Journal Writing Experience

After reading through the different ways of writing a journal I instantly knew what could work for me and what would not.  I immediately scrapped the idea of writing a journal from the view of somebody else, however, on deeper thought, I realised that I often imagine a parent or another teacher in the room when I am teaching, and this helps me to remain completely professional and 100% enthusiastic at all times.

For the past week, I have written journal entries and I now think I have come up with a format that best suits me

I want to be able to refer back to these so I want them to look simple and colourful so I can easily remember them.  The use of lists really works for me but I don't want my journal entries to simply be a list of words.  I aim to do a mind map for each event and then write a list of aims for improvement so they are clear in my head.

I did a bit of research into mind maps and found the creator 'Tony Buzan' to be very interesting.  In his clip that I watched he says 'the mind map is a reflection of the way the brain thinks'  You have a central idea/event and then it branches out into other ideas.  This way, I still feel like I am being creative with my reflection and letting my ideas just flow.  I think this ties in well with the Ken Robinson video I watched about the importance of creativity when learning.  I want my classes to be creative and allow my pupils to be creative, so I think I should reflect creatively too!

Here is a link to Buzan talking about the importance of mind maps and creative thinking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlabrWv25qQ 

What I found was inhibiting my journal writing was the fact that I would get home from my classes or auditions and I had forgotten to either write the journal, or I had forgotten what I had learnt from class that morning.  Therefore, I like to carry my journal around with me so if an idea pops into my head it can go straight to paper!