The Reflective Journal is intended to provide you with an opportunity to capture in an organized fashion your observations, questions, and reactions to things you experience during your field placement. The Journal is a place for you to: document things you notice and find interesting; pose questions to yourself on things you find problematic; try to make connections between things you are observing in the field, and ideas you are reading about; work out ideas that you find perplexing; comment on your own personal feelings in reaction to events and ideas; and speculate on the meaning of these experiences and what you have learned from them.

What kinds of things should I write in my reflective journal?

• Observations - noting something of interest and attempting to capture it in language.

• Personal Reactions -commenting on what you agree or disagree with, noticing how an event makes you feel, etc.

• Speculation & Questions - to wonder about the meaning of events, interpretations, problems, and solutions. Testing your own ideas out, without concern for whether they are true or correct.

• Connections - putting together ideas, noticing relationships between things you've observed and things you've read, etc.

How should I write?

• informally, freely, and uninhibitedly

• boldly - take risks in your speculations

• chronologically - as things happen

Specific Requirements for The Reflective Journal:

• Number and date each entry
• Make an entry for every day that you are participating in your field experience