Reflection and Renewal
Newsletter
This week we step back and search for new perspectives with our current reality.
Recommended Reading and Resources
In this article, I reflected on how the pandemic has helped me rethink my need to fix things in my role as a literacy leader.
Educational authors Art Costa, Bena Kallick, and Allison Zmuda share their personal reflective journaling (Learning Personalized).
Joe Pinsker (The Atlantic) interviews several people about 2020, asking the question, “will we see past all the things that didn’t happen?”
Meaningful Reflection: A Practical Approach by Cathryn Berger Kaye (Principal Leadership).
Leading Change When the World Won’t
For one year now, I have engaged in written reflection via bullet journaling. I document my days, self-assess my actions, and sometimes set up learning sprints to develop a new skill or habit that will help me achieve my personal goals.
What have I learned? While reflection is key to understanding how I spend my time, it means nothing if I do not act upon this knowledge and make changes that might lead to more desired ends.
This is harder than it appears. Making a change involves examining an ineffective belief that is at the root of a poor action or habit. It means acknowledging past thinking is not adequate for the current situation.
As an example, this year I needed to think differently about what I ate and drank. My diet was…less than healthy (see: doughnuts, beer, etc.). To believe something new, I had to confront my ego and my identity as a knowledgable individual, which would prefer I engage in the status quo. Yet through awareness and action, helped by my habit of reflection, I was able to improve.
Changing others is more difficult. For instance, a school board in a small rural school district in Idaho recently voted down a mandate that all students and staff wear masks. They made this decision in spite of the overwhelming evidence that masks work. Such a simple intervention. Yet the change seemed to conflict with some board members’, parents’ and students’ identities as “rough and tough”.
In these situations, I am reminded of a quote from Victor Frankl, psychologist and Holocaust survivor, in his book Man’s Search for Meaning (p. 112):
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
The superintendent in the Idaho school district, Ryan Contrell, is choosing to wear a mask in school. Will he change others? Maybe. His actions, just like ours, create a space for others to reflect and renew. Our visible choices can serve as permission to people to also behave differently. We then expand the rules for what is acceptable in our culture.
In other words, taking responsibility for ourselves can influence those around us.
What resonated with you here? Share in the comments. Also, next month I will be hosting the second of three Educators as Writers sessions for full subscribers. It is an opportunity to get feedback on your professional writing and engage with a community of reflective practitioners. Subscribe today!