michellemeracis-learningjourney

Michelle Meracis, Dallas Primary School and Kindergarten
 * Learning Journey **


 * Entry #1**

Today my students and I discussed what it means to reflect. We spoke about situations where you might reflect. Many of my students' responses where about the learning that takes place in class at school. This didn't surprise me because, as mentioned above, my students regularly reflect on their academic progress and set personal goals, so they were drawing on what they knew and what they could personally relate to. It was when we began discussing how reflections focus on our strengths, our weaknesses, our successes and our failures that a few students asked if you can reflect on other things. The discussion went down the path that we learn everyday, we just don't learn at school... that we learn from each other, not just teachers :)
 * Entry #2**

Today I introduced my students to some questions in the text, to prompt personal reflections. I didn't limit their reflections to academic learning, moreso about things that were important to them in the real world, things they could do and wanted to improve in. I thought that by introducing these prompts and relating their responses to personal experiences, my students would be able to think of ways they could work towards achieving their goals more easily.
 * What do I know about this?
 * What would I like to know?
 * What can I already do?
 * What would I like to be able to do?
 * What am I expected to learn?
 * Have I done anything like this before?

We spoke about how we could record their reflections. My students suggested the program Microsoft OneNote. We have been using this program often in class, as both a digital workbook and portfolio. I allowed my students the freedom to present their work as they wanted because student voice and choice is important to both my class and myself. It is about respect and trust and providing the students with more opportunities to be responsible for their own learning.

My students took to writing their reflections with ease. Many wrote about sport and their aspirations. They then located supportive pictures on the internet to insert. I wasn't too concerned with my students inserting pictures from the internet in their work today because their work is currently for their eyes only. When we move into blogging, I will reinforce the need to use copyright free pictures, as well as the importance of protecting the identity of themselves and others.

I see today's session as a stepping stone towards my students creating their own personal blogs. I didn't want to jump straight into blogging with my class because I believe it is important for students to see a purpose in what they do. When we blog, it needs to be for a reason, not just for the sake of it. Students need to also realise they have a global audience.


 * Entry #3**

Today my students and I again discussed what reflective writing is. Some students shared what they had written and other students commented on what they thought was good about the shared reflection, as well as how it could be improved. I was thrilled that the students were analysing each other's work without even knowing it. I asked my students to think about their language and how they were saying / writing things - was there a pattern? something that stood out? Not all of the students understood what I meant. A handful commented that most of the sentences had the pronoun 'I' in it. That is exactly what I was trying to elude to... that our reflections were about "I" statements. At that point, there was an //"Ah Ha"// moment amongst my class... the light bulb turned on and all students *got it*.


 * Entry #4**

Today my students started to write their reflections for their December reports. It was interesting to see the students' responses when they read what they had written for their June reports. I asked my students how they felt about what they had written in June. Many of them couldn't believe they had only written one sentence without any supportive detail. (Please refer to Reflections for examples.)

//“Is that all I wrote? That doesn’t tell you anything.” //

//“I can’t believe I wrote that. It doesn’t tell me why or how.” // It was at that moment that I realised my students had actually grasped the concept of reflective writing, particularly the need to explain "what", "why" and "how". The question prompts, sharing (analysis) of examples and constant reinforcement to provide detail obviously worked. I was proud of my students, but more importantly, my students were proud of themselves :)

​Smart Thinking | Learning Journey | Reflections