A bit more about reflections

1
A bit more about reflections

• What are reflections meant to help you do?
• 1) Identification and description of Concepts
• 2) Examination of your own Experience
• 3) Identify and develop synthesis between the two

2
What not to do

• Reflection on To Hell with Good Intentions by
  Ivan Illich.
• This address by Ivan Illich seems like something
  that would have been hard to hear as an
  audience-member. He is speaking to a group of
  students who have gone or are preparing to go do
  volunteer work in Mexico, and is flat-out trying
  to convince them that it is generally a bad idea.
  As he states outright I am here to tell you, if
  possible to convince you, and hopefully, to stop
  you, from pretentiously imposing yourselves on
  the Mexicans
• .I dont agree with the general negativity of
  Illichs address, where he emphasizes working in
  communities, if you must work in any communities
  at all, where you can know when you fail and
  the people can tell you to go to hell. However
  the points he brings up are valid and important
  that when working with communities (or community
  partners in our case) one must not impose your
  benevolence.
• Concepts? Sure! Synthesis? Maybe in the
  academic sense. Experiences? None.

3
What makes a good reflection?

• Concepts
• What concepts/ideas/theories are important,
  significant, or just plain interesting? What
  makes them that way? How did you identify them?
  
• Experience
• Where are you coming from? What is your
  background and how is it influencing your
  thinking? What is your view from your class
  experiences?
• Synthesis
• What are the connections between the knowledge
  you are acquiring and your experiences, either
  past or present (or both)? How are your thoughts
  developing and/or changing? What is the logic
  and evidences for these connections,
  developments, conclusions, etc?

4
A better example

• Mieko Ozeki, traveling course
• Upon our return from Manning Privincial Park, my
  mind was clean and ready for the next phase of
  our journey. Awareness of the issues involving
  our environment, ourselves and the world. It is
  so easy for my peers and myself to keep a blind
  eye to what is occuring in our world as well as
  in our own backyards. I did not understand tree
  logging operations till I got to Bellingham,
  woken from my slumber during the weekdays at 6am
  to the sounds of chainsaws and large trees
  crashing to the ground
• Hudson Todd, our first resource from Northwest
  Eco-system Alliance, taught us about old growth
  forests and the alliance work to protect the
  remaining old growth forests in Western Oregon
  and Washington. The goal of the old growth
  campaign is to change the patterns of the
  National Forests Service, which is selling off
  blocks of timber areas, including old growth
  treesMore than tree sits and letter campaigns,
  big efforts need to be made such as making friend
  and allies with the enemies foresters and
  activists both need the forests and both have a
  common agenda to slow or stop the clear cutting
  in order to protect an ecological system and
  protect an economic source of employment. I
  think this tactic is best used for this time in
  our history, as the voices of many who fight for
  a cause and are not split on particularities have
  power.

5
Reflections as an ongoing conversation

• First reflection Why is your contribution to
  this class important to the UVM community?
• What you can expect of me
• 1) I will respond to your reflections and return
  them to you before the next is due
• 2) I will be doing reflections of my own