journal entry

This assignment involves keeping a journal recording your thoughts, insights, and introspections following each week. In addition, you should examine and discuss your reactions and notions about how the material pertinent to a given week relates to your own past/future work/non-work situations.

Each blog entry should have 3 identifiable headings: Summary, Meaningful Ideas, Personal Connecting. The Summary is where you highlight the themes found in the materials for the week (2 paragraphs). The Meaningful Ideas section is where you highlight two to three thought provoking ideas that emerged from the materials and why you think they are worthy of being highlighted (2 paragraphs). The Personal Connecting Section is where you discuss how the topics can be applied to your professional and/or personal situations (1 paragraph).

The purpose of this assignment is to let you take a little time once a week to reflect, so as to improve your understanding of yourself and understanding of the course materials. Each paragraph should be 100-200 words in length.

What is Reflective Writing?
Your response to experiences, opinions, events or new information
Your response to thoughts and feelings
A way of thinking to explore your learning
An opportunity to gain self-knowledge
A way to achieve clarity and better understanding of what you are learning
A change to develop and reinforce writing skills
A way of making meaning out of what you study

What can I discuss?
Your perceptions of the course and the content.
Experiences, ideas and observations you have had, and how they relate to the course or topic.
What you found confusing, inspiring, difficult, interesting, and why.
Questions you have and conclusions you have drawn.
How you solved a problem, reached a conclusion, found an answer or reached a point of understanding.
Possibilities, speculations, hypotheses or solutions.
Alternative interpretations or different perspectives on what you have read or done in your course.
Comparisons and connections between what you are learning and:
Your prior knowledge and experience;
Your prior assumptions and preconceptions;
What you know from other courses or disciplines.

Tips to help you in your reflective writing process:
Think of an interaction, event or episode you experienced that can be connected to the topic
Describe what happened
What was your role?
What feelings and perceptions surrounded the experience?
How would you explain the situation to someone else?
What might this experience mean in the context of your course?
What other perspectives, theories or concepts could be applied to the situation?