It can serve as a receptacle for formulations of current problems and issue and serve as a codified memory and marker of progress towards addressing the problems and issues.
It can help keep track of what worked for you in certain classroom situations..also a nice place to record feedback/information from other instructors.
By keeping a journal you will be able to review and assess different, or perhaps a new teaching method, you used. In the journal you could keep note as to how your students responded to your new method. This may also be helpful in test taking. It would be easy to assess student emotions while test taking and note any differences you may notice in their behavior with different types of tests, ie. multiple choice, essay, fill in the blank or a mixture. I personally like to study human behavior especially when people are not aware that you are assessing them. Keeping a journal of what you observe would be very interesting and may clue you in on which type of test is adequate yet not stressful to the majority of the class. Lastly, a teaching journal would only help with organization as well. Not many people would disagree that organization is imperative to achieve good instructional skills.
A teaching journal can be used as a tool to find what your students respond to most, like delivery, activities ect.
I always keep a pen and a pad on the desk because often a student will say something that will give me an idea on how to better develop my lesson plan for the students. I just quickly make a note as I present material. I also use the pen and pad to take quick notes about how well new additions to my lesson plan are working, or not in some cases.
Hi Vanessa:
Another great thing about using a teaching journal is that it might help reveal items that need improvement in the lesson prior to the next go ‘round. Also, improvements can be made in both what has worked, and what hasn’t.
Regards, Barry
Teaching journals help you to reflect back on things that you have done before to see what you have been successful in or what you needed improvement in.
I study the subject and make notes and an outline to stepwise follow the insruction. I also talk also about my professional experiences, and situations, events in the workplace, anything to keep them excited about the subject, or what is happening in the workplace.
I think by journaling how class went that day can help me better plan the next class. Class activities seem to get students back on track and writting down ideas in the journal can help me prepare for the next class.
I have been writing in a journal since I was an undergraduate. It has always helped me work out issues and problems that I was facing in my life at the time. A teaching journal does the same thing for me as a teacher. This is especially true when i am teaching a course that is new to me or using a textbook that is new to me. It hlpes me to figure out if the things I am attempting to do in class are working or not.
It helps me prepare for the next time i teach the clas of what worked well and in what i can improve on to make it a better over all class experiance for the students i often ask the students on thelast day of class to please give me some feed back on what i could hve done better from a students veiw, how i can make it a better and more intresting class? And at this time usually the comfort level is good and the majority feel they can comment truthfully, and help me be a better more organized teacher for the next time around. I think some time as in the class we forget and get so wound up in what the syllabus is telling us what to do and how to prepare that we have to bring livley hood to it make it real and give them something to hold on to as a dream coming to life. And show real true intrest in the subject and them as a student, a real person and not just a bodt in the classroom.
Keeping a teaching journal will allow you to reflect on previos teaching technique, mistakes made while teaching, etc. With the use of journaling will provide for focused improvement in your teaching techniques.
After an in class lab or student evaluation, I typically think of ways a particular topic could have been better presented or that a prop or example could have added to the clarity and understanding. I have found that if I don't write it down, I find myself doing it the same way with the next class and coming to the same conclusion. A journal is a great reminder.
A teaching journal provides valuable information for reflection and synthesis from objective to objective.
Teaching journals can be a great tool to aid in my ability to not only assess the things that went on in my class, but will help me reflect on myself. I need to understand what my impact is having on the ability for students to learn.
using a teaching journal it hel you see how you are doing how you can improve in your teaching methods
I like the comment by one of the Harvard Business School professors who used a journal system to keep track of which items on the lesson plan worked and which didn't work.
A teaching journal can help you keep track of lesson plan successes and failures. They can also help you gage what activities work for certain material.
Using a teachers journal will help you improve. I have been taking notes at the end of my classes to write down any thoughts for that day of class. The next time that I teach the same class, I pull out my notes and make changes to improve the class as a whole.
Writing your thoughts while they are fresh in your mind will accomplish several things: you won't forget important material, you can evaluate and discard any thoughts that were "important" in the moment, but do not hold the same weight upon reflection. Beyond those, a journal gives you a way to evaluate the educational outcomes of each class and offers a resource to improve upon your technique.
