I am fortunate to be able to teach a super Career Development class in which we emphasize the importance of journal keeping. I must confess that in my 29 years of teaching, I have never kept a "teaching" journal! I am usually pretty good at remembering my stories, tricks and techniques but this would certainly be something in which I can review the on the response, receptiveness and reaction of individual classes to delivery methods. Keeping them in my roll book with each individual class, as one of the participants suggested, seems to make sense. I would typically add such items/ideas to my lesson plan although would not really take note of how it worked in each class. I will do it!
I use a journal for every course that I teach. I have been teaching some courses more then once and it is interesting to see what activities I used in prior classes. It is also interesting to see what worked and what didnt work.
How in depth should the journal be in content? And how do you, meaning everyone, maintain good classroom boundaries with your students while sharing personal experience and related stories?
I think a teaching journal is a great idea. I would definalty help me to remember what worked well and what didn't. It would also be very helpful in making future lesson plans so I would have a better idea of how much time to allot for each section.
I actually started a "log book" of what ive tried and how it worked with my very first class. My mother is a life long elementry teacher and she always did this. I think it is a great idea and highly suggest it to anyone in this field.
After reading some of the posts in this forum, I plan to start a teaching journal commencing with my first class. I also plan to utilized the journal for future classes in regards to improvements.
-Beverly
This is definately a tool I will utilize. The benefits of keeping notes, ideas, questions attached to a previous lecture, seems endless. Jotting down those "aha" moments in a lecture or that item you are "sure" that you will remember to include or exclude next time would be invalulable.
If you keep a journal you can always go back and track the ideas, classes, handouts, speakers, educational tools, to know what is working or not working. What can be reused or introduced. What may work for one class,quarter or semester may not work for another. It's always good to have several plans.
Hi Donald:
By using a journal to record what works and what didn't, or "surprise accidents" like you described, we can help ourselves become more effective instructors in the long run.
Regards, Barry
Hi Samuel:
And, in general, using a journal can help you make inprovements in BOTH strengths and weaknesses to facilitate more effective teaching in the manner you've described.
Regards, Barry
Hi Linda:
And, using one can help us make improvements on Both our strengths and weaknesses to facilitate the possiblility of becoming more effective instructors.
Regards, Barry
Hi Esther:
Like you indicated, doing this is invaluable, and doesn't even need to take a lot of time. I find that by using a journal after each class, I can guage both my strengths and weaknesses, and also remind myself what worked and what didn't. Then, I can try to improve EVERYTHING for the next go through.
Regards, Barry
Hi Lynn:
The nice thing about a journal is that it can help us see our weaknesses and strengths, and offer us the opportunity to continually make improvements to both, thus hopefully becoming ever more effective instructors.
Regards, Barry
Hi Kari:
Absolutely - and they allow us the chance to continually make improvements in both our strengths AND weaknesses to become better and better instructors.
Regards, Barry
I love this idea for me and just checked the supply closet for calender. I teach at a small culinary school which repeats culiculum every three weeks. Using a journal will make me a better teacher because I can refer to the high and lows of each lesson.
You can see the outcome of that lesson the last time you taught it. What needs to be changed or if the students really enjoyed it.
I will not start teaching until February and have not taught in a career setting previously. However; I believe that using a teaching journal will help me to develop my skills and more easily reflect back to methods that did or didn't work. This will allow me to adapt and make adjustments as needed.
Hi Caron:
Using a journal can help an instructor make improvements on both strengths and weaknesses helping them become more efficient all around.
Regards, Barry
Sometimes students make requests that cannot be applied in the current term, but can be applied in future terms. I try to make sure I record them in my journal so that I can remember them for future terms.
