7 Reasons Why You Should Keep A Teacher Journal

I have seven reasons why you should keep a teacher reflective journal as one of your many tools towards successful classroom instruction.

Reason #1 – A Teacher Journal is a Private Organizational Tool

This journal is a conversation with only yourself. Nobody should see it and it should be kept in a secure location so that you can feel safe about expressing yourself. It can be paper or digital. Make sure that the journal format that you choose is attractive to you and makes you WANT to journal.

WHAT do you write? At the very least, I write down the main concepts that I covered during each class every day. It doesn’t always match my lesson plans, if we went off on a needed tangent or the activity needed tweaking. I teach fifth through eighth grade science every day of the week, so I need to write down what I covered briefly during each of the classes or I will never remember!

Carve out a time that you visit this journal and chat about how your classes went. I usually try to jot down bullet points as the students are packing up at the end of each class. It can then be developed more thoroughly for 5 to 10 minutes at the end of the day before I leave the school building.

Reason #2 – Journaling Will Help You Notice Trends And Triggers

Writing consistently every day will help you notice trends in both your behavior and possibly your class’s behavior. You might have had a night with poor sleep and then later that day you complained about how the students were all being edgy and cranky. Maybe they were feeding off of your tired, negative energy?

Your journal may also help you recognize triggers. Were the students getting whiny and unruly and asking 1000 questions about how to do a lab? As much as we don’t like to admit it, that lab was probably unclear. Maybe it needed to be better explained or written out for both auditory and visual learners. Reflecting on this in your journal will help you plan for future activities.

Reason #3 – Keeping a Journal Helps Improve Mental Health

We all struggle with periods of stress and anxiety. As teachers, we are balancing trying to get ready for classes, administrative demands, parental demands and needy students. This is on top of anything that may be going on in our private lives.

By writing down our issues, it helps us gain control of our emotions. Have you ever written a letter that you know that you are never going to send? I will sometimes write out whole conversations that I know I will never have with a parent, principal or peer. It is a strategy that is somehow very therapeutic.

Reason #4 – Your Journal Will Give You Confidence That You Are Showing Progress

Write down the smallest rewards that happened throughout the day. Did a parent grab you in the car line and compliment you? Did an administrator leave a small note thanking you for a nice job on the hallway bulletin board? Did a peer admire an activity that you were doing with your students?

No matter how small, write it down!

When you are having those days, where it feels like you are going backwards, go back and read these comforting comments.

Did you have some small successes with a single child that has been difficult for the last month? Keeping track of these baby steps helps you be patient and see the big picture.

Reason #5 – Keeping Records Will Improve Your Classroom Instruction

Contemplate the importance of each activity that you presented to the students that day. Were all of the lessons worthwhile?

We all have limited time to teach our curriculum, so this is a good place to decide if a specific activity belongs in your unit the following year.

How did you handle a difficult situation in your class? What would you have done differently? Write it down. Trust me, it helps!

Reason #6 – Use Your Journal to Brainstorm Future Ideas and To Tweak Existing Ones

Your journal is a great tool to have available when you are working on your pacing guides for the following year.

Did you get a great idea in the shower and you need someplace to write it down? Were you completing one activity and thought of an awesome extension activity to complement it?

Your journal is also where you can write ideas to improve an activity that you’re already using. Could it be made longer? Shorter? Could you make it easier to understand? Maybe you need to make a rubric for clarity? Should you make it more visually attractive?

Reason #7 – Use Your Teacher Journal As a Tool for Self Assessment

We all need to take a good look at ourselves and perhaps even discipline ourselves. We also need to forgive ourselves when we are unable to do everything that we were hoping to do.

One way that I assess myself is by giving the students surveys at the end of each unit. If you have a good relationship with your students, they tend to give very valuable information, especially if you allow them to be anonymous.

Self grading at the end of each year should not be too harsh. Just as you would for a student, allow yourself room for improvement and know that we never stop growing!

Go back and visit your journals often and enjoy watching the amazing evolution of your teaching career!