Formal Reflection #3

My blog has been a bit silent today, but fear not -- I've been thinking and writing! Most of the day I've spent on my Action Research Project, and I'm feeling pretty good that I have a solid draft going into tomorrow. I'll need to formalize my Works Cited and internal citations and also want to talk to Kathleen about my Implementation and Data sections, but I think I'll only have small changes to make.

I was reflecting last night on this work and it's importance. There are a LOT of inspiring teachers at this institute with a LOT of inspiring stories to tell. Despite my generally reserved countenance, every time Don gives us a peak into the work he is doing with his students makes me want to leap out of my chair and say, "I want to do that!" And I think that when I first arrived at the institute -- or really whenever I embark on a new professional learning opportunity -- I tend to be on the hunt for a magic bullet that will take me from my practice to teaching that is really worth sharing. I am, in a word, impatient. I feel very strongly that my kids deserve the best -- because they're the best. And it can be disheartening to know that there are other teachers out there doing great things that my students aren't experiencing.

But I've got to learn to slow down. Just as I don't expect my students to become award-winning authors overnight, I can't expect in the five years I've been teaching to be the best I'm going to be. What's important is that I'm getting better. And even more important that my team is getting better. I think that the work I've done here pushes us a little bit further in our current direction. This last spring our school experienced quite the kerfuffle over the enforcement of our dress code. Many parents showed up at a town meeting wanting blood. They painted a pretty negative picture of our school, and it made many of my wonderful colleagues feel as though they weren't valued by the community. While there was a lot of hurt, however, it was also a wake up call -- we need to let the community know about the great things we are doing. Part of that, I think, is demonstrating that we have scholarly research to back up what we are doing in our classrooms. Next year, our team will be doing a lot of new things and my guess is we'll get some challenges from administrators and parents. The work that I've done here will help provide a research-based rationale for what we're doing as well as give us a tool to determine if what we've been doing is successful or not. Should we be challenged, we'll have those items to fall back on -- a safety net of kinds.

So while I didn't necessarily find a magic bullet or even a silver bullet, I did find a bullet. And it's kinda shiny. (Then again, maybe I'd better find a better metaphor...)