Writing a reflection

     Today, I turned in my lesson plan with reflection on it. I chose Science. I have always liked Science as a child, and I am excited about this lesson about classification of living organisms. As I went writing my lesson plan, I experienced difficulty with it. It has been awhile since I last made a detailed one. It has been a while since I last sat down and really went through the nitty-gritty of my lesson plan. In the five years that I taught here in the US (same school), I felt like lesson planning was just natural for me. I already knew what to do. I already knew how to engage the students. It feels good though that I was able to sit down and really think about the lesson. I told myself, "Whew! I cannot do this everyday and every single subject I teach in 5th grade!" But as a teacher, I have to think through all my lesson plans. Sometimes, we teachers just go and go, attack and attack, without really taking some time to digest what we're about to do. Then, we make mistakes and sometimes it is not easy to fix them.
   
      Then I wrote the reflection after I taught the lesson. I did not know how to start it (very pathetic!). I know the good and bad points that are worthy to be discussed, but one should not just breeze through a reflection. One should not just rush it. It takes sometime to think about it. "You think you're done, but you're not really done" keeps ringing in my ears. These are the exact words I tell my students after a given task. Now I am telling it to myself. So I went outside for some breathing exercises, looked at the trees, and went back inside to face the computer. Now my mind is working, my thoughts were pouring. Now we're talking.

      Ah, life of a teacher! Being reflective is actually not easy. It needs time and place. I cannot just rush through it. I cannot just take it for granted.