Leslie I have been keeping just such a "book" several months now...probably since about December. Sometimes the pages are just bulleted ideas that come to me. Other pages have quotes from something I have been reading and then my reaction to that quote (two column chart). I actually have a few sketches...mostly diagrams and a few email segments from this listserv that I particularly wanted to refer back to frequently. I put one of those funky multi-colored pens in my purse and sometimes if I reread my journal and have some new thinking to add, I will just write it in a different color on the same page.
I have found the act of writing, whether it is emails here on the list or notes to myself in my journal, really helps me to clarify my thinking, to make connections between ideas, to keep focus on what is important to me. Sometimes I don't like how messy some pages look, but I have given myself permission to be messy. The only audience is me, after all! (Though I have shown my book to my students at the end of the year and they have seen my write in it when something occurs to me in class. I saw it as part of modeling the intellectual life.) :-) I started journaling by setting a time of day to write...but the more I did it, the more it has become a part of my day to day routine. I take it with me everywhere, along with my planner and that way it gets used routinely. Good luck... Jenn Jennifer Palmer Reading Specialist, National Board Certified Teacher FLES- Lead the discovery, Live the learning, Love the adventure. Reading furnishes the mind only with the materials of knowledge. It is thinking that makes what we read ours. -John Locke From: Leslie Wright Sent: Fri 6/27/2008 2:57 PM To: Special Chat List for To Understand: New Horizons in Reading Comprehension Subject: Re: [Understand] Understand Digest, responses to leslie and melissa Thanks for your response Bonita. I'd love to get back together as the year goes along. I just picked up my own blank idea book today and forced myself to write it it. I have so many ideas but I struggle with validating myself by writing in the journal. I need to give myself permission to write poorly, to jump from topic to topic, and to just "not be profound." I'm going to use this book while on vacation next week and record ideas on various topics. I'm resisiting the need to organize it and table-ize it in word. I'll keep you posted. Leslie _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
