Professional Journal Workshop

1
Professional Journal Workshop

• Marigold Francis

2

• Part 1
• Aims
• explore the barriers to deep reflection
• provide strategies for overcoming writing
  difficulties
• provide hints to deepen reflective writing
• demonstrate relevance of the Professional Journal
  for Learning Evaluation assignment

3

• What are the common barriers to reflective
  writing?

4

• lack of time
• lack of motivation or commitment
• overkill
• concerns about assessment
• lack of experience
• dislike of writing
• stress
• lack of objectivity
• negative past experiences

5

How do I overcome the barriers to writing the
Professional Journal?
6

• establish a set time and surroundings to write at
  your best time (eg morning or evening)
• Focus on your professional learning - its not a
  diary of personal experiences!
• dont worry about spelling, handwriting or
  sentence structure
• make lists/dot points to begin
• use concept maps or graphic maps to start off
• write a haiku verse to start off (5 syllables, 7
  syllables and 5 syllables)
• try content free free writing for 5 mins on
  another piece of paper and then write for
  professional purposes

7

• How can I vary my reflective writing approach?

8

• take one sentence from a reading that sparked
  your interest and reflect on its meaning to you
  as a beginning teacher
• ask yourself a series of questions about the
  weekly topic
• vary your format eg double entry format (left
  hand side for descriptive and right hand side for
  further/deeper reflections from Whitton et al)
• write an imaginary dialogue with a teaching issue
  or intrapersonal or interpersonal conflict or
  difficulty or puzzling problem eg write a
  greeting, state the problem and wait for response
  from imaginary mentor or theorist (Progoff).
• write about a specific issue in the present, past
  and the future (Currere)
• write a letter to or have a debate with a
  theorist/author from your set or wider readings
• read your entries aloud! (Progoff)

9
How do I prevent falling into the negative
spiral?
10

• dont judge your writing - be spontaneous and
  constructive
• use a self assessment model for some objectivity
• utilise the on-line feedback on Monday afternoons
  from 3-5pm on 10th and 17th September
• share your entries with another student to see
  how they are writing
• try a group reflection with some trusted friends

11

• -
• How do I deepen my reflections for the
• Professional Journal ?

12

• Week 5
• Journal reflections
• 29th March 2006
• Caring
• Warm
• Understanding
• Love kids
• Report writer
• Active
• Accepting
• Reflective
• Education involves community building and
  preparing a base where children can develop the
  knowledge and skills to face the outside world.
  Teachers need to relate positively with their
  students, work with other teachers and keep in
  contact with parents. Schools should care about
  and promote a safe community through their
  example.

13

• To deepen this reflection you could
• Prioritise teacher qualities and explain your
  reasons
• Reflect on why these qualities are important to
  you
• Try to find a working definition of the purpose
  of education from previous studies or a school
  philosophy or vision statement
• Compare two schools and how they fit your idea of
  the purpose of education

14

• Week 9
• Journal Reflections
• What philosophical approaches (i.e. teacher
  beliefs, school philosophy, attitudes to human
  rights/social justice) have you observed being
  enacted in classrooms (or in the yard, in staff
  meetings or the staff room). Were there
  conflicting viewpoints or mismatches between
  stated policies and observed actions? Reflect on
  how these observations fit with your
  understanding of inclusivity and inclusive
  classrooms?

15

• May 14 2006
• At X I have observed that the grade 1 and 2
  teacher quite often asks for students opinions
  and feelings about topics. This gives the teacher
  an understanding of how the students are feeling
  and the children a feeling that there (sic)
  voices are being heard.
• From the reading by Mel Ainscow and Ian Kaplan I
  have learnt that student involvement betters
  there (sic) sense of belonging and I strongly
  believe teachers need to make students feel like
  they belong, that there (sic) opinions count. It
  also helps the children trust the teacher as they
  have shown that they care.

