Journal writing experience.

After finishing my task of writing a reflective journal I have now decided to carry this on. Although I understand I may not feel the need to write down my day or events everyday I still want to make the time to reflect on my day whether it be in my head or to another person. I have realised over the past 9 days that reflecting on your day opens up your mind to how well you have done, or if you need to do more, or even just reflecting to remind yourself everything is OK. On the days I feel there is something to write about whether it be about myself or my professional practice I am going to put this in the same notepad as the first 9 days so that over time I can look back and see the progress made.

After reading through task 2b I decided to ask myself the questions written in this to explain a little more on my views from writing a journal.

Having done this exercise was there anything about the events or about yourself that

emerged. Were you surprised by anything?

First of all I was completely surprised that I actually got stuck into this task and enjoyed it as much as I did. I also realised that each night I was coming away from writing the journal feeling positive or having an idea on how I will do more the next day in order to have a more productive day. A few of the techniques I used were easier to reflect than others but each technique I can honestly say I got stuck into and gave myself the time to reflect the best I could and came away from it feeling happy with my progress. This is another thing I am surprised by. The fact I am coming away from each task so far feeling positive and that I have achieved something. I think this is because so far this course has been based on your opinions and discussing this with each other so there is no right or wrong. But coming away from tasks and reflecting positively gives you a lot more motivation to keep going. 

The different boxes are all ways to begin thinking about an event so that you can try to deepen the way you write your reflective diary. Was there one way they really made you think?

Day 5 I chose to reflect via diagram (thinking bubble) which for me stood out the most. It made me get deep into thought and question myself why? Why I had a good day? Why I felt the way I did after an event? Or why I feel a way when I am reflecting on the day? 

Before I knew this my diagram got bigger and bigger and yet I thought that day I would struggle because it wasn't one of the days filled with lots of events. 

Is there one you might use again?

As well as enjoying the diagram to reflect I also loved using lists as a way to reflect. Lists are something that I will use weekly, to remind myself what extra things I need to do or little things I may need to tell someone or go and buy. I think because I have used this technique before I approached it with confidence and got deep into thought when reflecting. This is one of the techniques I am planning to use again but I also think that it will depend on the day. For example, if I have a day where I feel lots of stuff has happened I may write a list to jot down little notes, or if I have a day where I have little to write about I will diagram this so that it will help me dig deeper into the events. 

Was anything useful for the way you plan or reflect for work / your practice?

If I am completely honest everything from this reflective journal writing has been useful for me. Whether it be useful to know it doesn't work for me and I don't intend to use it in the future or if it was useful because I have come away wanting to use this again or come away feeling ready for the next move. In terms of it being useful in my practice I found that coming away from teaching on Thursday I had a lot more to reflect on because of the many events that happened through the day. It was also useful because I began to reflect whilst teaching so because I was focusing on reflection in each event happening I knew throughout the day to think about reflection. Was this task working for my students? Were all students moving forward on task? Do any students need a different way of teaching? Reflecting in action meant I could make the day more successful for a wider group of students at that moment in time rather than realising later on that night. 

Although the task of the journal may be coming to an end I know that me reflecting via a journal is not. It is something I will be carrying on and leaving time for each day and week.