Sep 27 2008
Dispatch from the Couch: Reflecting on Reflecting
The week behind me was a tough one with a death of a member of our support team in our library, and some more bad news with budgetary implications and hard work ahead. As I collapsed on the couch this evening, I decided I needed a fresh look on the blog and downloaded about a dozen templates before landing on this one you see in front of you. “Tree” reminded me of the true purpose of this blog and that is one of reflection. I hope you like it.
I got a tweet from jmedved early in the week. He had apparenty persuaded his principal to become a blogger. I don’t know how I can thank him enough! David Hamilton put together a wonderfully reflective debut post that is worth the read. I am hopeful for all of us that he keeps the flow with his “Principally Yours” blog. According to his blog, David is the Principal of the Upper School at The York School, an International Baccalaureate, K-12 school that offers all three IB programmes: PYP, MYP and Diploma. The York School is situated in downtown Toronto, Canada.
In his first post he writes:
But lest we forget, reflection is hard work. Whether we are sorting out our emotions and discerning personal values and attitudes, or discovering the shaky underpinnings of contemporary truths, reflection takes work, and, I would suggest, it takes practice. As I prepared to write this blog, I was amazed at how difficult it is to keep focused on a single abstract topic for stretches of time over several days. At the same time, the longer I kept at it, the clearer my thinking became. And the more organized my thoughts became, the stronger was my vision.
I too often struggle with the reflection process. I am a self proclaimed pragmatist, with my eye on the prize and I am proud to say I get results. Things get done under my leadership and I have a long list of accomplishments that at times have come with a few frustated or bewildered colleagues who I may have left in the dust. I probably need to slow down a bit and lower my threshold for pain a bit – relax a bit – and collaboratively reflect more with my colleagues. Perhaps my school is ready for that now, as we get closer to a little bit of stability.
Part of the efforts that I need to focus my work on in much broader terms is the development and communications of the vision. Here is where Mr. Hamilton comes in again when he describes what all of us in school administration feel to one extent or another…
…I have to summon up a vision that is capable of making that mission come to life: for me, for my teachers, for my students, and for their parents, all of whom look to me to breathe life into those precious 15 words. I can’t do that on a diet of meetings and emails. I need to reflect. For in reflection, the barely audible stirrings of the heart come to the surface and infuse the mind with a sense of purpose, of order, and, yes, a clearer vision.
As a digital leader, we get so much more from those we work with when we demonstrate reflection in this public setting– our blogs– and we also gain a little sliver of our own mental health each time we sit and type. Reflection is one of the single most powerful ways that we as leaders can develop our own models for self improvement, school improvement and community building and digital leadership.
To quote my new blogosphere colleague one more time:
For in the practice of reflection lies our hope for tomorrow. Reflection will give our children the ability to rise above fashions and fads, to resist evil masquerading as comfort, and find lasting meaning in their lives. Reflection will enable our children to have clear visions of what is good and what is right, regardless of the confusion of media sources that clutter their world.
Thank you David Hamilton!
Thank you to photographer Kevin Dooley.
Technorati Tags: Reflection, The York School
[...] Andy Torris, an administrator, finds time in the back of the car when he’s going from one campus to another in his “Dispatch from the Road” posts. Andy uses his working day time, to reflect and write about his thinking. [...]
[...] Andy Torris, an administrator, finds time in the back of the car when he’s going from one campus to another in his “Dispatch from the Road” posts. Andy uses his working day time, to reflect and write about his thinking. [...]
If you can model time for reflection, and then your staff can model reflection and then our students learn how to reflect surely that makes the world a calmer and less frenetic place over the long run.
We have to ask ourselves what we are modeling from the top down right now and at times I feel like it is a lot of stress and rushing around. That is what our students and our children see modeled and what does THAT tell them about the future? What does that give them to look forward to?