Dewey, being a constructivist, understood well that real learning took place when people/students had the opportunities to reflect on their experiences. I agree with you on many fronts and specifically that it does take “work and practice” to be reflective. Being aware of our thinking, being shown how to do it through modeling, and then having a medium through which to collaborate and share will inevitably lead to more inquiry, increased dialogue with a purpose, and hopefully greater knowledge.

No small task, but at least we are thinking about the possibilities and wondering what it might look like for our students.

I look forward to more reflection and to reading your future posts.

I particularly enjoyed the way you explored the connections between the reflections we require of students, your reflections as an educator, and on the common purpose behind all of those varieties of reflection.

However, the blogging format is not just a vehicle for thoughtful personal reflection. As commenters on your blog, we’re all now engaging in a peer review and feedback process – another important assessment skill we try to instill in students. In fact, I feel that the most vibrant and interesting part of many blogs ends up being the comments section.

There are other parallels between the blog format and common school curricular concepts, but I’ll only draw one more and leave it at that: judging from the thoughtful effort which clearly went into every line of your post, the authentic nature of the task of publishing your thoughts for an audience around the world inspired you, yet another concept from the classroom.

I agree with you that blogs might seem absurd or self-aggrandizing at first, but the more I’ve been involved with them, the more I’ve found that they can be very powerful, flexible tools for several of the kinds of teaching and learning the IB program espouses – from reflection, to peer feedback, to the stages of the writing process, to porfolio assembly, and more.

Thanks for the enlightening post! It’s an exemplar of the benefits that educators (and students) can reap when they’re intellectually curious about _why_ they’re doing things. You’ve clearly taken the lessons of the TOK course out of the classroom and back to your administrator’s chair. I look forward to reading more of your reflections!

Welcome to the world of blogging. I have added you to my aggregator and will link my next post to your first. It is a beautiful piece of reflective writing and one that I think many people will use as a reference. Congratulations! You’re a web publisher.

As a Deputy Superintendent at Shanghai American School, I have encouraged my colleagues here to use a blog as a communications tool for their communities. My week here has been a crazy one, with all sorts of unpleasant happenings. I am in a bad place right now with time, but I plan on carving out some time to reflect this weekend anyway. I have to do so, and if anybody tells you that you are not being professionally enhanced by this process, they don’t know a thing about it! As my international education colleague Struan says above, it is about community and you just expanded yours to a whole different level.

I look forward to your next post.

Andy

Having just returned from the Learning 2.008 Conference in Shanghai (ask Justin), my biggest learning about blogging is that it is about COMMUNITY, not audience. When I first started blogging, I was very excited to see that people were responding… they were my audience.

After a while though, I have come to realize that the people that I really learn from (either through the blogosphere or in reality) are my community…. the people that I interact with each day. Justin Medved was a HUGE part of my community!!! Dennis Harter (who has also commented on your blog) is also a big part of my learning community. These people are the kind of people that good administrators surround themselves with- people who are thinkers, reflectors and are not afraid to share with us when we are making good decisions (and when we are making bad ones too!!).

You also allude to a great question- how to fit in this reflection in a day packed with classroom visits, meetings, administravia and all the other things that come across your office in a given day…. and I am not always sure there is a clear cut answer to that one. What I can tell you is that whether you blog, think, talk, go for a run… whatever…. teaching kids (and adults) to take that valuable time to reflect is truly a life-long skill and something we need to be doing in modeling life-long learning.

Looking forward to more of your blogs. I am sure Justin has already set you up with an RSS feeder.
David- you are working with truly one of the BEST in the business!!!

Struan Robertson
ES VP
International School Bangkok