Standard 8: Engages with Profession of Teaching as a Reflective Learner
Reflection is something that comes naturally. Looking back at something helps you learn from it; helps you grow. As a teacher, I am not only an instructor, I also need to be a learner. Everything lesson I do can be improved upon in some way, shape, or form, by some major transformation or just a minor tweak. By examining my methods and activities in the classroom through hindsight, I am allowed a clearer version than I have had while in the present, and thus I am fully able to digest the experience and grow from it. The unwillingness to grow from mistakes (and even non-mistakes) makes for a poor person in general; but even more so a poor teacher. As an educator I must value education and hold it to the utmost standard, both for my students and myself. The lack of reflection would result in my becoming stagnant, something that should never been done in order to remain a successful teacher. Educators have to be malleable; our roles change with technology and students and standards and social issues. To be closed off from reflection would be a disservice to one’s own self, as well as students and teaching as a career. By becoming a teacher, I have knowingly agreed to the scrutinization and self-assessment that comes with standing in front of a room full of adolescents every weekday. To be a teacher means to be a learner; and reflection is the best way to learn, and adapt to the future.