Reflective Writing

Writing a journal is a new concept to me. Although I have always evaluated my lessons and reflected on how I could improve I have never thought to write down my feelings or what I had learned during the day. I first came across Journal writing in the RoL Module, I found it helped to focus my thoughts and gave me insight into to what would be my best areas of learning. I have continued with my Journal since then but this task has given me a chance to develop different ways to write. I looked back over my previous Journal entries and found that my choice of writing was to write a description of what happened and the main events I realised that I did not write much about what I had learned and how I would approach the situation differently should it arise. I think the reason for this is that I didn't feel I needed to, I know what I learnt and how I would change this I didn't need to write it down. As I worked through the different methods of Journal writing I discovered I had been wrong, by writing down what I had learned it allowed me to consolidate that learning and I could understand better where and how my learning had occurred.
I was surprised by how much I learn on a regular bases, even after 10 years of teaching. I always tell my students that you will continue to learn far after your formal education had ended, I was just surprised by the amount. It wasn't until l wrote down my daily experiences that this became apparent.
On writing my Journal I tried out all the different methods to see with one suited me best, however as each situation was different and lent itself to different difficulties I decided to take one event and write about it using all the methods in the hope that I would be able to find the one best suited to me.
As I have mentioned descriptive was my default but I feel it didn't force me to look at how I would change my work mealy just a description of what had occurred.

Initial Reflection
In the initial stages of using this method I struggled to write about how I felt. However the more I used this, the easier it was and the more beneficial it became.

List
I was very surprised by this method, making lists is something I do well. I have endless lists and spreadsheets for a multiple of different thing from general work to do lists to proposed Christmas presents for friends and family, it is something of an obsession and a running joke in the college staff room. It's strange therefore that I never considered a journal in note form. I did have initial reservations however, how can you write all your information in list form. My reservations dispersed once I tried this method. Similar to the way lists are used in Listograpgy my own lists expanded taking my thoughts down different pathways.

Evaluation
This is something that I do after every lesson I teach, while walking to the next class or preparing my music. This is the part that I never write down. When using this method I understood the importance if not to just process my learning it allowed me to see further into my learning and find ideas and evaluations that I may have missed.

Graphs, charts and Diagrams
I thought I would share the same success with this method as I did with Lists, this was not the case. I found that I struggled to expand on my ideas and evaluate my learning in the same way I did with the others. I felt it limited my learning instead of expanding it.

What if?
Before trying this method I did not feel it would be of use. I thought that to write what could have happened and what I would or wouldn't have liked to happen would not be proactive as those circumstances did not happen. After using this method I was surprised by how it guided my thought process. As I wrote about what I would love to happen I found myself thinking of how I could achieve this, and I was able to plan a new approach for the next class. When writing about what I would hate to happen, I discovered what parts of my class where successful and I was able to take that knowledge and use it in my plan for the next lesson.

Another View
I found I struggled to write down my thoughts and experiences, it just didn't make sense for me to write from a different perspective as it was myself having the experience. Writing me journal using this method took a lot longer than the other methods and I found myself loosing concentration and focus throughout my writing.

I found that all methods made me think deeper about my experience and learning, however I did find some more successful than others. To show a complete refection I would need to combine description with evaluation, I then feel I could use this method with success. My favourite methods would be this, What if? and of course Lists. I can cover all aspects of reflection and expand my learning from each of these. I have found this task has helped me to better reflect upon my work in general, before this I found it hard to write down my feelings and thoughts on reflection. With the methods I have chosen I find myself better equipped to reflect and evaluate my work, which in turn will expand my learning and impact my classes and lesson plans.