It’s in (Y)OUR Hands

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.

1. Activity 1: What’s in your pocket/on your desk?
2. Activity 2: (In/From) Different Languages
3. Activity 3: Ask Me Five
4. Activity 4: Being Happier Now
5. Activity 5: A Step Outside
6. Activity 6: An Exit Ticket
7. Activity 7: A Promise to Self
8. Activity 8: This Very Moment
9. Activity 9: Hand-y Lexis
10. Activity 10: Some Ice to Break
11. Activity 11: Life Stages
12. Activity 12: Five Whys
13. Activity 13: How do you recharge?
14. Activity 14: A Happy Moment
15. Activity 15: Achievements
16. Activity 16: Never Done (Yet?)
17. Activity 17: More Metaphors, More Numbers
18. Activity 18: Gratitude (People)
19. Activity 19: Gratitude (Places)
20. Activity 20: Your Roles
21. Activity 21: Well-Done Today
22. Activity 22: Gift to Self
23. Activity 23: Learning of the Day
24. Activity 24: Charge Your Devices
25. Activity 25: Accidental Creativity
26. Activity 26: Who Am I?
27. Activity 27: My Own Project
28. Activity 28: Self-Support (Resilience)
29. Activity 29: Moments Giving Hope
30. Activity 30: One Book
31. Activity 31: Words of Support (Resilience)
32. Activity 32: The Art of Quitting
33. Activity 33: How can one help?
34. Activity 34: ‘Handy’ Idioms
35. Activity 35: Helpful Quotes
36. Activity 36: Tough Questions
37. Activity 37: Distractions
38. Activity 38: Your Critic’s Words
39. Activity 39: Your Favorites (or Self-Portrait)
40. Activity 40: News Report
41. Activity 41: Journal Topics
42. Activity 42: Gratitude (Events)
43. Activity 43: Gratitude (Books/Movies)
44. Activity 44: Making Decisions
45. Activity 45: Staying in the Flow
46. Activity 46: No Man is an Island
47. Activity 47: Gratitude (Mantras)
48. Activity 48: Lifting (Y)Our Spirits
49. Activity 49: Whose Perspectives?
50. Activity 50: Peer Reading/Challenge
51. Activity 51: DIY
52. Activity 52: Your Anchors
53. Activity 53: Favorite Questions
54. Activity 54: Comfort Food
55. Activity 55: Coaching Questions
56. Activity 56: Small Wins
57. Activity 57: What Keeps You Alive?
58. Activity 58: Guess What’s Here
59. Activity 59: 3D Creativity
60. Activity 60: Reversal Questions
61. Activity 61: Declutter Plan
62. Activity 62: Career Flow(s)
63. Activity 63: Collage
64. Activity 64: Crossroads
65. Activity 65: Types of Objectives
66. Activity 66: Writing Off
67. Activity 67: Guess My Color
68. Activity 68: My Week
69. Activity 69: Venn Diagram
70. Activity 70: Haiku Attempt
71. Activity 71: Needs Analysis
72. Activity 72: Who am I Today?
73. Activity 73: (ELT) Beliefs
74. Activity 74: One Word
75. Activity 75: Too Long Didn’t Read
76. Activity 76: What’s Holding You?
77. Activity 77: A Classroom Management Tool
78. Activity 78: Picture Not Taken
79. Activity 79: Instantly Reminiscing
80. Activity 80: Shape Poem
81. Activity 81: 6 Word Story
82. Activity 82: Language Learning Journal
83. Activity 83: Event of the Day
84. Activity 84: A House on Fire
85. Activity 85: Your Playlist
86. Activity 86: Re (-se, -duce, -cycle)
87. Activity 87: Energy Hubs
88. Activity 88: Odd One Out
89. Activity 89: Fragile
90. Activity 90: Morning Routine(s)
91. Activity 91: Who else am I (not)?
92. Activity 92: Autobiography in Songs
93. Activity 93: Meaningful Space
94. Activity 94: A Compliment You Remember
95. Activity 95: Firsts
96. Activity 96: U-Turns
97. Activity 97: (Micro-)KWL
98. Activity 98: Choices
99. Activity 99: Boring Facts
100. Activity 100: Symbolic Meaning(s)
101. Activity 101: Five Other Lives?
102. Activity 102: The Power of One
103. Activity 103: Inventing Rules
104. Activity 104: A Handful (Literally!)
105. Activity 105: Eat Something New
106. Activity 106: A ‘Thank You’ Practice
107. Activity 107: On Planning (to Plan)
108. Activity 108: The Anti-You
109. Activity 109: A Coat of Arms
110. Activity 110: How lazy are you?
111. Activity 111: Your (Mega-) Interview
112. Activity 112: On Postponing
113. Activity 113: A Punctuation Story
114. Activity 114: Closure(s)
115. Activity 115: Who are you jealous of?
116. Activity 116: (Micro-) Feedback
117. Activity 117: What’s in your name? 
118. Activity 118: Visual Arts
119. Activity 119: Make a Sentence
120. Activity 120: B-Values
121. Activity 121: (Sewing) Stitches
122. Activity 122: (Your) Writing Genres
123. Activity 123: (Your) Social Media Strategy?
124. Activity 124: 360 Degree Feedback
125. Activity 125: Create (Your) Own News
126. Activity 126: Dream City
127. Activity 127:

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.