I'm Talking to the Man, er, Woman in the Mirror . . .

Today was the dreaded picture day. It's no secret that I hate having my picture taken. My friends always tell me I will regret it someday when I look back with my kids and not have any pictures of myself to help them remember the old me. That's okay though, I know the tricks the camera plays - adding on 10 pounds, making my blemishes look bigger than they really are - and I'm not going to fall victim to them.

So why then do I love mirrors? I love taking a deep look at myself. When I look in a mirror, I see something only I can see. Everyone else's view is opposite of what I see in the mirror. That is my time to decide if I like the person staring back at me and if I decide I don't, then I need to figure out what changes need to be made.

Reflection journals are so important to teachers for the same reason. Students watch teachers all day long, but teachers often forget to examine their own teaching. Journaling enables me to become aware of what I do, how I do it and even why I do it.

Every year I start a new journal. Of course, at the beginning of the year I am so good at sitting down everyday and writing an entry, but by November it ends up being about once a week unless something noteworthy comes up.

During my first hectic year, I realized that at some point I had to stop blaming my anxiety on the kids. It wasn't that I had a bad class, it was that I wasn't using the right methods to get to them. Reflecting helps me get to the bottom of things.

Constructive criticism is sometimes hard to handle. I often find myself trying to defend myself when I know someone is just trying to offer up suggestions. With journaling, you have no one to face but yourself. You can leave your feelings and emotions out of it and just think about things.

Here are a few of the questions that I like to focus on when reflecting:
- What am I doing?
- Why am I doing it?
- How effective is it?
- How are the students responding?
- How can I do it better?

I also try to add in funny things my students said or even praise they gave me. That way when I am reading through my entries later on I can always end with a smile on my face. Happy journaling!