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Scholarship
March 29, 2017
A Teacher’s Reflection Book: Exercises, Stories, Invitations
- Author
- Peters, Jean Koh, and Weisberg, Mark
- Publisher
- Carolina Academic Press, Durham, NC
- ISBN
- 9781594609428
- Book Review Link
- http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/teth.12090/abstract
- Table of Contents
-
Foreword
Preface
Gratitudes
ch. 1 How Does a Teacher Say Hello?
I. A Look at Several First Classes II. Exercises to Focus on Hello
II. Exercises to Focus on Hello
A. What Is the First Experience Students Have in Your Course? What Is Their First Experience in Class?
B. What Are the Dispositions of Your Classroom?
C. Fast Forward Through the Semester You’re about to Start
D. Consider “Entrainment” and the Rhythms of Your Semester
E. Think about Hellos in Popular Culture
F. How Will You Deal with Fluctuating Student Attendance During “Shopping Periods”?
G. What Will Be the Role of Technology in Your Classroom, and Will You Make Space to Express That in Your Hello?
H. Will You Know Your Students’ Names?
I. How Will You Handle Your Announcements?
J. As You Begin, How Do You Want the Central Ideas of the Course to Emerge?
K. Consider Generating Ideas by Using Beginning Rituals in Other Settings
III. Final Thoughts about Hello
IV. Conclusion Notes
ch. 2 Reflection: What It Is and How to Practice It
I. Introduction: A Reflection on the Need for Reflection
II. Essential Elements of Reflection—What Makes Reflection Work for You?
A. Identify Meaningful Elements of Reflection That Uniquely Suit Your Needs
B. Three Recommended Elements of Reflection: Starting Focal Point, Experience, Non-judgment
1. A Starting Focal Point
2. Experience
3. Non-judgment
III. A Session of Reflection: The Individual Reflection Event
A. Individual Reflection Event: The Retreat Model
B. Examples of Individual Reflection Events
1. Reflection Event — With a Group, at Our Retreat
2. Reflection Event — Alone, at a Conference, Further Reflected Upon Alone, after the Conference
IV. What a Practice of Mindful Reflection Might Look Like
A. The Spirit of Mindful Reflection — A Practice, Not a Habit
B. The Structure of Mindful Reflection — Useful Strategies
C. Additional Suggestions for Developing a Reflection Practice
1. Downshifting, Making the Transition
2. Giving Oneself Permission
3. Dealing with Technology and Time
D. Creating Conditions for Reflection
V. Conclusion
Notes
ch. 3 Experiments in Listening
I. Looking Retrospectively at Your Experiences of Listening
A. Ask Analytical or General Questions about Your Listening
1. Ten Freewriting/Brainstorming Prompts
2. Explore Your Listening on a Doubting and Believing Spectrum
B. Explore Critical Incidents from the Past
1. High Points and Low Points as a Listener
2. Profile of the Three Best Listeners I Know
3. High Points and Low Points as a Person Being Listened To
II. Looking Prospectively: Analyzing Your Listening for New Insights
A. Collect New Data
B. Experiment with Your Listening
1. Use the Doubting-Believing Spectrum: Two Variants
2. Wait Five Seconds before Responding
3. Don’t Offer Advice
4. Listen with Your Hands Occupied
5. Practice Non-judgment
6. Try a Group Exercise
ch. 4 Who Are Our Students, and How and What Do They Learn in Our Classrooms?
I. Who Were We as Students: Our Best/Worst Moments as Students
II. Student Voices
III. A Culture of Fear and Its Consequences
A. Three Classrooms, Three Nightmare Scenarios
IV. What Can We Do to Facilitate Learning?
A. Teach Non-judgmentally/Teach Non-judgment
B. Discern the Gift, Not the Gifted
C. Use Midstream, or Formative, Assessment
D. Anticipate Difficult Incidents
E. Take One More Minute
F. Trust Ourselves
V. Conclusion
Notes
ch. 5 The Teacher and Vocation
I. Discovering Vocation
A. UnderstandingVocation
B. FindingYourVocation:FourExercises
1. Write Your Obituary
2. Find and Explore a Governing Metaphor
3. Compose a Job Description
4. Visit or Write Your Future Self
C. A Life Lived in Vocation: Implications
II. Nurturing Vocation in Ordinary Times: Two Sets of Processes You Can Trust
A. Internal Processes You Can Trust
B. ExternalProcessesYouCanTrust
III. Some Elements of a Teacher’s Vocation
A. Writing
B. ClassroomTeaching
IV. Conclusion
Notes
ch. 6 How Does a Teacher Say Goodbye?
I. Introduction
II. Invitations for Thinking about Goodbye
III. Ideas for Last Classes/Meetings
A. A Closing Circle
B. Completing the Circle
C. Jean’s Goodbye and Coupon
D. Postcards and Silent Witness
IV. Goodbye: A Unique Moment of Reflection
V. Conclusion
Notes
Appendix • Resources for Reflecting
About the Authors
Index
In university teachers’ hectic lives, finding space to reflect, restore, renew, and recommit can seem impossible. Jean Koh Peters and Mark Weisberg believe regular reflection is critical and have designed A Teacher’s Reflection Book to help teachers and other professionals find that space. Growing out of the authors’ extensive experience facilitating retreats and leading teaching and learning workshops, the book builds on their discoveries in those settings, supporting and promoting teachers’ self-directed development.
Inviting that development, A Teacher’s Reflection Book is a cornucopia of stories, exercises, and examples that will inspire teachers to make reflection a cornerstone of their daily lives. With its multiple suggestions and strategies, it offers something for every reader, and is responsive to teachers’ needs at all stages of their careers.
The book’s six chapters offer readers several perspectives from which to reflect. Some sections offer glimpses of teachers in the midst of their daily teaching lives, while others step away, inviting readers to reflect on what it means to have a vocation as a teacher.
The book explores how we listen, a crucial yet rarely taught skill, essential for reflecting, as well as for learning and teaching. And it invites teachers to reflect on their students: who they are, and what and how they learn. For those latter reflections, the authors turn the focus on fear, which so pervades university life and which can distort learners’ and teachers’ perspectives and responses. Throughout this book, readers will visit several classrooms and listen to the evocative voices of several thoughtful students. (From the Publisher)
Inviting that development, A Teacher’s Reflection Book is a cornucopia of stories, exercises, and examples that will inspire teachers to make reflection a cornerstone of their daily lives. With its multiple suggestions and strategies, it offers something for every reader, and is responsive to teachers’ needs at all stages of their careers.
The book’s six chapters offer readers several perspectives from which to reflect. Some sections offer glimpses of teachers in the midst of their daily teaching lives, while others step away, inviting readers to reflect on what it means to have a vocation as a teacher.
The book explores how we listen, a crucial yet rarely taught skill, essential for reflecting, as well as for learning and teaching. And it invites teachers to reflect on their students: who they are, and what and how they learn. For those latter reflections, the authors turn the focus on fear, which so pervades university life and which can distort learners’ and teachers’ perspectives and responses. Throughout this book, readers will visit several classrooms and listen to the evocative voices of several thoughtful students. (From the Publisher)