Reflection.

This paper is one of the earliest artifacts from the course. I wrote it near the end of my second course in the program, which was condensed in a four week period. I have chosen to include it here under leadership because I think it demonstrates how, even early on in the program, I was taking risks and trying to be a leader within my courses. I think it also demonstrates my desire to lead in my professional life. Unlike the first two artifacts in this topic of leadership, I did not consciously apply leadership theory. Rather, I applied new and emerging ideas in conjunction with educational theory to argue for change.

It is funny, in reviewing this artifact I see that I discuss the concept of the gateless gate. A concept I also recently discussed in my reflection on my art analysis artifact. It is interesting to me that this metaphor has followed me through this journey. This vision paper was focused on created a balanced classroom. The goal I identified in this paper was to “direct my practice to focus on teaching and modeling mindfulness, interconnectivity and impermanence through the use of yoga and meditation.” I remember writing this paper and thinking about how preoccupied my students seem, how many of them suffer from anxiety, worry about change and struggle to see how learning connects. In this vision paper I write about how “my balanced classroom vision is that each class begins with a proven relaxation tool, meditative practice, that lasts about five minutes. The purpose of this practice is to get students into the right frame of mind for the class (Prensky, 2010).” (Burgis, 2011).  At that point my Writers’ Craft class began each day with meditation.  I noted that I did not call it meditation but rather talked about it as deep breathing and relaxation. The purpose was for students to focus their minds on the present, bring their awareness into the room and help them to access their creativity. Two years later I am still doing this practice. Interestingly, my school has taken on an initiative to try and decrease student anxiety levels. I have taken it on myself to continue to teach my students mindfulness. We don’t do it every day but it is part of our classroom routine. Several students have mentioned how much they enjoy it.

This practice demonstrates how my learning from my Masters program has translated into my professional practices. In taking a different approach to this vision paper I found out about the different yoga programs already in place and read concrete statistics about its impact on student success. I then took that idea and applied it in my own classroom. I think this demonstrates authentic leadership because it focuses on a long-term goal (student well-being), meaningful relationships (teacher with student, and self with self), and self-discipline (continuing a teaching practice that is unconventional, continuing with a practice that is challenging). I am also applying my life-experiences with yoga, meditation and learning and transposing it. I think it is evident that even early on I was beginning to look for solutions that our learners face.

This artifact also demonstrates my growth and learning. I can see for myself that my academic writing has really evolved. I struggled a lot with being concise. I knew that not including things was an important decision, but I didn’t know what I didn’t need to include. This paper was actually 1200 words over the word count. It also contained typos and improper citations. In my educational background I use MLA and switching to APA was hard for me. I still make mistakes, but I am better. I also think I am better now at being concise. I got a bit carried away at times with my metaphors and I can see now they weren’t really making sense in the contexts. I think I was trying to force an idea. I think my writing really evolved as I started to make more meaningful choices. In addition, I can see how the learning I did in this course on educational theory translated over. Later I was able to apply the theories I learned here to other contexts, like identity formation.