Be a Lifelong Reflective Educator

Teachers are busy people whether you work in the virtual world, traditional classrooms, or both. Many instructors are also researchers and writers, not to mention having family and personal responsibilities. However, no matter the size of your "to do" list, each day requires teachers to be involved in learning - about their profession, themselves, and of course, their students.

My encouragement is for you to remain a lifelong reflective practitioner. Consider using Microsoft One Note, Evernote on your mobile device or tablet, an online private blog, or even a paper notebook.

You can assess where you are in your thinking or on your own learning continuum. You can resolve issues which are confusing or note teaching ideas or tools which did or did not work. You can also choose to share individual entries with departments or trusted colleagues, a move which extends the learning even further. You don't need to wait for an administrator to create a professional learning community and hand out assignments. Create your own and include other educators with similar questions.

Some Suggestions

Self-Evaluation: This is the chance to slow down and take your teaching pulse, checking in on your own success or failure, and resetting goals as needed.

Anecdotal Data Analysis: While schools remain, of necessity, data-driven, your own collection of anecdotal data is a powerful tool. Such things as how many students did better on a test after one teaching session as opposed to another student's lack of success would bear analysis so you can glean the best of what worked for the next time. Have you ever removed a test grade because 80% of your students failed it, then retaught the concepts and retested? That's educated reflection.

Problem-solving: This approach provides an opportunity to think through a teaching issue in a methodical fashion. It is the traditional approach:

1. Identify the problem
2. Generate the solutions
3. Evaluate solutions
4. Design a plan
5. Implement the plan
6. Evaluate the results

Portfolio: This is a collection of evidence of how your teaching has grown over the course of a year. The contents are determined by you, but should be reflective of every aspect of your current position, including expectations and outcomes. This compilation becomes an invaluable tool to promote ongoing success and prevent future failures.

Practice: Choose one of the many interesting technology tools you have been eyeing and while working with it, make notes, maybe even within the tool itself. See how it might enhance your teaching, but then save what you've made as a reference point. Come back to it and explore even more capabilities at some future time. Set a work date for yourself!

Content Curation: Many tools are available to gather all those interesting ideas and articles for a future read while you grab lunch at your computer screen. This is reflective work at its strongest in virtual education. You need to remain current. Do some searching through Scoop-It, Symbaloo, Educlipper, or Pinterest for relative content, then move the information into your own account for future reference.

Daily Reflective Writings: The prompt can be as simple as "What did I learn today?" The question is one we often encourage our students to ask of themselves, so what better way to role model that positive expectation than to honestly tell your students you do it too? What effect would it have to open an online teaching session with "I want to tell you what I learned today?"

May this compilation of alphabetic messages be a reminder of what each educator brings to the virtual teaching venue. It is my hope the content has given you ongoing food for thought. With your continued dedication, professionalism, and open-minded pioneer spirit, you are writing the newest and most innovative chapter in the revolution of worldwide education. You are embracing the change!