A bit of critical reflection

I was just reading reader 2 and the section on Kottcamp's idea of on-line and off-line engagement.

I like the idea of reflection in action. I use it during my workout classes; if my class are over exerting themselves I will perform a speech test (usually means I get them to whoop) and if they can't, I immediately know I have to make the next song a lot slower to give them a chance to get their breath back. Also it's the same for if I noticed they were finding the class too easy and weren't sweating I would make the next few songs killer! But essentially it's about recognising the needs of my class and acting on that and adapting immediately, rather than going home and thinking 'maybe that class was too easy/hard? ' because ultimately by then I may have lost a client due to them not enjoying my class.

After this section the reader asks for a few ideas I like and to do a bit of critical thinking on them. I may not be at my most critical at this time but I'll have a go and come back to it.

I like the idea that teachers are always learning new things every day from their students. When I challenged myself as to why, I thought maybe it was because I felt I hadn't learnt enough during college, and that saying teachers learn things every day is to really make me feel better about that. I do definitely learn things from my students, but if I'm honest not all the time. Maybe that's a reflection on me and I should pay more attention to each individual to see common errors and individual likes and dislikes in class, then I can make a really informed decision about which material I use for class.

Comments

  1. Unknown26 October 2015 at 05:23

    I've just read Reader 2 as well and feel quite similar to you. Every class I do i'm always taking something away from it. As teachers, I agree that reflection in action is really useful in classes. When I take pre-school gymnastics classes I often use this technique if their ability is better or worse than I thought. Will be interesting to start a journal and see if it improves classes

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    Replies
    1. Chrissie2 November 2015 at 05:29

      Yes it think it will be really interesting after we've done the journals to see how it affects our classes. I like the idea of relfection helping us towards constant progression as practitioners (in our case teachers) - in affect hopefully this means our classes will always continue to progress and develop if we continue to use reflection tools!

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