I am starting a small personal project sharing simple (and hopefully meaningful) Reflective Practice Activities you can easily do in your language class or a training session, with another teacher as a peer professional development activity, in a reflective practice group meeting with colleagues, or even on your own. All is needed is a piece of paper and your own hand to make an outline. Here is my sample template, to show the idea.
Why write ‘It’s in (Y)Our Hands’ now? There will be as many classroom/training/reflection activities with a Hand template above as the number of days the war in my country goes on. The Russian military invasion of Ukraine started on 24 February 2022. Writing these posts and sharing some links to support Ukrainians in Ukraine and abroad is my humble way to #StandWithUkraine and to show that (y)our helping hands are needed. Read more about the project idea in this post.
Here is the list of the activities I have for now. I hope to be adding new posts and making each item an active link.
- Activity 1: What’s in your pocket/on your desk?
- Activity 2: (In/From) Different Languages
- Activity 3: Ask Me Five
- Activity 4: Being Happier Now
- Activity 5: A Step Outside
- Activity 6: An Exit Ticket
- Activity 7: A Promise to Self
- Activity 8: This Very Moment
- Activity 9: Hand-y Lexis
- Activity 10: Some Ice to Break
- Activity 11: Life Stages
- Activity 12: Five Whys
- Activity 13: How do you recharge?
- Activity 14: A Happy Moment
- Activity 15: Achievements
- Activity 16: Never Done (Yet?)
- Activity 17: Metaphors and Numbers
- Activity 18: Gratitude (People)
- Activity 19: Gratitude (Places)
- Activity 20: Your Roles
- Activity 21: Well-Done Today
- Activity 22: Gift to Self
- Activity 23: Learning of the Day
- Activity 24: Charge Your Devices
- Activity 25: Accidental Creativity
- Activity 26: Who Am I?
- Activity 27: My Own Project
- Activity 28: Self-Support (Resilience)
- Activity 29: Moments Giving Hope
- Activity 30: One Book
- Activity 31: Words of Support (Resilience)
- Activity 32: The Art of Quitting
- Activity 33: How can one help?
- Activity 34: ‘Handy’ Idioms
- Activity 35: Helpful Quotes
- Activity 36: Tough Questions
- Activity 37: Distractions
- Activity 38: Your Critic’s Words
- Activity 39: Your Favorites (or Self-Portrait)
- Activity 40: News Report
- Activity 41: Journal Topics
- Activity 42: Gratitude (Events)
- Activity 43: Gratitude (Books/Movies)
- Activity 44: Making Decisions
- Activity 45: Staying in the Flow
- Activity 46: No Man is an Island
- Activity 47: Gratitude (Mantras)
- Activity 48: Lifting (Y)Our Spirits
- Activity 49: Whose Perspectives?
- Activity 50: Peer Reading/Challenge
- Activity 51: DIY
- Activity 52: Your Anchors
- Activity 53: Favorite Questions
- Activity 54: Comfort Food
- Activity 55: Coaching Questions
- Activity 56: Small Wins
- Activity 57: What Keeps You Alive?
- Activity 58: Guess What’s Here
- Activity 59: 3D Creativity
- Activity 60: Reversal Questions
- Activity 61: Declutter Plan
- Activity 62: Career Flow(s)
- Activity 63: Collage
- Activity 64: Crossroads
- Activity 65: Types of Objectives
- Activity 66: Writing Off
- Activity 67: Guess My Color
- Activity 68: My Week
- Activity 69: Venn Diagram
- Activity 70: Haiku Attempt
- Activity 71: Needs Analysis
- Activity 72: Who am I Today?
- Activity 73: (ELT) Beliefs
- Activity 74: One Word
- Activity 75: Too Long Didn’t Read
- Activity 76: What’s Holding You?
