2b: Journal Writing Experience

Last week I wrote about my day each evening in a journal based on the variety of frameworks defined in the Reader, for example, Moon and Reid. I wrote about what I did throughout the day and found I sometimes elaborated on specific events that happened, whether they were related to my professional practise or personally. I wrote in 7 different frameworks for each day.

List;

I started off the week writing in a list structure, a method I found quick and easy to complete. Although most of what I wrote was very random and at first appeared to have no connection with each other, I found there was one common theme of emotion. I found my emotions affected how I wrote my list. Towards the end of the day where I was clearly in a good mood, my list structure became less of random words and blunt sentences, and more of detailed sentences describing how certain events that occurred had made me feel, still making sure to stick to a list form. Looking back at my old diaries, I noticed I would make lists of my day from time to time. When I wouldn't have time to write a full descriptive entry like I normally would have done, a quick jot down of what I did each day was perfect as I would always plan to return to the same page and fill in the blanks, my memory being jogged by random word after word. Although I never ‘filled in the blanks’ with my Boomtown Diary towards the end of the festival week, (something I really regret not doing!), I still am able to remember most of the things that happened just by reading through a list of the day.

Graphs, Charts and Diagrams;

When I first read this as a suggestion I was more than confused as to how I could portray my day in a graph, for example. But after researching the book ‘My Life in Graphs – A Guided Journal’ Knock Knock, I began to like the idea of using these graphs, charts and different diagrams to portray my day and what I have done, deciding to use a pie chart as my guide. Below is a photo of my roughly drawn chart.

Once I had created this chart, I spent a while looking over what I had done that day and I could quickly and clearly observe what I had achieved and what I really needed to do more of. I was surprised to find how little productivity was achieved. Although I wasn't keen on the actual drawing process, I found it interesting to reflect on what appears to be the main parts of my day; Stress, Procrastination and Daydreaming, and think why I felt stressed or didn't do any work, and how I can avoid making these things re-occurring actions.

Description;

Next I wrote in a descriptive style which I enjoyed and didn't find too hard to do. Normally when writing I tend to use this style as when reading a book, it is the detailed description giving me a clear imagery in my head, that makes me hesitate to put down my book. ‘Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s’ – Stephen King. I had 3 main bullet points to my day that I used as a guide; What happened? What were the main events? Where and When? When I read over my entry, although it is short, I can clearly picture exactly what happened because of the extent of my descriptions.

Initial Reflection;

I enjoyed writing in this style as, for me, it was the similar to writing in the descriptive style had used previously, (and in my old journals), except this time including my feelings, emotions and thoughts. This is my natural and most preferred style of writing. I included short ‘quotations’ of thoughts that had been going through my head throughout the day, and I found once I had begun to write, the words just kept flowing. Emotion is something that mainly controls what most people write, especially in the case of a 
journal. 

Evaluation;

I found writing using an evaluation style was one of the best ways to reflect with as reading over what I wrote now, I find it blunter than the previous two entries. Using three main bullet points again; What happened? Did I learn anything? And Verdict? As a basic structure, I found my entry was to the point, with hardly any waffle. I can clearly see how I reflected on that day, and what I learnt worked well and what did not.

What If;

Writing my journal entry for the day in this style did not work very well for me. Writing what I could have done or what I would have loved to have happened was not easy to reflect on as without realising I began to delve into negativity, realising what I would have loved to have happened etc reading all the unrealistic expectations of my ‘perfect productive day’. I struggled to write the sentences with this style.

Another View;

I love creative writing, so to use my imagination and write as another person or object, in this case being my bed, and making sure to include the thoughts and views of this person or thing was something I enjoyed doing although I did struggle a little with this style. I found it weird at first trying to think of how my bed would possibly view my day. I personally would not use this as a reflective tool as I found I didn't really reflect, just created a short, vague story of my day in another’s eyes.

Overall I found it hard adapting to each different method of writing, but with certain styles I wrote with a steady flow and felt I had things to write about. I love the method of trial and error in general; discovering new ways of doing things that are helpful to you, gaining knowledge and also confidence to try something new and out of your comfort zone. If I had to choose three styles to continue writing in they would be; List, Graphs/Charts and Initial Reflection as I feel I can personally reflect in these styles to a certain point, gain confidence and knowledge but I choose these styles mainly as a learning curve; where I learn what I need to avoid as well as the techniques to aid my reflective practise. 

