Inspiration for creation happens in unexpected moments. A case-in-point would be this blog post. Last week while shaving, my wife’s make-up
mirror was serendipitously aligned with the mirror over our sink and the mirror
that is on the wall adjacent to it. The
image that formed was of me from the side and slightly from the back. I was momentarily startled by the way I
looked from this angle, which was unique to me.
My first instinct was to shift the mirror in such a way so that I didn’t
have to see the poor posture of this aging fellow, which was me. I reflected on this reflection (pun intended
here) and I realized how ridiculous that impulse was. This was an angle of my true self, which
everyone else is quite accustomed to seeing.
In this moment of revelation, I shifted my focus from avoidance, to
really looking at my posture. A slight
shift in my shoulder position and the image improved dramatically. In fact, my neck even felt better. This experience sent my mind down the path of
how this tendency to avoid reflection on our true self interferes with our
ability to grow as educators.
With this tendency to avoid discomfort in mind, what are some small steps
educators can take to begin leaning into self-reflection?
1)
Listen to audio recordings of yourself. I still remember being a kid and listening to
my voice on a tape recorder for the first time.
I was convinced that there was something wrong with the machine because
of the strange way my voice sounded when I played it back. It took a great deal of convincing from my
mother and friends that this was truly the way I sounded. With the availability of voice recording on
our electronic devices, capturing your own voice is easier than ever before. My favorite go-to app for ongoing
asynchronous conversation and collaboration is Voxer. A side benefit of Voxer is that it allows you
to listen to your own dialogue. For me,
I was struck by the number of conversational tics that were embedded in my
messages. With that in mind, I am
working to reduce the number of times I say “umm” and other repetitive,
distracting language.
2)
Watch
yourself on video. If you are looking to really grow in a reflective way,
hit the record button and sit back with a bucket of popcorn and watch yourself
do the magic! I suspect that the first
time you do this, it won’t feel very magical.
I have a painful memory of the first time I watched myself on
video. It was back in the mid 1990’s when
the district I was working in made the shift to portfolio assessments for
evaluation purposes. One of the
expectations for the portfolio was to include video recordings of three lessons
and a written reflection for each. So I fired up the 40 pound VHS camera and
captured my first lesson. Awkward! If listening to your conversational tics is
disheartening, watching one’s body language and movements is even more of a
challenge. I was humbled, yet driven to
do better.
More recently, my experience into using video
was posting reflections on Twitter to #EduIn30 hashtag. I attended a conference where I had the
privilege of seeing George Couros. George
is the author of the best-selling book, Innovators Mindset: Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity. George challenged the audience to begin capturing short
video reflections of our professional learning and posting them to Twitter
using the hashtag #EduIn30. It is a
challenge to distill “big” learning into a 30 second clip. Much like Voxer, this provided the side
benefit of listening as well as watching myself communicate when I viewed the
video. It takes some serious courage to
tweet these out, knowing that your thinking is now visible to a global
audience. Courage comes in many forms!
For teachers looking to challenge themselves
to grow through the use of video, check out the work of thought influencer Lisa
Westman. In her blog post, “Mom, Can You
Please Record Me?” Lisa deeply explores the why and how of leveraging video for
instructional reflection. (Click here to read the blog post)
3) Develop reflective partnerships. As
educators, we frequently find ourselves isolated in silos as we exercise our
professional practice. In the
principalship, this is especially true.
I frequently receive positive comments.
What I lack is the critical feedback that will lead to my growth. In an effort to combat this isolation, I have
established a small network of people who will speak the cold, hard true that I
need to hear. These folks range from
friends, colleagues, and family. They
all mentor, support and challenge me in different ways. My relationship with these individuals is
characterized by authenticity and vulnerability. They are trusted treasures both
professionally and personally. Have you
identified these folks in your life?
In a world that is dominated by the selfie, I believe it is
ever more challenging to embrace a mindset in which we see our true selves. We can edit our appearance and create stories
of our lives through social media that can greatly skew reality. I think that our integrity has been greatly
challenged by this. Until we are willing
to embrace the discomfort of seeing ourselves as we truly are, we are doomed to
stagnation in an imagined world that is only our perceived reality. I would love to hear about the reflective practices you
are involved in that are leading to your growth. Feel free to leave a comment!
