thing 5: reflective practice

so, we're up to thing 5 which means that i'm only about 5 things behind now. i'm going to try and get a couple more done this week as well but i wouldn't hold your breath. i haven't made a decision as of yet, but i predict that by the time i've finished writing this i'll be too fed up to find an image for the post that isn't a mirror.

reflective practice then. i'm not sure i'm able to reflect on things that are well in the past. i think i would need to begin the process during, or even before, the event in order to reflect adequately on what i learn from it. does that make sense? i've read a couple of things about reflective practice and i think it could come in handy in the future, but when attempting to reflect on things i've done in the past i seem to be drawing a blank.

as a result, rather than reflecting on stuff that i've done previously, i'm going to use this post to set out a kind of reflective practice strategy for the future. that sounds good, dunnit? okay, here's how it's going to work. bullet point time:

• i will keep a fortnightly log (or weekly, if and when i get a full time job) to keep track of the things that i do at work. at the moment i'm mostly doing the same thing all day every day, but i am starting something new soon. keeping a diary of the things that i do will help me when i'm writing job applications and things in the future. often when i'm talking about past work experience i tend to forget a lot, so having a written reminder of it should help.
• when i attend training events or conferences, or basically any activity that could be classed as continuing professional development, i will blog about it within a week of it happening. this should help me process what i learn or what i didn't learn from the activity and identify other potential cpd stuff that i might like to do in the future.
• i'm going to keep an eye out for the cdg's reflective writing workshops and, if possible, go to one of them. come to manchester please!

that's it for this thing, i reckon. is this a bit of a cop out? i'm very sorry if you were hoping this would be a little longer. maybe tomorrow i'll write a reflective statement about where this blog post has failed to meet its objectives. until then, see yer!