Multiple Intelligences

'Gardner says that these differences "challenge an educational system that assumes that everyone can learn the same materials in the same way and that a uniform, universal measure suffices to test student learning. Indeed, as currently constituted, our educational system is heavily biased toward linguistic modes of instruction and assessment and, to a somewhat lesser degree, toward logical-quantitative modes as well."' (Gardner 1991) 

Following on from my most recent blog about Howard Gardner and his idea of multiple intelligences, I was reminded of the picture above that I saw online last year. It emphasises Gardner's theory, as shown in the picture is a man stateing 'for a fair selection everybody has to take the same exam: please climb that tree'. The only animal who can pass the 'fair selection' is the monkey who is built and adapted to climb trees, therefore eliminating chances for any other animal to prove themselves worthy. 

"The broad spectrum of students - and perhaps the society as a whole - would be better served if disciplines could be presented in a numbers of ways and learning could be assessed through a variety of means". (Gardner 1991) 

2a: Reflective Practise

When I read that Module 1, Part 2 of the BAPP course, ‘The Reflective Practitioner’ involved keeping a journal, I was more than delighted! I used to always keep a diary or a journal from a very young age but stopped before I left high school. I clearly remember writing almost anything and everything in my diary; what I had done on particular days, things that happened in and out of school but mostly I wrote about how I felt. For me, being able to freely express my feelings and thoughts privately was the best part of having a diary. Unfortunately, I have done very little of it over the last couple of years, but I have always enjoyed writing and still thoroughly enjoy it to this day, whenever I get a chance to. This part of the course involves the use of reflective practice, writing and learning so I am more than excited to getting stuck into this task and to see the end product.

Looking at my old diaries now, I feel this huge wave of nostalgia hit me as I refresh my memory of key moments in my life that have occurred, some things I had even forgotten about! I never realised how much and how often I used to write in my diaries until reading them back to myself now. Remembering how much I loved it is making me consider starting a personal journal again, especially as I embark on a new career, university degree and have graduated from college. Reading over previous entries from many years ago, I can’t believe how much I have changed, although one thing is for sure; I still write today in a same or similar style which I find quite interesting to see. I clearly developed an interest in a particular style that I loved to write in. I feel that being able to write absolutely anything you like in a journal as an exercise for reflective practise is a good routine to have.

Although I say I have not written a diary for a few years, I suddenly remembered the Summer of 2014. I volunteered at Boomtown Festival, in Winchester, with 2 of my friends. Before going we decided we would each get a notepad and make a 'Boomtown diary', which we wrote in whenever we had a spare chance to then compare and read altogether at the end of the week. We were there for at least 4 days so would have had plenty to write about, especially as we were working so would have the professional experience of volunteering to write about, as well as the party experience when we were not on our shifts! I haven't looked back at this diary for over half a year so I think it will be amazing, (and hilariously funny), to re-read it, purely for the good memories but also to see how I wrote the entries while lounging in a messy tent on a field pretty much in the middle of nowhere! 

After going through Reader 2, although I am still feeling a bit swamped and a little overwhelmed by it all, I have a much better understanding. I decided to research the different theories that were mentioned in the Reader, and found that I fall into Howard Gardner’s theory; the idea that people are intelligent in a number of different ways. From my research I found I fell into a couple of his theories, but more in depth, two of them.

1. Bodily-kinesthetic and

2. Interpersonal

Interpersonal intelligence is the ability to understand, interact and communicate well with other people. People with this intelligence have sensitivity to others’ moods, are able to have multiple perspectives and understand others’ feelings or motives.

Having been dancing for most of my life, I was not surprised to fall into the bodily-kinesthetic category. This intelligence involves a keen sense of body awareness and a sense of timing. They communicate and learn through body language, whether this be taught through physical activity, role-play, acting out, or using tools or equipment for hands-on learning. As I started dance from a young age, I obviously found using bodily-kinesthetic intelligence helped me to build strength and knowledge as a dancer. As this was the most natural way of learning for me, I began to adapt it and try to use it in other situations, mostly when I was learning in school. Creating acrostic-like poems/formulas, made-up phrases and new words as well as acting them out became my quickest and easiest method of learning and still is today.

So with all of this in mind, including the online session, I came up with some ideas to help me write my reflective journal. They are as follows;

·         What happened? / What did I do that day?

·         How did it go? / What could I have done differently? / Why did things go well/wrong?

·         How did I deal with the situation.

I will use these as a starting point that allows me to structure and expand on them when applying them to my dance rehearsals, weekend job and my personal life.