I decided to purchase myself a notebook and write each day about things that interest me or something memorable that happened. I will try to relate each entry to my professional practice if it be teaching within my primary school, singing teaching at Starmaker or my private singing tutoring from home. Sometimes I won't always have my notebook on me, so I will write some notes on my iPhone and put them into my journal when I'm home.
Being artistic, I find it easier sometimes to draw my thoughts and ideas out, if it be a drawing or a diagram so my journal will probably include these as well. Spider web diagrams help my confused thoughts, being able to categorise my thinking helps me make sense of everything.
Reflective writing:
I've had some ideas about how I'm going to approach this task. I'm going to try over the next week an entry into my journal using the following different styles a day;
- Descriptive
- Initial Reflection
- List
- Evaluation
- Graphs, charts and diagrams
- What if?
- Another view
Hi Natalie,
ReplyDeleteI too am amidst trying out all the different styles suggested. It actually turns out that some of the ones I initially doubted, are the most useful in helping me to reflect and learn. I look forward to reading about how you found it and if your thoughts are similar to mine.
Emma
Hey Natalie!!
ReplyDeleteIm not artistic at all haha so I just write but I would love to be able to draw pictures and make my journal more artistic. The only way I know the main events of my day are because I under line them. I am now getting the idea of maybe I could highlight different things, for example teaching could be one could and performing another, you could maybe code your events in colours so if you need to refer back to certain things like maybe your private tutoring look for the green highlighted work or something.
Ruth
Hi Ruth!
DeleteThanks for your advice :) I like the highlighter idea. This will help me refer back to my different practices a lot easier at a later stage, I will try it out and let you know if it helps. My pictures in my journal are only doodles e.g . Today I wrote about the behaviour policy we have at school 'the traffic light system' so I drew a picture to explain what each colour represents and explain the effectiveness in class using it. Do you write your journal extracts with pen and paper or use your laptop,phone etc? I feel old fashioned using a pad and paper but it's the easiest way for me to write my thoughts and ideas down.
Look forward to your next post
Nat x
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ReplyDeleteHi Natalie & Ruth
ReplyDeleteJust reading your blog reminds me of the way I like to write. I too like to draw and use brainstorming. I do this before I write a structure. I feel that if I brainstorm I get all my points onto the page that I was hoping to do, rather than just writing a journal and then thinking 'oh no I forgot this, I forgot that'
I too use highlighters and I have recently wrote a blog about a sign language lesson to year 3's for challenge week - learn a new skill. If you look on this blog you will find two pictures, these pictures show the method I approached when planning my session, using brainstorms and highlighters.
Your blogs are really good to read Natalie and I feel the way you do things are very similar to how I like to approach work. Perhaps its because we both sing? :)
Look forward to reading more.
Beth x
Hey Natalie,
ReplyDeleteI too like yourself prefer to write the 'old fashioned' way with pen and paper, this has always worked for me, even back at school studying for my A levels i always preferred to write my notes on paper. I also went out and brought a new pad especially for my journal.
Like the other i like to Highlight but i haven't used this in my journal yet so i will give this a go :)
Looking forward to reading how trying all the different styles work out for you, i've just recorded my findings on my Blog. You mentioned you like drawings to explain what has happened, i however am the complete opposite i am not a visual learner!
I find it really interesting how everyone had their own way that works best for them!
Heather X