Jules Posted April 30, 2019 Posted April 30, 2019 Before you can add a reflection, you will need to enable Reflections on your Tapestry account. This tutorial talks you through how to do that. Now you are ready to start adding reflections! Your reflections will inform part of your observation and planning cycle. They will enrich your teaching and your environment and allow you to focus thoughts on individual or groups of children. You can also use reflections as part of staff appraisals and professional development. A New Reflection You can add a new reflection from the 'Reflections' tab (1) and then click on the blue 'Add Reflection' button (2). From here you can create your reflection. You can enter a title (1) and then write your reflection (2). This area can include your thoughts and why you are thinking them, what you plan to do in response to your reflection and any theoretical perspective you may wish to include. In this box you can also add any hashtags you use in your setting for filtering and sorting purposes later (to learn more about the tagging system please see this tutorial). The date for the reflection (3) will be filled automatically with the current date/time, but you can edit it from here. You can set the status of the reflection from the drop-down (4). Managers and Staff/PIN only users have slightly different status options. This tutorial shows you where you can check your user permissions and make changes to them. Published – This saves the reflection and adds it to the child’s reflective journal. It will be visible to any relatives linked to the child on Tapestry and they may be notified depending on their notification settings. For staff/PIN only users this is only available if allowed in permissions. Draft – This saves the reflection to Tapestry, but it will only be visible to staff. The reflection is not visible to relatives linked to the child and they are not notified. This is recommended if the reflection is a work in progress and you are going to edit it before publishing. For staff/PIN only users this is the default status a reflection is saved to when not permitted to publish or save a reflection as Staff Only. Staff Only – This saves the reflection to Tapestry, but makes the reflection visible only to staff members. Therefore relatives are not notified. This is recommended if you do not want to share the reflection with families on Tapestry, but is otherwise a finished product. For staff/PIN only users this is only available if allowed in permissions. Restricted – This saves the reflection to Tapestry, but makes the reflection visible only to Managers on Tapestry. Relatives and other staff members are not able to view this reflection. This is recommended when you are reflecting privately about professional development or for an appraisal. When saving as 'Restricted', you will have the option of sharing with another staff member on Tapestry who is not a manager. To read more about making a reflection 'Restricted' please see this tutorial. The 'Impact' box (5) is for recording the outcome of the actions you took following your reflection. Linking children to your Reflection You can choose whether or not to link children to your reflection from the 'Children' section (1). If the reflection is not relevant to any specific children you can select 'Does not relate to any children' (2) This allows you to make a broad, centre-wide reflection. If you do wish to link children to your reflection you need to select 'Is for specific children' (1). You will then see a 'select children' button (2). When you click on this, a window will open giving the option to select individual children (1), groups of children (2) or cohorts (3). You can use the filter bar for a quick search (4). Remember to click the green 'Done' button at the bottom of this window when you have made your selection. You will then see your selected children appear in the 'Children' section on your reflection page. Linking Staff to your Reflection You can also choose whether to link staff to your reflection from the 'Staff' section (1). If the reflection is not relevant to any staff, then select 'Does not relate to any staff' (2). If you do wish to link staff to your reflection, then you can choose 'Is for specific staff' (3). A 'select staff' button (4) will appear which will open a window showing you all the staff at your setting. From here you can tick the names of the staff you would like to link (5) and use the filter bar (6) for a quick search. Remember to click the green 'Done' button at the bottom of the page when you have finished. Back on the reflections page in the 'Staff' section you will see any staff you have added. Adding Tags to your Reflection Depending on which tag sets you choose to activate when you enabled Reflections, you will see these on your reflections page now. This tutorial explains how to add tags sets. The 'General Tags' section (1) contains tag choices that are not specific to a framework. By clicking on a tag heading (2) you will be taken to a pop-up window where you can refine your tag further (3). Back on the reflections page you will see your selected tags (4). The 'Framework Tags' (1) allow you to link your reflection to various frameworks. On your reflections page you will only see the frameworks you set up as tag sets when you enabled Reflections on your account. To tag the reflection just click on the ‘+’ icon (2) next to the tag set and this will expand to reveal the tag set in more detail (3). Now you can select a more specific tag from this expanded list (4). If you prefer to tag the whole framework rather than its components you just need to tick the box next to it (5). Linking Observations and other Reflections You can link your reflection to other reflections and to observations from the 'Links' section (1). The blue 'What's this' (2) button will open a window that explains all about linking reflections and observations, but we can take a quick look in this tutorial too. Clicking on the '+ Link Observation' button (3) will open a pop-up box. In the second screen shot below you can see the options to filter your choices (4) and then tick the box to make your selection (5). Returning to your reflection you will see the observations you have linked. Clicking on the '+ Link Reflection' button (6) brings up a pop-up box of reflections that works in the same way. So, you can filter your selection, tick the box of your chosen reflections and then you will see them back on your reflection page. Any linked observations and reflections are show along a timeline. The reflection you are currently working on is shown with its date on the green bar (7). Any linked observations or reflections that were made before this date show up above the line and any made after show up below the line (8). You can un-link an observation by clicking the red 'x' button (9). Adding Media In the Media and Documents section (1) you can add photos, videos, and media to your reflection. You can either drop the file/s (2) or click on 'Add Files' (3) to add single or multiple files, then click 'Start upload' (4). You will be given the status of the upload(s), and once finished you have the option of deleting any files, either singularly or in bulk, or performing edits such as cropping or rotating pictures. You may want to include a clip of a member of staff working with children to reflect on during their appraisal, or some photographs to show your thoughts about the garden area. An observation with a photo will capture a child's learning in the moment while a reflection with added photos or media can show what you are thinking, why you are thinking it and the journey you are on as you learn or make improvements. When you are happy with your reflection you just need to click on 'Save Reflection' (1). You can also 'Save & Add Another' (2) which will take directly to a new reflections page. Happy reflecting! Go back to Main Tutorials Page
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