Pause, Reflect, and Give Thanks

From Phil: Reflecting Our Priorities

Thanksgiving Day is an interesting concept.  Certainly, it means different things to everybody, but the basic idea is that we stop our normal routine and take time to reflect on all of the things for which we are grateful.

Ideally, we would be introspective about all the good things in our life on a continual basis.  The reality is that life is busy.  As Stephan Covey says, we tend to dwell on the urgent at the expense of the important.

So a day like Thanksgiving comes along, and because it is structured and built into our school and national calendar, we take time to pause and, if all goes as planned, reflect on and give thanks for all the good in our lives and in our world.

Without the day set aside, we may or may not be so intentional about our thinking.  The structure of the day allows us the time away from routines to be thoughtful—and to be thankful.

Oh No, Here He Goes Again…

I recognize I’m taking a risk by using even a national holiday to make a point about education.  But there is a connection that is worth noting, and this is, after all, a blog about Teaching and Learning.  Hang in there with me because I do think we can be thankful for Thanksgiving Day, but our experience of the day can also inform teaching and learning. 

So pretend it’s the Thanksgiving turkey and dig in and take another look at the HSE²¹ Best-Practice Model.

We haven’t talked much about the purple circle of “Reflection,” but if you look again, you will see it is there.  It is the piece that binds all four quadrants together.  The educational research is rich about the positive effects of taking time to reflect before, during, and after learning.  When students take time to reflect on what they have already learned, where they are in the learning process, and what their next steps should be, learning, engagement, and retention increases dramatically.

The same is true for teachers.  When teachers take time to reflect on their lessons, to examine student work, and to consider what went well and where the lesson could improve, future lessons (and therefore student learning) increases.  Even better, when teachers take time together to reflect and plan next steps, the effect size is even greater.

Structured Reflection

We know some things about ourselves and about our students.  We know, for example, that spending time with family and friends and enjoying each other’s company doesn’t always happen without some kind of intentional structure, so a day like Thanksgiving is important.  We also know that students taking time to pause and reflect is not likely to happen unless we provide the structure for this to take place.

Similarly, we absolutely need structures for ourselves as educators to do the same.  We need time to pause and reflect on what and how we are teaching, to see the connections between what we and others are doing, and to work together to create both the goals and the plans to reach those goals.

Life, both in and out of school, is incredibly busy.  We might be tempted to say we can’t afford to take time needed to pause and reflect.  Another argument could be made, however, that because of the incredible hustle and bustle of life, we can’t afford not to.

Take a Break

Thank you, HSE, for all you do.  Thank you for your dedication to your students and to our profession.  We hope you take time over this short break to reflect on all you have to be thankful for, and we hope you come back energized and ready for the push to Winter Break.

Respond to Phil at plederach@hse.k12.in.us

Your HSE Teaching and Learning Team

• Jan Combs, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning
• Stephanie Loane, Director of Elementary Education
• Tom Bell, Director of Special Education
• Jeff Harrison, Director of Educational Technology
• Phil Lederach, Director of Secondary Education