- Activity 77: A Classroom Management Tool
- Activity 78: Picture Not Taken
- Activity 79: Instantly Reminiscing
- Activity 80: Shape Poem
- Activity 81: 6 Word Story
- Activity 82: Language Learning Journal
- Activity 83: Event of the Day
- Activity 84: A House on Fire
- Activity 85: Your Playlist
- Activity 86: Re (-se, -duce, -cycle)
- Activity 87: Energy Hubs
- Activity 88: Odd One Out
- Activity 89: Fragile
- Activity 90: Morning Routine(s)
- Activity 91: Who else am I (not)?
- Activity 92: Autobiography in Songs
- Activity 93: Meaningful Space
- Activity 94: A Compliment You Remember
- Activity 95: Firsts
- Activity 96: U-Turns
- Activity 97: (Micro-)KWL
- Activity 98: Choices
- Activity 99: Boring Facts
- Activity 100: Symbolic Meaning(s)
- Activity 101: Five Other Lives?
- Activity 102: The Power of One
- Activity 103: Inventing Rules
- Activity 104: A Handful (Literally!)
- Activity 105: Eat Something New
- Activity 106: A ‘Thank You’ Practice
- Activity 107: On Planning (to Plan)
- Activity 108: The Anti-You
- Activity 109: A Coat of Arms
- Activity 110: How lazy are you?
- Activity 111: Your (Mega-) Interview
- Activity 112: On Delay
- Activity 113: A Punctuation Story
- Activity 114: Closure(s)
- Activity 115: Who are you jealous of?
- Activity 116: (Micro-) Feedback
- Activity 117: What’s in your name?
- Activity 118: Visual Arts
- Activity 119: Make a Sentence
- Activity 120: B-Values
- Activity 121: (Sewing) Stitches
- Activity 122: (Your) Writing Genres
- Activity 123: (Your) Social Media Strategy?
- Activity 124: 360 Degree Feedback
- Activity 125: Create (Your) Own News
- Activity 126: Dream City
- Activity 127: Your Breaks
- Activity 128: Feeling (Very!) Angry?
- Activity 129: Fan Letters
- Activity 130: Constraints
- Activity 131: Do You Doodle?
- Activity 132: Five Mirrors
- Activity 133: Learning (English)
- Activity 134: Limiting Beliefs
- Activity 135: What do you do (instead)?
- Activity 136: Vanity Fair
- Activity 137: Stress Reduction
- Activity 138: More to Life?
- Activity 139: Switch That Channel
- Activity 140: (In)Visibility
- Activity 141: Story Arc
- Activity 142: Take Another Exit
- Activity 143: Magic
- Activity 144: Bridging Now and Future
- Activity 145: Contagious
- Activity 146: Successfully Successful
- Activity 147: Five Pictures
- Activity 148: Graphic Organizers
- Activity 149: (Living) ‘Unplugged’?
- Activity 150: All the Keys
- Activity 151: Job Crafting
- Activity 152: (Not) Enough
- Activity 153: On the Dark/Light Side
- Activity 154: Complex Decisions
- Activity 155: Fear(less)
- Activity 156: Are you Looking ‘Slowly’?
- Activity 157: Kintsugi
- Activity 158: I See
- Activity 159: Detail Hunt
- Activity 160: Close Up (Noticing)
- Activity 161: A Mirror
- Activity 162: Grow Your Tree
- Activity 163: (Not) To Solve
- Activity 164: Personality Test
- Activity 165: Famous Metaphors
- Activity 166: Teamwork and Roles
- Activity 167: Your Adage
- Activity 168: Your Map
- Activity 169: Metaphor and Similes
- Activity 170: Emotion Wheel
- Activity 171: Your Iceberg
- Activity 172: Unusual Careers
- Activity 173: Writing Patterns
- Activity 174: Planned Creativity
- Activity 175: Three (More) Words
- Activity 176: One Minute
- Activity 177: (Stop) Self-Sabotage
- Activity 178: Knowing Each Other
- Activity 179: Visual Alphabet
- Activity 180: Guilty Pleasures
- Activity 181: Time Capsule
- Activity 182: Topics to (Not) Talk about
- Activity 183: Teamwork
- Activity 184: Plan Spontaneous Questions
- Activity 185: A Happy Sign
- Activity 186: Level 5 Ambition
- Activity 187: Default Settings
- Activity 188: One/Some Day
- Activity 189: Your Strength Postcard
- Activity 190: Your Own Words
- Activity 191: More with Less
- Activity 192: Favorite Words
- Activity 193: Avatar
- Activity 194: Empathy Map
- Activity 195: Meaning Search
- Activity 196: Silence
- Activity 197: Explicit and Implicit Curriculum
- Activity 198: Ex Libris
- Activity 199: Your Constants
- Activity 200: To My City
- Activity 201: How Engaged Are You (right now)?
