I could blame Pete Hall, co-author of Building Teachers’ Capacity for Success: A Collaborative Approach for Coaches and School Leaders, or I could credit him with my new-found intrigue with personal reflection.  I read his books and was able to participate in three days of professional development with him throughout this past year. Both were transformational for me!   His quote of, “The more reflective you are, the more effective you are,” really made an impact!  This quote is ultimately why I started a personal reflection log, which then led me to encourage my new teachers to start reflecting, which also eventually led to me starting this blog.

This year, for the first time, one of the goals I had for my new teachers was to share a weekly reflection with me.  They could reflect on lessons, their instruction, relationships with students and colleagues, basically anything…. Too vague, right?  My reflections showed me that.  I have pondered quite a while on all of our notes to see if being reflective helped make us more effective, and I think it did!  Actually, I am amazed at the growth we made.  Yes, we!  In my reflections I was able to “see” how I refined my questioning skills, how I became more specific with my feedback, and also how I promoted the initiatives of the district.  I became more effective!  My end-of-the-year reflection now boils down to this:  Pete Hall was right!  The more reflective I was, the more effective I was!  Thanks, Pete!  

I can’t wait to read the end-of-the-year reflections of my teachers.  Hopefully, they also will determine that their reflections helped make them more effective.