Self-Reflection: Becoming a Better Teacher

Koch wraps up with chapter 14 about professional development and self-reflection. I'd like to focus a little more on self reflection here, not because professional development isn't important, but rather because self-reflection is something that teachers forget to do and it's something I believe that should be done frequently. Just like students, they need to reflect on what they've just accomplished and completed to let their new knowledge settle in. Adults are the same. Teachers are the same. Reflections allow us to not only know ourselves a little better as teachers, as individuals, as scientists, or as any other roles, but it allows us to think about our students. It provides us the opportunity and time to settle down and think about what we learned about our students and their understanding and reasoning. What did they already know? What did they learn? What else can they learn? What part of the lesson impacted them most? What didn't impact them? And so forth. The list of question continues, and we must allow us that time to process our day in the classroom.

Koch provided a list of great questions to guide us that I'd like to include here:

1. In what ways am I providing opportunities for my students to explore natural phenomena?
2. How can I tell whether I am allowing my students enough time to complete their explorations?
3. How much of the time are my students engaged and voicing their own thinking?
4. How do I encourage students to ask questions?
5. In what ways do I act as a coach and facilitator to guide my students to find their own answers?
6. If students ask questions that we don't have time to explore on a particular day, how do I make sure they have an opportunity to find the answers later?
7. How do I incorporate technology for research, communication, and presentation into our science explorations?
8. How good am I at letting go of my prepared plan to respond to students' own ideas?
9. What assessment techniques do I use, and how do I know they give me a good insight into students' understanding?
10. Am I having a good time doing science with my students? What is the best part?