I really don’t know why I used the bloody word “savvy“ so much…
…when talking about allthingsREFLECTION in LEARNing and TEACHing.
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The thing is…IT is totally the RIGHT word – just a bugger to get across to people that might not have come across it before.
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One can be everso terribly clever and explain that it comes from the French “savoir faire” (even though Google Translate does not, again, do a very good job with it) – but it don’t help, if they ain’t heard of that either.
I actually picked up the term from my dad…growing up in north Manchester, he was the only person I ever heard use it…and he used it a lot (…even “made up” tens/hundreds of more phrases using the word).
Now, you see where I get it from!
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When I started to learn French, I thought that he might have picked it up because he grew up so close to France (New Haven, near Brighton – even though everyone called him “Cockney Doug”…he never bothered to correct them). That, of course, was silly – New Haven was just as working class as north Manchester – even today, working class kids just not “do” languages very well (clearly…Geography, too)!
It was not until I saw Johnny Depp (as Captain Jack Sparrow) in the movie Pirates of the Carribean that it “clicked”
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…NO, my dad was not a pirate!
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But, he did “fake” his age to get into the Navy and “sign up” for the Second World War…to escape his family and the UK!
You also see where I get that from!
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Sailors…and pirates…use the term “savvy” a lot. And, so does the Urban Dictionary…thank God!
No, I did not write that entry…but I could have, yes?
There’s also a very good story about my dad – involving a boxing match, an officer-who-wasn’t-a-gentleman and a dishonorable discharge (that my dad was VERY proud of)…but, I’ll save that for another post!
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Of course, I use the word to talk about reflection…or what it “is” about those TEACHers and EDUcators that seem to get more from their students…more for themselves…and more money!
OK – two out of three ain’t bad!
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It’s a Sunday today and I hadn’t planned on writing very much at all for this post!
In fact…my big task for today was actually supposed to be more focussed on finally working out exactly where I now live here in big, bad İstanbul! Some people (the phone company…but the internet guy disagrees) tell me I live in Suadiye…other people (the electric company) tell me I live in Erenköy…and then, yesterday, one of my wife’s old friends from Dubai told us we actually live in Şaşkınbakkal (which roughly translates as the “confused grocer” – he ain’t alone)!
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So, I’m going to leave you with a few thunking questions:
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How “savvy” are you with your own reflective practice?
How do you know this?
What do you do with this “savvy”?
How do these things help you get better at what you do with what you know?
If someone asked you “evidence” this “reflective savvy”, how would you do that?
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And, as a little Sunday “treat”…some of my favourite thunks on the nature of reflection!
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Yes, I know that was a bit of a cop-out…but the images/quotes were nice, yes?
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allthingslearning 
