The VOICE of WAFLT
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Reflect, Release, and Renew by Pam Delfosse, DPI World Languages & Global Education
ith every new year, new season, and new experience comes the opportunity to make meaning from our lives, our relationships, and our work. At the end of each calendar year, as winter shifts to spring, and as each school year draws to a close, it is often helpful to make time for reflection, release, and renewal. This process helps me sustain my commitment and service to our profession, as I hope it will for you.
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Reflection is to think deeply about something including its origins, significance, and impact. Reflecting can help us put things into perspective and see our role in response to experiences. When I reflect on something, it often results in learning and a level of awareness that informs future choices and actions. Release is one of the behaviors I am trying to practice. Our personal and professional lives are better served when we allow ourselves to let go of stressors with origins out of our sphere of influence. We can act with consciousness and commitment without carrying responsibility for actions that are not ours to own. Renewal blossoms in this space created by the process of letting go. It restores energy needed to rededicate our passion and values to action within our roles, responsibilities, and relationships. Wisconsin’s students and communities need our sustained leadership and collective service to language, intercultural, and global learning. The global perspective we
nurture is needed at the local level. Local efforts, aligned with global issues, are needed within our interdependent global community. Our work is truly global, if we design it to be. Here are some guiding questions to support the reflection, release, and renewal process. What have you learned through your lived experience this year? What will serve you, your work, and students well into the future? What can you set down to create space for what better serves and sustains you in this important work? How will you choose to improve language, intercultural, and global learning within your school community? With whom can you collaborate to sustain this effort? WAFLT is our professional community of practice and professional family for mutual support. Professional conversations, with WAFLT colleagues, often result in reflection, release, and renewal. Let’s lean into ongoing opportunities through WAFLT for professional collaboration, co-learning, and co-leading for change. When times are tough, or your resilience is low, pause to recall why you chose to become a world language teacher. What experiences led you to pursue this life work? Remember a few, of the many, students whose lives you have impacted. What will that impact translate to in their lives and for those with whom they interact? These are the fingerprints and footsteps of language, intercultural, and global education. As a teacher, you pave the
Pam Delfosse
way to more than words, or grades, college, or careers. You invite students to learn about the world and whom they choose to be within it. That invitation and opportunity is a gift that keeps on giving. ÌÌÌ Thank you. pamela.delfosse@dpi.wi.gov
