This has been crossposted over at Leadertalk.
Well, I’m been doing a great deal of writing on my own reflecting and how it has affected my view on the various roles that I have within my school and my life. Now, as an ADHD person, I often have a hard time reflecting – my mind tends to wander quite alot so I have to really focus. However, once I begin to reflect, it can be a very intense experience as I become completely involved in what I am doing. Because I’m very interested in how this can be used in my professional and personal life, it is not hard for me to get into it. For anyone who has experienced this type of focus, I especially find it true when playing a video game, it is like you totally enter the experience.
Now, I began this reflection on my career after doing an administrator evaluation with my staff. From this, my supervisor and I sat down and identified some key areas that needed to be addressed. We also discussed various ways that I might work through this and both came up with the idea of a reflective journal.
Now, as an administrator, I’ve kept a journal of daily events for some years now. I record the days events, especially when I have to meet with a parent, student or teacher. Now, one of the things that I have worked on over time is to develop a neutral voice when making my recordings. A neutral voice means that I don’t include judgements or comments. I work very hard to stick to facts, the events and the outcomes. Now, one cannot be totally impartial when recording events that one is taking part in but I have found that by removing such things like “She was very angry”, “He was afraid” and “He said sarcastically” with more neutral observations or noting it that this was my own observation – “From my perspective, she appeared to become angry with this suggestion.” I have been better able to record a situation fairly accurately. Of course, this was not something I learned in a class but learned “on the job.” Now, this has served me well when I’ve had a situation that lasts for a period of time and I need to review what has taken place.
My reflective journal has been a bit different. In it I do almost the opposite of my school day journal. I record my perceptions of what takes place and my reactions to the situations. I started doing this three weeks before the Easter break. I don’t write everyday. In fact, because it is reflective, a bit of time allows me to reflect on what has taken place and the outcomes. It gives me time to get perspective on what is transpiring and look at things from variuos perspectives.
Having done this for just a couple of weeks, I’ve notice a few things about how I react, interact and do things that have an affect which is not necessarily positive. With this information in mind, I have blogged about my experiences and received some great comments and suggestions. This, in turn, has expanded my options for how I might deal with a given situation. Thus, by combining my reflections with my blogging, I have increased the opportunities I have for an effective way to address the situation. Four months ago I could not have done this because my world was limited to the administrators in my division. But that’s a whole other topic!
When I began my career as an administrator, I’d visit such sites as Education World to see what other administrators had to say about being an effective administrator. I remember reading how administrators would comment about “taking time to reflect”, “spending time reflecting”, “Going for a walk around campus to reflect” and wondering “Where do they find time to reflect?” As someone new, I didn’t see how reflecting about what I did would really improve what was happening. I mean, there was so much to do and so many new things to learn and do that, by the time I was ready for reflection, I was asleep!
Now, however, I see that these veteran administrators were very wise. (Imagine that!) They realized that the “busy” would always be there but there was a need to create time to reflect on the day and its events. So, with this in mind, I began my journal. It began very slowly as I recorded much the same way as my “Today’s Events” journal. However, it wasn’t long before I realized that this need to record my emotions, reactions and interactions so that I could honestly reflect on the situation and improve.
In three weeks I’ve already noticed a difference. First, I am much more aware of each interaction and the affect it can have on people, especially students. I am cognizant that each student is arriving at school already having a number of issues on their plates, even my own kids! I have also realized that I must listen to the stories of the people who are talking to me. This became clear to me as I began to work through the chasm that has developed between a group of students in our school and the staff, especially me. I must be honest and grateful to this group since it was this distance that prompted a parent to write a note to my superintendent that prompted the administrative review that resulted in the reflective journal which made me realize that I need to do more listening to this group. I also realized that I need to be positive and open with all the staff. I have some staff who have been in the building for many years and they don’t always see my suggestions as being positive or necessary. Instead of reacting, I know that I need to ask more questions and listen to what they have to say to me if I hope to get them using the technology more.
Now, I’ve been doing a great amount of reflecting, not only in my professional life, but also in my personal life. I’ve made a few decisions that have had a powerful positive impact on my life in just a short period of time. Such things as being willing to delegate to someone else and then have them inform me through updates and emails, handing a few chairperson situations to other members while still staying on the committee and dedicating time each day to spend time with the students away from my office all have allowed me to focus on areas that are my passions. It was a combination of the information from my administrative review and my reflections that made me realize that I needed to do a few things very well and then decide what they needed to be.
I realize, now, that it is important for someone in the unique position of administrator, to take the time to reflect. I haven’t been an administrator for very long, this is my 5th year, but I have learned so much about doing things differentl. I’ve come to recognize that change, once something that people endured, is now what people must expect. As administrator I need to develop a way to screen and then incorporate those changes that will benefit our school and the teachers. For me, reflection, combined with blogging, has become a powerful combination that allows me to evaluate the workings of my day-to-day world and then get feedback from a group of working experts. To me, that’s powerful evolution!
