I have spent about a week and a half working on my journal and attempting different ways of blogging it every night. It was really challenging to change the way you write about your day, I thought the hardest would have been writing from someone else's point of view but I actually found this quite easy. Although, I found it didn't display what I had been up to during the day.
I got a little caught up on What if? it was really hard to write about what might have happened especially when it was a good day anyway. It really made me think about a different journey my day might have taken.
Drawing a graph to explain your day was a bit daunting to begin with. I just sat and stared at the page for half an hour to try and work out what angle to take. Finally, I decided to draw 2 graphs, one showing thoughts and feelings and the other comparing my day with my day last week and last year. It was strange to see that I still have almost the same routine as last year. I suppose it is good to be consistent. I think I might try this again to see what other challenges days might bring and a graph shows emotion quite clearly and where my thoughts and feeling change over days and weeks.
I felt that the first few options I was already doing in my journals so it was strange to only write about one part as I felt I wasn't sharing my entire day and expressing it fully. Therefore I kept drifting back to what I was used to. I really enjoyed trying new ways of writing but I think I will stick to my original way and slip aspect of the other ways to strengthen my diary especially what if? as I feel this can be useful in widening the reasons of why it didn't happen that way. I believe everything happens for a reason.
Lisa your review of reflective journal writing sounds as if you are genuinely trying out different ways of evaluating your work. Are you able to scan the graphs? I think part of this exercise is to develop good observation and thinking skills - at time applying the adult learning theories (critical thinking) to the practice that we do. While some of the work-related activities remain the same, has your experience of them - your expectations or your ability to prepare for or take direction etc. - changed? Try comparing this with other professionals - sometimes focusing on particular aspects of comparison can be done in more depth when isolated... try to add examples (you can make these anonymous on this public blog) so that your explanations are clearer to an audience. Your last thought is one that could be further explained and perhaps hedged a bit - does everything really happen for a reason. It is a rather universal question but hard to evidence (?).
ReplyDeleteThank you Paula. I will take on these notes. I am going to create the graphs on the computer and explain my reasoning behind them. I have also done a Journal from the view of an Iphone. It was strange to do but Afterwards it has made me realise how much of a routine I follow every day. I will continue to work on looking and comparing to other professionals as I am now starting to get the hang of that.
ReplyDeleteThank you