June 7, 2014

I am a reflective person. Sometimes I reflect on situations to a fault! While reflecting, I sometimes become to critical of myself. In fact, that is what made me think of the name of my blog. What's the connection? A number of years ago when I was working on my doctoral degree, I began teaching preservice teachers. Because I loved teaching so much and because I expect my work to be "flawless," I assume that my students will be the same. As I worked with the preservice teachers, I found that their work was often less than what I expected. One assignment that they completed was not only less than my expectations, but I took the responses personally. I wondered how they could be so careless with the work??!!! When I explained what happened to Dr. Griffin, my doctoral committee chair, she simply said, "Carol, let your hindsight become your insight."

That phrase was a gift to me. It meant that I could let go of what happened. It was no longer my fault but rather a way for me to improve my practice. It also meant that I no longer had to spend hours critiquing my teaching which was basically telling myself everything that I did wrong. But rather, I could figure out what happened and move on.

Now, I realize that I was beginning to use adaptive action and using the inquiry cycle --What, So what, Now what? The problem back then was that I spent a long time in the what telling myself everything that was wrong with what happened. Sometimes it is good to take that time in the what, but not always. When I moved myself through the cycle more quickly, I realized that I got "my happy" back sooner.

So, I hope that I will be able to use this site as a way to capture some of those "Hindsight to Insight" moments. I guess that we will wait and see.