Reflection and Renewal
Newsletter
This week we focus on the process of reflection and renewal.
In my post on Monday, I shared how my experience staying home with a sick child gave me the mental space to think more deeply about work and life.
That post was in response to a Margaret Wheatley article, titled “Can We Create Time to Think?”
When we give kids time to reflect, they can also better process information and make new connections. Consider Kidblog as one digital tool for this purpose.
When reading fiction, people sometimes “take up residence” with the characters which can bring about change in their lives. This phrase comes from research by Dr. Gay Ivey and Dr. Peter Johnston on reading engagement, available here.
This topic reminds me of a change we made to the after school study club at my former school, devoting more time to independent reading and thinking. You can read a description of our renewal here on the Stenhouse Blog.
I also wrote on our blog recently about reflecting on our choices to help us understand our beliefs and values (available here).
In addition, I humbly suggested in this post to rethink D.E.A.R. in the classroom: Drop Everything and Reflect.
Today, I shared my thoughts on embracing the leader/coach paradox, noting the promise these seemingly opposites might hold when working together.
This post is partially in response to an Educational Leadership article by Laura Lipton and Bruce Wellman, “How to Talk So Teachers Listen” ($).
Dana Murphy, a contributor to the blog, wrote an article regarding coaching work as it relates to curriculum and assessment.