WHEN YOU REFLECT ARE YOU ALSO BEING REFLEXIVE?

Teaching, researching and leading in the classroom and school community is largely an intuitive action. However, it can also be seen as scripted to some extent. Educators have plans that they first visualize and then attempt to predict on paper what may happen in the teaching environment. Planning in any manner requires a person to see within the mind’s eye. Once detailed on paper the teaching act usually follows and that is when unpredictability and reflection surfaces. In my class, this surfacing often occurs in the midst of acting, and I think about what has just happened in a cognitive sense. It seems to be a means to monitor oneself as life unfolds. You sense, comprehend and process the events in a millisecond. It is systematic, even habitual in education. I mull over my thoughts, I reflect on my actions. The instant I speak or move; these actions are followed by feedback from my senses. My muscles deliver kinesthetic information and my evaluative thoughts of myself are weighed immediately. I hear myself speak and judge my word choice and tone. The feedback loops are numerous and if you attend to each you are in a position to make adjustments. But, why do this? I did this because I was, like most educators, interested in improving (which means alterin