Journal Writing and Students
Journal writing may seem to become a lost art in schools as technology seems to require less of a pen-to-paper approach to expressing thoughts, emotions, and ideas.
However, it cannot be said that journal writing is seen as a time gone by, as this article attempts to bring back this art to the lives of teachers and students with all its benefits.
In this article we look to show how both teachers and students can benefit from journal writing by discussing the five benefits it brings to both inside and outside the classroom.
Journal writing is closely connected to our mental health as research shows that expressing thoughts can indicate our state of mental health.
Teaachers and students can use this checklist guide as a means to keep emotions in check when it comes to their mental health.
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What is a Journal?
A journal is a record of a person’s personal thoughts on a topic. A journal can often be shared with others in the classrom or in groups. A journal is sometimes referred to as a diary.
However, a diary is often seen as a private collection of information to share with no one, and journals while personal, may often times be read in front of others, such as teachers and family, because the author looks to share the information.
Teacher Journal Writing – with Promptly Journals
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Promptly Journals offers a variety of journal types that teachers may benefit from. One particular journal type that teachers can benefit from is the Self-Love journals.
Teaching is a career where often times situations can be hard for teachers to deal with. Writing in these types of journals can help teachers take moments to remember how taking care of oneself is very important.
Before we as teachers can take of others, we need to take care of ourselves.
Visit the Promptly Journals website to explore even more styles of journals available. My personal favorite, other than the self-love, is the travel journal. The traveling teacher seems to be a good idea.
Student Journal Writing – with Amazon
Journal writing is an outlet for students to show their creative side when given writing prompts. In my teaching career, I’ve often used journal writing as a warm up activitiy for students to do at the beginning of class.
Toabury Journals avaialbe on Amazon present a pack of 24 journals for a classroom. By the end of the school semester, students can look back at all the different journal responses to prompts and other benefits that we will discuss.
Students will see their progress in journal writing when they have their own notebook to keep records of their journal prompts.
Journal Writing Video
The video below highlights the five benefits to students mentioned below. However, it goes without saying that these benefits can also be applied to teachers as well.
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When we all have an appropriate outlet for putting our thoughts, emotions, hopes, and dreams for the present or the future down on paper, it gives us a sense of freedom that helps us to understand more of who we are now and who we would like to be in the future.
The 5 Benefits to Journal Writing
We now look at five benefits journal writing can bring to students and teachers both inside and outside the classroom.
I. Improves Mental Health
Being able to hold a book in your hand brings our sense of touch into our mind. The sense of touch is important as it connects with mental health.
Just as holding an e-book doesn’t give the same sense of feeling as holding a book when you read, typing on the keyboard just doesn’t give the same sense of emotions as writing something down on paper does.
That is why, not matter how wonderful and easy technology makes our lives, there are just something things that need to rely more on our human senses to keep our mental health and well-being alive and in good health.
Our senses play an important role when it comes to mental health. In holding a pen to paper, our sense of touch comes alive and so does our sense of sight when we write.
In writing about things we love and care about, we bring happiness into our mind. Students may believe more in their own happiness if they give themselves time to connect their emotions through the use of their senses to write things down.
In writing down their own personal thoughts for the future, they may be inspired to direct some of that energy into organizing and managing their time to achieve their personal goals.
II. Helps With Achieving Goals
In making the transition to online learning during the COVID pandemic year of 2020, many students found they were struggling with meeting their academic goals.
Journal writing may be seen as an outlet for keeping track of personal goals, while also giving yourself some personal words of encouragement.
Seeing a personal goal or a “to-do” list written down on paper may motivate you more to accomplish that goal or to get that list done!
Journals are a great tool to have when organizing your study plans, managing your study time, or writing down goals for the future.
What makes a journal different than an agenda then?
In a journal you can give yourself feedback on how things went! Giving feedback on events that happened is a good way to build memory skills.
Journal writing connects emotions to words, and certain words can also help with memory retention.
So yes, keep reading.
III. Improves Memory Skills
This really shouldn’t come as a surprise since the events we often remember the most are closely connected to our emotions.
Writing about important events allows us to remember important details that we may be excited to share with others, such as birthdays, holidays, weddings, or the birth of a child or sibling.
Remembering important details is an essential part of learning. Often times students who are able to remember details about events are able to write them down in a way as to keep others excited to hear about what the have to say.
So in improving their memory skills students will also improve on their written and oral communication skills.
With improved communication skills that can only mean that their level of creativity in journal writing can only continue to inspire and impress themselves and those around them!
IV. Inspires Creativity
Creativity in journal writing comes in all different ways one can express themselves.
You can choose a journal to record a special event or time in your life, or you could use a travel journal to record that trip you plan to take in the coming year!
Or you could just use a journal with a no specific reason other than you – and who is more important than you?
Journal writing is meant to give a person freedoom over their thoughts, emotions, and ideas and so there isn’t one way to keep a journal!
If you like using your journal to write down ideas, write them down so you don’t forget! If you are more of a visual person, why not include drawings in your journal as your own form of expression.
But why does journal writing seem more closely connected to something girls would do, rather than boys?
While it is true that girls tend to enjoy communicating more when it comes to writing things down, boys can be just as creative in expressing their own ideas, thoughts, and emotions. Boys may prefer to draw instead of write and so they should be encouraged to journal write in their own way.
In building our creativity in all that we do we are benefiting our learning skills as you see through creativity we come to building the skills that help out most in life – which is our critical thinking skills.
V. Improves Critical Thinking Skills
Creativity leads to reducing anxiety and improves problem solving skills as part of critical thinking skills.
Journal writing in schools gives boys and girls unique opportunities to show teachers and their fellow classmates a look into their own thoughts, experiences, and ideas.
When students share their journal writings in class and are allowed to ask questions about each others writings, this allows for deeper conversations and new learning to take place!
In being allowed the freedom to approach their journal writing in their own style, students feel more confident in approaching other subjects in their own unique way as well which allows for building and improving on their critical thinking skills.
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Related Topics
Connect to our other pages as you navigate through our website. Explore what these pages have to offer you and you will be glad you did!
- Mental health resources for the classroom
- 5 Ways to Promote Physical Health in Education
- Teacher Thoughts on Educational Policy
- The Simple Connection Between Laughter and Learning
- What Does ‘Student Identity’ in the Online Classroom Look Like?
- Six End of Year Summer Time Activities for Students
Final Thoughts…
Journal writing benefits students because it allows them the opportunity to express themselves in ways that may help them overcome stress or anxiety they may feel in school. Inside the classroom it benefits students because of the opportunity they have to share what they wrote with their teachers and fellow classmates.
Outside the classroom it benefits them because of the time it gives them to reflect on their own thoughts, feelings, and emotions. I hope you enjoyed reading this article and found it useful for believing in journal writing again, and how beneficial it can be for anyone who perfers to call themselves a student of learning.
Share Your Thoughts…
Leave us a comment below to let us know your thoughts on our ideas about how journal writing benefits students both inside and outside the classroom.