Rest, reflect, and respond

Over the past couple of months, my blog has suffered since I began teaching. Although I believe reflection, evaluation, and reform are important assets in becoming an effective teacher in the classroom, I have not regularly done so outside the classroom to improve my general teaching philosophy. Since mid-August, I have improved the quality of my lesson plans. In sixteen weeks, I have transformed my approach to assessments. After three-quarters of a semester, I have developed routines, established classroom expectations, and forged positive relationships. However, I have not stopped to rest, reflect, and respond.

Here is my chance.

Teaching is a lifestyle. As a student in high school, I was oblivious to the demands of my teachers. I knew lesson planning and grading were involved, but I had no idea how long both of those tasks took. While I believe my graduate program prepared me well to enter a teaching career, I misgauged the level of work done by a first-year teacher. I wonder whether education programs should have prospective teachers shadow first-year or second-year teachers to give them a healthy, although not toxic, dose of reality. Any thoughts out there? Teaching is real. Teaching changes lives.

On a different note, the blogs of many colleagues have rejuvenated my recommitment to instructional technology. In the coming months, I hope to continue to document the use of Web 2.0 in my classroom and my ever-changing perspective on an array of issues related to education and technology.

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Image Citations:

Danko, P. (7 August 2008). New office chair. Patrick Danko's Photostream. Retrieved on December 2, 2008, from http://flickr.com/photos/patrickdanko/2742450279/