Tuesday, December 14, 2021
TWIG Contributor Patti Wiseman Adams
On December 14, 2021 we met for last time in 2021. TWIG has decided to use the start of the new year as an opportunity to put one of our central principles into action as a professional learning community and reflect on our work over the last few years to move us forward.
Educators will not be unfamiliar with the word "reflection." In many cases, reflection has been added to educational buzz words often with a section in trade books and educational articles. Hallelujah! Thirty years ago when I entered into education, there was very little being discussed concerning reflection as a part of a teacher's practice or a tool to assist students in their process of learning. As a group, TWIG embraces the power of reflection, both in our personal and professional lives.
The essential question for our last gathering ("How does reflection sustain and promote a culture of argument?") had been shared with participants prior to our meeting. That night I took a moment to appreciate the faces I saw inhabiting the virtual Zoom boxes, many with a week more until the start of the winter break. For those that are not educators, this might be lost on you unless you think of a roomful of sugar infused little or adolescent people ready for two weeks off and the promise of snow and presents in the air. The weariness of the second year of teaching in a pandemic evident on many of these kind, exhausted faces. Each willing to carve space on a Tuesday evening to share their expertise and curiosity to meet together to discuss possibilities and identify small bite-sized changes in hopes of those growing our craft.
Each "Tuesdays with TWIG" meeting not only changes based on the question we are exploring, but by the various voices brought by the people in those little Zoom boxes. Different experiences, backgrounds, and areas of expertise, the group is guided by rituals, norms, and routines that allow us to slip into a comfortable learning community ready to spend an hour of our valuable time together in fellowship in a space created for this purpose.
Reflection's importance in the educational realm isn't in question. Even the Danielson Framework, the assessment used by many schools to evaluate teacher performance, has reflection in Domain 4. But one must ask how is reflection viewed in the context of education? In many cases, it is thinking back on what a teacher has done, flushing out the pro/cons, then identifying how it could be improved next time. Rinse and repeat. Looking back. Moving on.
Sure we are analyzing and evaluating to bring Bloom into the conversation, but what about the synthesizing or making something new from the knowledge gained in the reflection? How do we use reflection to move forward? In TWIG, we often look through the lens of the writing process or modes of writing in order to have a frame of reference common to participants when taking a deep dive into topics such as this. In understanding not only our process, but the mode of what is being created we are able to really tap into the nuances reflection offers us as a community of thinkers. Alone it is powerful, but in relation to a collective, all trying to grapple with a common question, the power of the collective allows us the rare opportunity to pull from one another's experience, ask questions, and weigh those aspects in relation to our own thinking. Mic drop.
From a writer's perspective, I think of this as revision and editing on steroids. What I am sure about is that teaching can be very isolating when you close the door to take those carefully laid plans and present them to your students. Then, before you know it, you have taught a hundred carefully planned lessons with very few opportunities to reflect.
The same is true for students. Often due to time, reflection is rushed or skipped. I have often not used one the greatest tools in my teaching arsenal...A collective experience that my students can use to not only look back, but to look forward to the next learning experience. To use reflection to influence what comes next or even more importantly to help students have a voice in what comes next individually and as a class. I have had that magic in a bottle a few times, however as much as I wish I could say it is a regular occurrence, that would not be honest. This is something I need to address, but it will be a work in progress. One change I plan to make is that I am going to be more mindful of how I can make reflection more of a forward thinking process that does not end with a glance backwards.
As TWIG branches out...we will continue discussing what young writers need to be successful and how those who teach them can create instruction that does that work. We invite you to join us for our first meeting of 2022 on February 8th. For more information you can check us out at twig.fun.
