How to Keep a Teacher's Journal

Record highlights from your day at school.

Keeping a journal can be therapeutic and useful for anyone. Teachers may find that writing in a journal makes them more effective in the classroom. Use a journal to record successful -- or unsuccessful -- activities, ideas for lesson plans and individual notes about students. Make it a part of your daily routine, perhaps even encouraging your students to keep one, too.

Things You'll Need

• Notebook
• Paper and pen
• Optional: an online journaling program

Instructions

1. Write about the activities of your day. Write about your triumphs, but also describe lessons that didn't go so well and why, so that you can improve on teaching techniques or planning skills. If you encountered a problem during the day, writing about it may help you solve it.

2. Record specific incidents involving student behavior. Writing about issues may help you decide the best way to deal with them. These details may also come in handy during a parent-teacher conference.

3. Write down your observations of other teachers, their styles and their ideas. Your colleagues can be a source of inspiration, and teachers should make a point of networking with their colleagues.

4. Add examples of student work to your journal. These items become useful when you want to re-teach the lesson at a future date and need to show the students an example of excellent work.

Tips & Warnings

• Select a 3-ring binder so that you can divide the journal into sections.

• Don't leave the journal where students can read it.

• Never upload the journal to the Internet without first removing students' names.

References

• Scholastic: Keep a Teaching Journal