Examining the Teacher Experience

I have used journals with my students after my first year of teaching science. It was suggested at kit training and I loved the idea. The marble notebooks are the best because they are neater and students can’t tear out pages. My students continue in their journals for each kit. Everything is recorded in their journals except their homework. Journals a usually kept in the classroom and taken home for studying.

Journals entries should always include a date followed by the challenge question. Then the students add their notes, observations from labs, and reflections. Students who have neat handwriting usually have the neatest journals. They use every page without skipping any. The not-so-good journals are usually not dated, sloppy writing, and pages are skipped. I have noticed some have entries that are out of date sequence.

This year I made a commitment to have journals in my room with no skipped pages and organized entries: challenge question, notes, observations, and reflection. I actually started my own journal just to see how many pages would be needed, proper dates, etc. To help the students, I put a sample of each entry on the overhead so the students could see the format. It was very time consuming at first but I have noticed a great improvement in the journals.