Taking some time out this afternoon led me to several posts on reflecting! First of all I had Jeff Utecht’s ‘The Thinking Stick‘ lead me to David Hamilton’s ‘Principally Yours‘ which led me to Andrew Torris’s ‘Sentiments on Common Sense‘. After reading and leaving comments on these posts I thought I might take some time to write about reflection myself.

It is undoubtedly something we should do more of, but what is it exactly? Am I reflecting now? Do I need the lights off to do it properly? Should others be here with me? I suppose everyone reflects differently when they give themselves permission to do so but as a parent, teacher, student and coach, how do you find the time to give yourself that permission and how much time should be allowed. Every day I give myself time for lunch, I make time to read with my eldest daughter and have a bike ride with my youngest when weather permits…so when should I schedule in this reflection time?

At the end of most conferences and P.D. sessions I have attended over the years, there is often a reflection sheet given out at the end. Most of the time you know it is coming and depending on how good or bad the sessions have been you sometimes plan a couple of things you would like to have included. However more often that not this reflection time is coinciding with ‘must catch the bus time/go to the loo time/check e mail time and so I don’t think at the end of something is the right time for me to do my reflecting.

Perhaps a better strategy on those days would be to have a reflection session at the start of the day. A workshop held at S.A.S. that I did enjoy was run by Dr Frances Hensley and was about the use of Critical Friends protocols. I liked this workshop because it was run with plenty of time for pausing and reflecting. You were forced to slow down and sometimes it takes someone factoring down-time into a day before you will actually do anything about it. Frances also did not allow us to have our lap-tops open…for me, that was crucial. I know right now this is counted as reflection time but generally when I have my lap-top open, it is more ‘ten-tabs-open-at-once’ kind of manic catch up time.

My main concern with the crazy pace in which I usually live my life is that this is what my daughters see, this is what my students see. We are always in a hurry. I don’t want them to feel rushed like this and yet this is what I am modeling for them day after day. If I were to practice what I preach then I would be conducting my business at a much slower pace. Instead from when the alarm goes off until when I settle my kids to sleep, they hear words like ‘hurry, come on, quickly, are you ready yet? etc…My students also contend with ‘quick, pack up, hurry up, don’t be late, get a move on’ from when they arrive in class to when they are dismissed for the bus. Philosophically this really grates on me and yet that is the way I have been conditioned and therefore that is what I am passing on to the children under my care.

I am going to try and slow down. I am going to try and take more time to reflect. How about you?