Journals can offer leitmotifs for our learning where we can muse, reflect, plan, organise, quote, diagram, cartoon, storyboard, headline, problem solve and jot down the kaleidoscope.
Good tools strengthen any craft. Two strong covers, front and back, and an excellent spine are ideal for sterling service. If we expect quality we offer quality. As well, generous space invites abundance of content. So less than A4 size and you will find the throw away: cramping, scribbling, and wasteful use of paper may rear. When a glue stick is your friend you will glue in those precious handouts. Paper aeroplanes, scuffed, dog-eared, and torn worksheets can become past tense.
How we introduce and steer the journal will give our students clues about how we work. Are we methodical, do we rate our worksheets highly enough to give time in class for training them in glueing in,dating their work, taking time initially to write guided reflections, until it is internalised and becomes an automatic habit, sans training wheels?
Borders boundary and define the work. Colour adds warmth and a personal touch, making the work more my own. Images and great quotes add a clarifying or sign-posting function, focussing the topic, stimulating memorisation and subsequent reflection. Dating the work each time grounds and anchors us in time. Encouraging some pages of white space can free up our thinking. Doodling can focus some minds and stimulate thinking.
Journals are places where we can plan, brainstorm, generate, find our own whimsy and get more in tune with our own deepening learning.
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