#5 - Getting a LITTLE behind but reflecting on practice

From http://www.njlibraries.org/Resources/success.htm

So bloggers.  Here we are...thing 5. Where did the time go?! I love writing this blog but I am becoming increasingly aware that it's yet another professional thing that I feel guilty about not updating more (along with Twitter, Linked In etc etc etc) so I am going to try and find a regular time slot to assign to this.  I'm all about schedules and deadlines and lists, I'm one of those librarians. You know, the ones you thought only existed in 1950's films and early 20th Century novels.

I actually did all the reflective practice research and prep a couple of weeks ago but I've been really struggling to get something that doesn't sound completely idiotic down on screen. The first problem I had was actually learning what was meant by Reflective Practice.  I had a good look at the sites that the CPD23 blog recommended and really found the presentations useful (The Purpose of Reflective Practice and Journaling and Reflective Practice if you can't find them on the blog post). They helped me to establish both what the term means and how (and indeed if) I use reflective practice in my professional life. 

I think the thing that I have learned first and foremost is that I'm fairly adept at reflecting immediately how I can change a situation but not so good at analysing after the event and physically writing anything down.  I work in a school and so I am subject to a huge number of departmental, school and individual improvement plans but it's becoming more and more clear to me that I need to start writing down things that I do and actually analysing the event/project, not just waiting for the perfect time to do it. Like finding time to blog, I'm afraid the perfect moment is just never there! That way, my improvement plans and (eventual , I hope) chartership process will be a much smoother process!

For now, I am going to concentrate on writing.  I won't analyse what I'm writing too heavily and I'm going to try not to go back and delete everything just because I think I sound silly (I've gone some of the way to getting used to writing by doing this blog, it's still a rather odd experience but I'm definitely getting used to it!). The, I can concentrate on actually improving my professional practice and eventually, like the picture above, become SUPER LIBRARIAN!