Using a journal to write down what you feel went well or wrong in the class, gives you the opportunity to review what you did in class.
This is especially helpful if you don't teach the class term after term.
I never thought of using a journal, but I do make notes of what I need to change in the future. I could also use the journal to note questions that the students ask, and incorporate that informatio into my next classroom experience. I could also make notes on which material I need to expand on. This could also help me know if a journal article could be used in the next classroom. This is a good idea, I will use a teaching journal starting my next class.
Having never kept a journal in the past, I do see how this could have been a great asset to me in the beginning of my teaching career. Learning from experiance is critical in teacher/instructor development. If a journal can be kept it will help the individual to point out both the positives and negatives that occur throughout your career, helping to mold "how" you teach.
Writing in my journal for 10-15 minutes after a class allows me time to reflect on the class lesson, students and ask myself, "Did you reach your desired outcomes?"
I take note of what students are saying, specially about other classes and out those assignments may be impacting my class assignments. I also take note of the weather, as that so often impacts how students become engaged in our lesson, hot days, they are dragging, freezing days may cause slow thinking.
Overall, using a teaching journal is valuable to my style of teaching. It ensures positive outcomes for everything, the school, the class, and myself.
I like to mix things up a bit. I like to know what exactly is getting the students attention and how it realtes to my class. When I create my lesson plans I retrieve old plans and spice it up a bit, I might change the method of delivery one week to the next. I personally write down in a daily calender how the class responded to my teaching. I use the input of class to modify if any the next days teachings. Thats my journal for the day.
Keeping a journal has many positive uses. One of them would be to note information about your students. You might want to keep notes about their learning styles, how they perform on tests, quizzes, and the type of questions they do well on. What is the level of their class participation, and note-taking abilities? Another could be their interests, such as, the type of position they are pursuing, and how pertinent is the course to their major? In this way, the journal can help the instructor customize how to teach students on a more personalized level, and then draw conclusions how each student in the class relates to each other.
Keeping the journal will help you remmember the best of your teaching techniques. You should note your best examples and topics that students were energized about, hopefully updating examples with new ideas from the class. I can always learn something new from different classes and the journal can help you improve your delivery. It only works if you go back and review it once in a while.
It can keep your thoughts and activities on track, especially if you have ADHD like me. It helps to keep me organized and lets me track where I can improve as an instructor...what worked, what didn't, where I need to incorporate more information, take some out...etc.
It's a great tool and I would recommend all to use it.
it makes you a reflect on your practice. thereby learning from your mistakes and improving your practice
I make notes on my lesson plans as I teach for review later and when planning the next terms lessons. If something didn't work I try to change it. If i note that a certain method worked well I will try to incorparate it in to other parts of the lectures.
About as close as I have come to using a journal is making notes on the syllabus. When I see handwritten notes, I now I need to look at good or bad and then make changes.
It helps me being organized, keeps all my notes, tests in order.
The teaching journal can help you track what worked and what did not. Therefore, you have and opportunity to make the necessary changes and become more successful.
A Teaching journal can help me with instructional improvement by including my exeriences related to the topic. Students in the dental class, ask a lot about the real situation in the field, and become eager to succeed and earn their degree, when I tell thenm the little stories I encounter, and show them the love I have for this field. I talk a lot about the work I do in the dental field, and they become very encouraged to finish their studies.
I use a journal to reflect on those aspects of each lecture that worked particularly well and those that require improvement. Before I repeat the same lecture the following semester, I review the notes and make appropriate modifications.
I have not used a teaching journal before, but after learning about it, I think this would be a good tool for me to start to incorporate into my teaching tool bag! I think reflection is an important part of this job...probably any job actually. At the end of a term, my program requires us to look over student survey's, both from the midterm point and end of course. We must complete some paperwork with questions like, "based on your students response, what was your greatest strength in this class, your greatest weakness, what could you imporove, and what would you continue to do, etc.?" This allows me to get some insight on how to students percieved my teaching methods. I think this is a great oppurtunity for me to view myself through the eyes of the students and really find what they learned, liked, and didn't like. I think the teaching journal will allow me to take the reflecting one step further. I think this will allow me to look at myself and judge on more of a weekly basis how things are going. I can reflect after that class when things are still fresh in my mind, like students reaction to a class activity or their moods during a lecture, the amount of questions they asked during class, or lack there of, etc. All of these scenarios would help with tweeking my classroom approach and environment while still in the term vs. end of the term where I can't turn things around for those students. I am going to put this in place next week!!
The journal will help you assess the goals of the class.
Keeping a teaching journal can help to improve instructional abilities in a variety of ways. One area in particular always seems to suffer over time in teaching, and it is the creativity employed when presenting the course material on the part of the instructor. Over time, just as students can become overwhelmed with how tedious a subject might become, whether it be review or something new, teachers can become somewhat bored as well. However, we as instructors cannot afford to make it a habit of constantly presenting materials in the exact same manner as we have in the past, because this is where the cycle of boredom starts.
By keeping a teaching journal an instructor is much less likely to fall into a rut wherein, after having presented the information to the students, they are left having learned nothing because their student's brains quit absorbing information after a short length of time into the lesson. An instructor keeping a teaching journal can look over each days events/plans, and plan new lessons to be slightly different from those already given during each term. This diversity in presentation will enable students to better absorb the materials being presented, which in turn will make for a more successful student both academically and in the workforce.
helps keep an instructor focused
not really interested in this discussion. tx
