Reflective thinking

A reflective thinker is someone who thinks deeper, and digs deeper to find and interpret new information. Reflective thinkers should be able to take different information and connect it to a relatable topic. A reflective thinker creatively connects the information that they interpret.
Before I came to Loras, I did a little reflective thinking in high school, but not much. Once I came to Loras my reflective thinking skills were magnified. I developed more into a reflective thinker; each class had me doing some kind of reflective thinking from writing journals to doing papers that involved reflection on a topic. By doing these different tasks, I became more knowledgeable about what a reflective thinker is and how to become a reflective thinker. My artifacts come from three classes which include: Clinical II, Math for Elementary teachers, and Irish Gothic. These classes have helped me develop into a reflective thinker one way or another.
My first class is clinical II, this class is for elementary education majors. For this class we had to complete 30 hours in an elementary school, and do different tasks while we were there. The different tasks range from teaching lessons to helping grade papers for our teacher. After each time I went I wrote a reflection on the day. The artifact I picked is a journal from one of the days I went to the elementary school. I picked this artifact because I reflected on my day, and talk about what I thought about different topics that I saw in the classroom. This helped me become a reflective thinker because I observed the teacher and looked back at my actions and looked at what could change to make everything better. This journal lets me express my feelings about different topics. http://myweb.loras.edu/es377975/LIB305/journal 7.docx
My second artifact comes from my Math for Elementary Teachers class. This class teaches different ways to teach math strategies. By knowing the different math strategies it will be easier to teach students because each student learns different. During this class, we compared the way Japan teaches math to the way United States teaches math. My artifact is a paper that deals with a Japan text book and comparing it to United States text book. This artifact helped me become a reflective thinker because I had to think about the ways I was taught math, and math is taught now in the United States then compare it to Japan. When I compared it I had to be a reflective thinker and think deeply about the topic. By being a reflective thinker I will become an effective teacher in teaching math because I will be looking for the best strategies to use during math. So by looking at how Japan teaches math is being a reflective thinker and effective teacher at the same time. http://myweb.loras.edu/es377975/LIB305/japan 5 page paper.docx
My final class is Irish Gothic. This class in an advance general education class which deals with the culture of Ireland and relating it to the Gothic genre. In this course we talked some about Ireland’s history, and the different ways authors used the Gothic genre in their writing. In this class I read five books. Each book fit in the genre of Gothic while at the same time each book was a little different. Also, each book related back to Ireland in some way; either the book was set in Ireland, or different parts referred to Ireland. Each book was different and had different messages, which we had to figure out. My artifact is a research paper that is over the material world vs. spiritual world in Le Fanu’s A Glass Darkly. A Glass Darkly is a book that has different stories put into one book. This artifact shows that I am a reflective thinker because I had to find the hidden message in the text. This was a hard task for me because I am not use to doing this, but it helped me become a reflective thinker. The reason for this is because I had to connect the information to the topic, and text. I found different resources that helped me develop my topic and thinking. My thinking went beyond the book A Glass Darkly; I had to think deeper in order to relate the material and spiritual world that is stated in the book. http://myweb.loras.edu/es377975/LIB305/paper.docx
Throughout my career at Loras I have developed my reflective thinking skills. Each class has given me a different tool to help me become a reflective thinker. By having the tool to be a reflective thinker it will help me greatly in the future. As a future teacher, I will need to be a reflective thinker because there will be things that I will have to change and in order for there to be change I need to be a reflective thinker on different topics.