Reflective teaching, living, parenting

I wanted to do a few posts on some of my teaching practices/philosophies that have transferred to my parenting and helped me. In an effort not to talk 'at' you I am trying to make it a conversation - which is hard when I am the only one having it with imaginary you! 


Would you say you are reflective on what you do?  Being a reflective teacher helped me in so many ways from not getting into a teaching rut, or not over stressing about my abilities to help me be at peace with who I am as a teacher and how I do things in the class but also in life. 

The idea of being reflective transfers to my parenting nicely and I believe it has helped me accept the choices I have made and how I can move forward from bad days/ choices to be the best parent and person I can be. It seems we as a culture are always trying to obtain that 'perfect' in our life be it in parenting or otherwise. When I reflect on what I am doing I often find the balance that works for me and see the pitfalls of achieving someone else's ideals or an illusion of what is 'best practice' or dominant discourse in the North American Culture which I live in. 


So enough of that let me explain what works for me. At some point int he day I reflect, it used to be on my bus ride home as a teacher and now it is whilst I put Baby T to bed. I go over the great things that happened that day, the things I am proud of and excited to do again. I often think about how I can tweak whatever I did as a variation or experiment to see how it might go differently. Then I go over anything that happened that I might not feel so great about. More often then not it ends up being a guidance thing but sometimes it might be personal struggel. If I am stumped I will look up some resources to see what they say, talk to a colleague/ fellow mommy friend - knowledge is power right? I end with thoughts of how I foresee the next day going (positive thinking works wonders for me), what we have planned how I hope to do something different in hopes of improving our experiences. The whole process does not take me long maybe ten minutes or a half hour if I am looking into something. 

At the end of the day I am looking at what I am proud of and what I can improve for that day.  Above all if I take the time to see if my 'not so great' moments are huge issues to work out or not ones that won't effect myself or family in the long run. I don't let myself dwell on things and if I am not successful the next day I try again. It's not about getting things perfect, that is not possible in my opinion, but it's about accepting what happened, forgiving myself and moving forward thoughtfully. You are only human even if you are a teacher or parent so just look forward don't let a not so great moment become the status quo instead look past it and how you can be better - what ever better looks like to you.