Online Reflection #2: The Journey of Journals

     I've always placed significant value in the reflection process that keeping a journal provides, both in and outside of the classroom. I think they are a wonderful way to work through one's emotions with the journal acting as a confidant or therapist. Keeping a daily journal can drastically improve one's writing (and hand-writing- if they are doing it the old fashioned way). Not to mention, if you are documenting memorable occurrences in your life as they present themselves, and continue this for several years you can later look back on them and see how you have progressed (and grown!) overtime. You may be able to review your past mistakes or accomplishments and use those recordings of the past to avoid future mishaps and increase your chances of success. Suffice it to say, I want to encourage my students to keep a journal throughout their time in my class (and after if they choose to do so) to document their individual journeys through their lives and through the duration of their time in my class.

     During the first week of school, my Mentor Teacher had our students write a journal entry on one thing that they liked about themselves, or one thing they did really well, and then something that they disliked or could improve on. Later that week, they were to do a journal on the what reasons one might keep a diary or journal, what doing so does for a person, and then answered why Anne Frank's diary is important today, and why she might have kept one back then. These two were just introductory journals in order to get them used to writing entries in response to the prompts. They only have five minutes to write out their thoughts, without the focus being on their grammar or spelling. The prompts that were relative to the current unit of study "Of Mice and Men" began with their nomad journals; this entry prompted them to reveal what they would bring if they had to live as nomads, moving every few months, and what they would miss most about having a permanent/stable home. In their next entry, the students described a character of their choosing from the novella. While I found all of these entries to be great introductions to what we were teaching, I wanted to give them a different kind of challenge. We had gotten through the first half of the book, and they had been introduced to all of the characters thoroughly save for one. With this in mind, I had the students do a journal entry comparing themselves to one character in the book. They were to explain how they were similar (beyond the superficial "she is a girl and I am a girl" type of response), and then reflect on what the comparison reveals about themselves as a person. The goal of this entry was for my students to draw the connection between the lives of the characters in the novella and their own lives and challenges that they both face. 

After reading their responses (to all of their entries, not just the one I assigned), I have come to the conclusion that they are beginning the connection of the relevancy between the text and themselves exceptionally well. I also was able to gain some insight into who each of my students are as an individual: their values, their beliefs, their struggles, and so on. To show them I am just as invested in their education and their well-being as they are, I took the time to write back to at least one journal entry in each and every one of their journals, so that they can get to know a little more about me too, and hopefully, begin to make the connection that I am not just a teacher at a school, but also a person: I'm a mom, a sister, a wife, a daughter, a performer, an artist, an amateur chef, a college student, a reader, a writer, and more than they probably ever dreamed I would be. I want them to come to the realization that to me, they are not just "my students" but are people with their own personalities, quirks, and interests as well. I plan to continue down this journey with the journals in my classroom, until it proves ineffective (which I doubt it ever will!). 

My questions to you, my reader: Do you keep a diary or journal? For what purpose? What do you think about having the students keep journals for your class? How often would you have them write in it? How do you present yourself as a person as well as their teacher? How do you promote relevancy in your classroom instruction? 

Thank you for reading!

Until next time,

Mrs. Johnson.