16

• To deepen this reflection you could
• Quote the actual belief or claim that has
  triggered your comments
• Eg Authentic participation is evident when all
  students learn alongside others, collaborate in
  shared learning experiences, actively engage with
  learning, and have a say in their education. More
  deeply, participation means being recognised,
  accepted and valued for oneself. (Booth
  Ainscow 2002 as cited in Ainscow Kaplan 2004
  p.9)
• Ask yourself why this statement was significant
  for you
• Reflect on how you could use this philosophy in
  your own classroom one day
• Check the references for this article and find
  others to extend your knowledge base and comment
  on how they compare
• Brainstorm other issues that come out of this
  article such as leadership or students with
  special needs and find ways of connecting these
  topics with the trigger question about policies

17

• Week 11
• Journal reflections
• Reflect on school communities you have observed
  and whether and in what ways collaboration and
  cooperation have been used to address issues of
  student behaviour management.

18

• June 5 2006
• The only instances of this that I can reflect on
  are where individual class teachers support one
  another with misbehaving children by offering
  special jobs and peer support time amongst age
  levels.
• For example, if a teacher has a student who has
  been having a disruptive day and the rest of the
  classs learning is being disrupted, then another
  teacher may offer to have that child in their
  class to help students, or do jobs or even just
  do their work in a classroom that is not filled
  with their class mates.
• I have seen that the students cope well with
  this, especially when an older grade student goes
  to a younger level class and gets to support the
  learning of the younger kids. They feel they have
  some worth to give.

19
To deepen this entry you could

• use educational jargon (cooperation,
  collaboration)
• extract other significant learnings from your
  readings (eg preventative strategies for
  behaviour management or the Plan-Teach-Evaluate
  Model proposed by Barry and King (1993) and
  discuss the nature of being proactive as a
  classroom manager as opposed to being merely
  responsive to disruptive behaviour and
• discuss how this relates to being a reflective
  practitioner!

20

• Is it always necessary to deepen my
  reflections?

21

• No!

22

• How can I use my journal entries for my
• Learning Evaluation?

23

• read the expectations and criteria in the DLiT
  handbook and write your entries with these in
  mind
• write regularly so you have plenty of material to
  refer to
• use a highlighter to track and summarise common
  themes throughout your journal (eg learnings,
  challenges, new concepts, future teacher
  identity, topics such as learning or inclusivity,
  past school or learning experiences)
• use excerpts from your journal as examples of
  your own learning
• answer the questions in Week 13 which is a
  meta-cognitive exercise about your learning and
  use your answers to plan your essay

24

• What other resources can help me?

25

• On line support Mon10th and 17th September 3-5pm
• Whitton et al reading
• Reflective Practice FLO site articles and
  references
• Reflective Practice FLO site discussions - keep
  them constructive, use them like a blog
• Practising teachers

26

• Part 2
• Aims
• provide opportunities to share journal writing
  experiences
• assess own levels of reflection using self
  assessment guide
• experiment with a group journal exercise

27

• Week 7
• Journal reflections
• Reflect on the following Best practice in
  promoting learning is that which proves
  empowering or enabling for students.

28
Remember ..

• Focus on your professional learning - its not a
  diary of personal experiences!
• dont worry about spelling, handwriting or
  sentence structure
• make lists/dot points to begin
• use concept maps or graphic maps to start off
• write a haiku verse to start off (5 syllables, 7
  syllables and 5 syllables)
• try content free free writing for 5 mins on
  another piece of paper and then write for
  professional purposes

29

• Or try this

30

• take one sentence from a reading that sparked
  your interest and reflect on its meaning to you
  as a beginning teacher
• ask yourself a series of questions about the
  weekly topic
• vary your format eg double entry format (left
  hand side for descriptive and right hand side for
  further/deeper reflections from Whitton et al)
• write an imaginary dialogue with a teaching issue
  or intrapersonal or interpersonal conflict or
  difficulty or puzzling problem eg write a
  greeting, state the problem and wait for response
  from imaginary mentor or theorist (Progoff).
• write about a specific issue in the present, past
  and the future (Currere)
• write a letter to or have a debate with a
  theorist/author from your set or wider readings

31

• And

32
read your entries aloud! (Progoff)
33

• Self assessment exercise
• choose one assessment model
• compare the reflective level of todays entry
  with your first entry but dont judge! Be
  constructive.
• share your impressions with the group

34

• Professional Journal Workshops 2007
• Minute paper
• Date of Workshop
• What have you gained from this workshop?
• Is there anything more you would like to know
  about Reflective Practice for
• 1) your Teaching Experience Days or Practicum?
• 2) the Professional Journal?

35

• Thank you
• marigold.francis_at_flinders.edu.au