Task 2b Journal Writing Experience

This task was difficult to get started as I wasn’t sure what to include within my journal. I was worried about being too personal and am writing reflectively enough. However, having written my journal for 3 weeks now I’ve noticed styles I use more than others and methods/techniques that help me reflect on my professional practice.

 

It was tricky at first as I started the task around ½ term when I’m off work. So it was difficult to know what to include? Whilst writing on more personal matters than teaching, you realise how you can use reflective techniques in everyday situations/events. Reflective writing came in very useful as over ½ term I was in Wales planning my wedding, it helped me make decisions and analysis things for example, I used a diagram to help me decide the best time to book my wedding as part of the evaluation writing task:

 

Natalie Martin Journal entry 27/10/13

 

For this task I decided to explore the different methods of reflective writing over 7 days, some methods I found easier than others below is a summary of what I discovered from each style:

 

Descriptive Writing;

 

I found this style very similar to how I write about events, but I noticed some information isn’t necessary and the journal entry was too descriptive rather than being focused on important events of the day. It helped me break down how I teach private lessons and made me realise being well prepared and delivering a lesson with structure, organisation and having a focused objective the pupil/pupils your teaching will benefit greatly and improve. Children like routine and behaviour is far better when pupils are focused on an activity. For all the singing lessons I teach, if it be large groups or privates I always follow a lesson plan I’ve put together so I keep to the learning objective and timings.

 

 

 

Please click on the link below to see an example of one of my lesson plans. This is a singing lesson for 4-7 years:

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1neTV59axJFQ0pMQ0tjNlM3LVE/edit?usp=sharing

 

 

Initial Reflection:

 

This style helped me think and express my feelings on events throughout the day. The style makes you look back on the day from a different perspective and question how you approach things. I found I wrote in a more reflective manner and stayed more focused on relevant points.

 

List:

This style came naturally to me as in everyday life I’m always making to do lists as it keeps me focused and gets things done. However, the problem with just listing what happened, you can’t develop on your thinking or explore matters further. So during this journal entry I added in subtitles to enable me to reflect further e.g. ‘Feelings’, ‘Thoughts’. This made it easier to work out things I want to find out more, to develop my thinking of reflection and ideas in more depth.

 

Evaluation:

I enjoyed this style as it gets you thinking straight away. It helps you develop your ideas and explore further. It encourages you to improve yourself and gets you questioning what you’re doing, how can I improve my professional practice? What worked? What didn’t work? For this process I found diagrams useful below is an example of my thought process;

 

 

 

Natalie Martin Journal entry 28/10/13

 

Diagram/Chart:

I found this entry hard to get started. I thought to myself, what do I do a graph on? How do you analyse your day in a graph? So I attempted this method with the title; ‘How I use my time catching up with friends’ See journal entry below;

 

Natalie Martin Journal entry 28/10/13

 

This process I felt didn’t help my learning, However, I used the process of a diagram in particular a bubble chart/mind map and this was a lot easier to evaluate the information. By drawing diagrams helps my thinking process and evaluate my day and promote reflection on my actions. Having looked back at some journal entries, without realising I’ve used diagrams in many of my journal entries to help my mind process information and analyse situations/events. (This is shown in my earlier journal examples above)  

 

What If?:

This extract allowed me to be more imaginative on ideas and thoughts; however, it didn’t help my process of reflection. I felt it took me off task rather than focus and develop points raised. On the other hand I was more open with my feelings and thoughts on the day’s events. I feel I need to try this method out on a day I’m teaching as I feel I will gain from the experience, as it will allow me to look at new ideas and be more creative in the way I teach and learn new experiences and explore new directions.

 

 

Another View:

Out of all the styles I found this the most difficult. For me, I find it difficult to comment from someone else’s point of view if you don’t know what they are thinking. Throughout the journal entry I found myself guessing what that person was thinking, rather than giving an accurate account. This writing method limited my critical process of reflection and wasn’t beneficial to my learning.

 

What have I learnt from the writing experience

Overall I use evaluation, descriptive, list and diagrams in majority of my journal entries. I discovered writing journal entries are far easier when I’m at work practicing my professional practice as I have more events to reflect upon and criticise and improve. I will enjoy continuing writing in my journal as it really helps me look at my professional practice and discover areas and questions I could use for my inquiry at a later date.