The Importance of Reflection in SBM/PLC Action Planning

Video Transcription

Hello and welcome. My name is Gino Sangiuliano and in this lesson, we are going to evaluate the importance of reflection in site based management and professional learning communities action planning. So let's get started. I think there are a lot of similarities between writing and action planning.

You can create a plan in no time. Just like you can throw a draft together. The real work comes in the revision or reflection stage when you are looking at what you have, eliminating, changing, and adding. Then and only then are you ready to clean up the plan and throw it out to the world. In a quote attributed to George Santayana, he said that those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

As it relates to existing action plans, I would like to amend his quotation to read, those who fail to reflect on action plans are condemned to never improving. Not quite as catchy, but powerful nonetheless. In other words, we can't move forward without looking back and learning from our past experiences. Stephen Brookfield knew the importance of reflection and wrote about in his critical thinking theory.

He said change is impossible without reflection. When reflecting on existing or past action plans, you will want to remember to include the following. An alignment review. It is so important that all the oars in the boat are rowing in the same direction. Once you gather the information you need, adjust our revise your action plan. This cannot be taken for granted, just like the revision stage in writing. Take the time to make this happen.

And finally, check for relevancy. As things like staff, population, and leadership change, you'll want to be sure that the vision and mission continue to be germane your situation. I would like to go ahead and model an alignment for you. But to do that, I will need to provide you with the school improvement plan's mission, vision, and goal. So here we go.

Let's say our mission is to provide a high quality, comprehensive educational experience that supports each student's academic, social, and emotional development and prepares them to be global citizens who are college, career, and life ready. Our vision is to be a world class school system that develops the whole student and inspires them to be the critical thinkers, problem solvers, artists, and innovators who make contributions to their communities, our nation, and the world.

Our goal is to increase the achievement of all students by providing rigorous, relevant, and engaging learning experiences. I ended my previous lesson by asking you to turn the following statement into a SMART goal. My students will learn the multiplication facts to 12. In reality, undergoing such a task is not something you would do individually.

In a PLC, reflection is best completed collaboratively. Here, I will demonstrate what the process might look like. You would probably want to start by providing members of the team with time to read and digest the statement. It won't take long in this case. The example statement here is pretty short. This is an important step, however, as it gives individuals time to organize their own thinking and ideas.

I want to reiterate that the next step, which is turning the statement into a SMART goal, must be a collaborative effort completed by a PLC team that is following a set of agreed upon norms. Let's reflect on the statement and turn it into a SMART goal. Let's take a look at the evolution of a SMART goal and how by using the criteria we get from here to here.

First, we make it specific by including that they will solve 100 multiplication facts. Next, we add the measurement. That we want them to do 100 facts with 95% percent accuracy in five minutes. And we add that they're going to use a Eureka map sprint sheet to do so. The Common Core tells us that this is an attainable goal.

We also know it's relevant because of the Common Core. And the people responsible are the teachers that are writing it. And finally, the time period is to have this completed by the end of the year. When a team engages in this process, it improves capacity building, which means teachers and administrators will get better at what they do.

Furthermore, when golden action plans are written, implementation and sustainability is far more likely to occur. An effective educator will gladly take part in this continuous improvement effort. The process isn't over, however, until both the individual and the team engages in honest and meaningful reflection.

Let's go ahead and summarize what we covered in this lesson. We began by going over some things to keep in mind when reflecting on your work, both individually and as a team. We called that collaborative reflection. Then we looked at an example of a situation where collaborative reflection would be very helpful. And that is in creating a SMART goal.

Finally, I shared the impact that the process and reflection has on the important work that we do as educators. Here's today's food for thought. We've talked a great deal about reflection in many of these videos. In fact, the food for thought section is exactly that. An opportunity to reflect.

Is reflection part of your daily practice? Do you participate in any type of collaborative reflection? For more information on how to apply what you learned in this video, please view the additional resources section that accompany this presentation. The additional resources section include hyperlinks useful for applications of the course material, including a brief description of each resource. As always, thanks so much for watching. We'll see you next time.