- Activity 202: 20-Percent Rule
- Activity 203: Untold
- Activity 204: Unpublished
- Activity 205: Power Differentials
- Activity 206: Curiously Yours
- Activity 207: Your Magic Wand
- Activity 208: The Patronus Spell
- Activity 209: Add an Element
- Activity 210: Healthy Selfishness?
- Activity 211: Dimensions of Happiness
- Activity 212: Emotions to Read
- Activity 213: Book Review
- Activity 214: (Un)Planning CPD
- Activity 215: Your Own Acronym
- Activity 216: Review Lesson
- Activity 217: Do Something Different
- Activity 218: How are you today?
- Activity 219: Every word has a story
- Activity 220: Interview the Interviewer
- Activity 221: Lecture This
- Activity 222: Me, Constantly
- Activity 223: Your Evening
- Activity 224: Your Passions
- Activity 225: A Rainbow
- Activity 226: Inspiration Catcher
- Activity 227: The Why of this Project
- Activity 228: Your Grades and Scores
- Activity 229: Which Culture…?
- Activity 230: In Awe
- Activity 231: A Special Meeting
- Activity 232: Gestures and Cultures
- Activity 233: Grey Area(s)
- Activity 234: Your Logo
- Activity 235: Please call me [Zhenya]
- Activity 236: Weekend Plans
- Activity 237: What do you think you cannot do?
- Activity 238: Shopping List
- Activity 239: Complaint Game
- Activity 240: Natural Planning
- Activity 241: Detachment
- Activity 242: On Your Side
- Activity 243: The North Star
- Activity 244:
- Activity 245:
- Activity 246:
- Activity 247:
I invite you to add ideas to the list above, and offer thoughts, feedback, suggestions and insights in the comments.
Reflective Practice and Critical Thinking skills, especially in the intercultural context(s), are vital in the modern world, and the absence of them may lead to dangerous consequences.
Photo by fauxels on Pexels.com
Thank you for reading and #StandWithUkraine!
P.S. The idea to use a hand outline as a reflection/discussion springboard in a language classroom is not mine. I first read about it in Anna Loseva’s 2017 post (by the way, if you have not read her blog, I highly recommend it as a resource for reflective and thoughtful teaching).
P.P.S. It does not always need to be a ‘hand’ to work as a reflective practice tool. Here is a wonderful post from Wilma Luth where Lists of Five can be easily generated for various purposes.
If you know more resources, authors, teams, or specific activities on the topic, please share/add in the comments. It would be amazing to have a full collection, one day.
Wednesday Seminars 
Dear Zhenya, I came across tour blog today and I would personally like to thanks your kindness to share such great ideas and resources. I admire your resilience and Will to keep up this work under such hard conditions. I am an English teacher um Portugal and I would be very happy if I could Share ideas and resources with you and who knows, start a small projecto with out students. An informal One or an eTwinning, maybe.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Kind regards.
Ana Costa
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Hi Ana
Thank you for reading my blog, and for your supportive comment! Visiting your country is in my wish list, so hopefully, it will be possible in the near future.
Are there any activities in the list that sound interesting and/or relevant for your context? Have you tried anything similar already? What kind of students are you working with? My guess (based on your eTwinning note) that they are either middle school or high school.
Informal projects sound more possible, as I am not working with any specific group of learners at the moment (only with teachers). If you were thinking of any specific ideas, just message me directly on Facebook or Twitter (Zhenya Dnipro)
Take care and let’s keep talking.
Zhenya
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