I worked out my favourite style of writing was the "Initial Reflection" style. This means I wrote more about how I feel, what I was thinking and what was my mood, more than what happened. I did this style on the second day of my journal writing, and I found I had so much to write. I also found that whatever style I was working in, I ended up writing about my feelings and emotions about the day. Overall, looking at the different styles, I thought I would enjoy writing in the 'list' style as it is easy to jot down quickly when you are pushed for time but I actually found looking back on it that the key words I had written didn't really mean much to me as if had forgotten what they meant!! However, like I said earlier, I found myself more jotting down adjectives of how I felt which once again pointed at how much I enjoy writing about how I felt.
One thing I did learn from this experience was that writing the journals in my work notepad was a bad idea as as I was doing work in between the different days my journal ended up being spaced out which meant it was sporadic and hard to follow. So my future plan, is to buy a diary that is of A5 size so there is enough room to write my journal but then it will all be kept in one place.
As I was planning on writing this blog about journaling tonight, I decided to chat about to journaling styles in the discussion group with all the different modules. I expressed my views at this point that I found it more of a therapeutic task, rather than a learning task. At the end of the day it was nice to write down my thoughts on my pad, and leave them there on the paper as I went to bed with a clear mind. However, from speaking to other students that are on module 3, they reminded me of the importance of journaling for reflective purposes. One idea that was thrown out was that journaling was 'leaving the breadcrumbs'. I learnt that it is so useful when doing the modules in the future and very easy to refer back to when working through them. It is a reminder of how you felt at the time and how maybe your feelings can change over time, and then you can analyse why your feelings may have changed.
During the discussion group we also spoke about how to get started writing the essay. Some key tips from module 3 were:
- Make sure your essay flows. Make sure the key readers inform the others and all link together
- Work out what's really important when trying to cut your essay down to the work count - what are the crooks of the point? What is it you are really trying to say?
- Essay writing and being more selective with literature is a skill you will develop in your professional practice as you go along
- It is all part of the journey, and throughout each module there is a notion of connection to the other modules and a flow through the whole course
We also spoke about some of the module 3 concerns which were mainly based on the inquiry. Sometimes I feel as if I have nothing to add to these discussions and I don't fully understand but I am always happy to listen and input where I can, as listening to these discussions can be a great learning tool. One thing that was discussed was why Dance and Drama arnt subjects within their own right in the primary school curriculum. I found this pretty interesting and something I actually think I may look into myself. I have a lot of family and friends who are teachers, some of which have a keen interest in the arts and others who don't, so it would be interesting to chat with them about their views and opinions on this matter too. It also gave me the motivation I needed to get into primary and secondary schools and volunteer as a teacher as this is something I would like to go into in the future.
Thanks everyone for reading and feel free to comment.
Laura :)
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