precautions would have been the words which I used, for example, I may have an issue with a classmate, in my blogs I would be specific and diligent in my wording as to avoid a bigger issue because I’ve learnt that even at this level, people can’t take criticism and correction, quite frankly I have no time to waste on such class members and prefer to go on and leave them in their own ignorance.
c. What changes will you make to ensure you continue your self-learning and self-development in the future?
Ans: In the furture, I do plan and have already started keeping track of my thoughts in a journal, they may not be everyday or even every week but as simple as a new ideas or suggestions made by a student on Prac. As a prospective teacher I take time with my students to reflect on my lessons at the end of the week, I find that the best reflections are when students are involved, they see things you don’t.
A. In what ways has your reflective writing helped you to understand yourself and others?
ReplyDeleteAs a professional, especially in the teaching profession, it is important to be reflective as it aids in the individual becoming a better version of themselves. Reflective writing during the course of this term has helped me to understand how to become a critical thinker. Reflecting on class sessions and topics got me to evaluate the positive and negative outcomes of the session and identify what could have been done differently in order to improve the outcome. Reflective writing has also allowed me to recognize the strengths of other and the weaknesses of myself and how working together as a group allowed us to achieve success in executing tasks despite the individual differences. Reflective writing also encourages me to think deeply about the various pedagogical strategies demonstrated during the term by the lecturer and how I can incorporate them into my future classes. Overall reflective writing has allowed me to take a deeper look at everything around me and recognize the interconnectedness of everything around us. It has aided me in becoming a better critical thinker, a skill which is much needed in our schools.
B. What biases, stereotypes, preconceptions, and assumptions did you have about doing reflections? to what extent have they changed?
The first time I was introduced to being reflective I totally disliked it! I found it to be ambiguous and a waste of time as I was unsure of what exactly ought to be done while reflecting. I found it to be difficult as I was not accustomed to thinking deep and being critical. It takes a lot of effort to look beyond the surface and seek out personal biases. Being reflective is an act which takes a lot of self-evaluation and analysis something I did not particularly enjoyed. Through weeks of reflective writing though, my perspective on reflective writing has significantly changed. I am now better at recognizing the benefits of being reflective and actually writing it down. In this fast-paced world, we live in, it can be challenging to remember the details of a class session, thus it is useful to record my thoughts on a class session. Keeping a record can act as a motivator as I am able to revisit my thoughts and see they’ve improved though time. I will definitely be more reflective in order areas of my live and also encourage my perspective students to develop this skills as it is very beneficial to the individual.
C. What changes will you make to ensure you continue your self-learning and self-development in the future?
In order to begin self-learning and development I will definitely critically think about the areas which require developing and set small goals to improve those areas first. A teacher fills the shoe of so many professions for brief periods during each day for instance being a nurse, counselor, judge, mediator, decorator among numerous others. Recognizing this fact, I would seek to improve my skillset in as many fields as possible by enrolling in shorts courses. This would also aid in me becoming a better teacher as I would can approach various topics in a holistic manner through the skills learnt.
A) it has allowed me to see things from a different perspective but also to be smart with it as well. also much emotion has came out from me in these courses. i have never felt in such a way before and it hurts me dearly. i realize a lot of things from the past are now coming to reality and i am embracing them.
ReplyDeleteB) hmmm to be honest, i hate doing these blogs and i hate venting and expressing myself to someone i do not know and persons that i am not close with. i am a real person and i say what i have to say based on my thinking my feelings and my behaviour. i believe although it was an opportunity to help myself and help me reflect this did not in anyway work for me and i really did not like it at all. i just did it because i was forced to as i was being marked . it is not something i looked forward to and i really did not gain anything for myself. with that being said nothing as changed and i am sure i will be marked down for stating the truth but oh well such is life. what really helped me was my practicum which had nothing to do with these reflections.
C) i do not know if there would be any changes because it did not work for me. what i would do is continue looking at things from a different angle and take some risk and try new things that i am comfortable with and that i believe would work for me. this is not something i enjoyed at all.
a. In what ways have reflective writing helped you to understand yourself and others?
ReplyDeleteReflective writing has been useful to me for the years i've been teaching. When I do my record of what takes place in the class, how students respond to my lessons and sometimes when incidents take place in the class, I have to spend time thinking back on what transpired. I have always been able to reflect, think about it but actually writing about my biases and what I have learnt from the incident, I have never done this before. It has helped me to think critically about everything. That I do but my expression of my reflection needs work. I think I should start doing reflective writing on topics.
b. What biases, preconceptions did you have about reflective writing?
I am not really someone to write on my thoughts, I always felt that my thoughts are personal and should be kept in my head. This blog helped me to realize that I need to be expressive. Its good for the soul. I feel that I always felt that when I write things down it is not personal any more and there is a great chance that someone may read it and laugh. I don't know, when my sisters and I were younger we all had diaries. I wrote letters to myself at the end of every year. But I would read the one from the year before to see if I had accomplished any of the goals that I wrote. With time this habit broke because of the changes that comes with responsibilities. I remember now how good it felt to thick off my accomplished goals. This helped me to accomplish so many things.
c. What changes will you make to ensure you continue your self-learning and self-development in the future?
I plan to start a journal of some sort. I will put it on a drive and write about issues that affect me. The ministry offers self-development programmes every August, I will try to go to at least two every vacation. The benefit about those programmes you get a certificate at the end of the programme which can be added to your resume.