Being a Reflective Teacher

As informative as this article is, it’s hard for me not to question its obviousness. Perhaps that’s because of how dated it is – I think we are much more conscious thinkers now especially in the teaching profession (new teachers). I do think one important point the article brought up was ensuring that you assess and reflect on your own beliefs and preconceived notions, which is not something I had previously thought of. I agree that it is extremely important to critically think about yourself and reflect on how some aspects of your self you may bring with you into your classroom that can adversely affect the direct and indirect curriculum being taught. 

This article also made me reflect on another aspect of teaching – the school system. It stressed open-mindedness, responsibility and wholeheartedness but something it did not consider is the environment that surrounds an individual, specifically in this case a teacher. We can’t fly with clipped wings. So often teachers are asked to constantly review their teaching, assessment, methods of instruction, amongst so many other things but I feel like not enough attention is paid to the system in which we exist. I’m not a teacher yet, but I don’t think you have to be to see all the things teachers have to work against in the education system. I’m not sure that you can reform a single (important) aspect of a machine, and make the machine do something completely different. At some point, you might have to change the machine. There’s a lot that can be said on this topic – however I will say we should contribute positively to the things we can change.