There Has Never Been a More Important Time for Reflaction!

Yes, you read that right, the title says, reflaction. Ok, so now you are probably asking yourself, What is reflaction? Reflaction is a term Scott Totten @4bettereducatio and I created at an EdCamp roughly six years ago. Ok, but what does it mean? Reflaction is the action you will take after reflection! Scott and I, during a breakout session at that EdCamp, got into a conversation that reflection wasn’t enough. Don’t get us wrong, reflection is an integral part of growth. However, we can reflect and reflect and reflect…well, you get the point. It’s what we do with that reflection that matters most. Hence, Reflaction!

In the past few months, traditional education was thrust into abandoning traditional practices that have been relatively unchanged for more than 100 years. In the instant of a mandate, teaching and learning were forced to pivot away from what was, and an entire industry was pushed out of its comfort zone. However, an amazing thing occurred…we survived. I acknowledge that this is not the ideal path to transformation and I recognize the hardships that were incurred. However, contemplate the following:

• Inequity in education became a priority
• Old-Schoolers became New-Schoolers
• We found that students can learn without grades
• We realized the importance of connection
• We have seen unprecedented amounts of collaboration among educators
• We saw seniors self-advocate and acquire resilience not taught in any curricula

While there are parts of traditional schooling that should remain, in a matter of months the vision of increased personalized learning became clearer! We see now that the factory model of schooling can and should be altered to provide students with the skills to be successful in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous world (VUCA). In many recent conversations, I continually heard, “We can’t go back to the way it was!” So, as we get ready to close out this one-of-a-kind school year, what will be your “reflaction” moving forward with your continued transformation of teaching and learning? Please share in the comments.