Today I spoke with my school’s instructional coach for one hour. This was not a PLC as there was not student work on the table. It was a good old fashioned meeting. In discussing the PLC model for teacher collaboration I shared the story of my work on this blog and referred to it as my reflective practice piece. I discussed my “rules of engagement” for PLC’s. I added a fourth rule during a conversation. I completely left out Reflective Practise in my initial blog.
As I began the school year I sat and talked through my goals for improvement this year with my partner. Engaging in more formal and serious reflective practice was one area that I certainly needed to work on. After sitting through a session with David Warlick (2cents worth) I realized I was missing the boat with PLNs and Blogs. I went home that night signed up for Twitter and started my Blog. Reading other bloggers was just a by product and it has increased my current knowledge base big time. I read, I write, I share, I read, I write…it is incredible.
In Tim Holt’s-Do I Trust the System Enough he talks of writing a book online about the evolution of professional development and professional learning. He will use his blog to engage in the process of writing, editing and revising. I anxiously await some of his work. He raises the question of his work being “pinched.” During my reflective practise exercises I had not considered this possibility or problem. But his title intrigued me. I dissect the concept of Trust as I have stated and I wonder if I am simply being naive to this idea. I will not stop nonetheless. I think I am addicted. I haven’t felt this creative in some time.
And then I bought Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth. The concept is that we are not our thoughts of the past or of the future. We simply are a consciousness that generates these thoughts. The thoughts are not who we really are. Who we are is separate from our thoughts. In engaging in reflective practise, in putting into words my thoughts, am I defying his truth? My answer so far is no. I have put into writing my thoughts and thus separated from them entirely. Instead blogging has increased my awareness of who I am and why I do what I do everyday.
As a self proclaimed “good teacher” I realized that the one way I could make this practise and process a solid learning opportunity for me was to teach it to someone else. I did. My wife is now blogging and twittering her life and passion. Food, Kids, Career and Health. The investment I made in her learning only improved mine. And yes, we are both producing results. Blog stats are our latest bragging right.
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