A new type of teacher is needed in the contemporary classroom--one who is not just a mere technician, but who can keep an open and critical mind. Today's teacher must adjust to a fast-changing reality and the demands of the surrounding world, and internalize the ever-growing flow of information while reflecting on both personal and professional…

Brings together 25 years of experience of keeping journals, thinking about landscape, and attending Quaker meetings. Suggests that good writing happens not despite our "busyness," but rather because we have found ways to attend to our outward lives by attending to our inward lives. Considers how the journal becomes a doorway to the…

Describes how a teacher's journey of documenting everyday literacy events on the streets in her community changes her understanding of what it means to bring the outside world and local literacies into her classroom. Concludes that educators must place value on who students are and where they come from. Suggests that educators and students must…

Notes that by sharing her ideas and her reflective notebook with her students, the author was able to model for her students. Uses three different learning experiences to promote a reflective stance in her writer's workshop: sharing and discussing quality literature; sharing students' writing in a writer's circle; and holding writing conferences…

Two beginning nurse educators used reflective practice to shape ideas about clinical teaching. Techniques such as journal writing, audiotaped debriefing, and a "critical friend" helped support and inform their reflection and improve teaching and learning. (SK)

This book is a discussion of teaching as learning--rooted in the author's personal history as a teacher and learner, and offered as one story among many to help other teachers ask questions about their own practice. The book is not intended to be a manual or a step-by-step guide for use in the classroom. Instead, it emphasizes the triumphs that…

A teacher explores connections between her personal history and her present classroom teaching through journal writing. She discovers how reflection helps identify her prejudices, choices, and expectations and understand her students. (SK)

Argues that time spent encouraging students to reflect about their learning is well invested. Offers four specific statements about what helps students to reflect: (1) students need relevant reasons for reflection and assurance that their reflections will be accepted; (2) students' opinions and judgments must be generally valued; (3) students need…

The title of this article came from a student who joined the author's PGCE tutor group in the second semester of last year. It was made during a group reflection activity. The title was fascinating, as was the response from other members of the group: "there's no hiding in here--we all talk." Collaborative journal writing between mentor…

Shares how the author's process of self-study led to the development of a planning framework that protected her from mandated packaged teaching programs. Suggests tips for starting and sustaining teaching journals. Describes the steps she took to approach the structured teaching plan of her new school that differed greatly from her holistic…

Two college professors used peer observation to learn specific instructional techniques and content from each other's classrooms. Pre- and postobservation conferences, surveys of colleagues and other colleges and universities about peer observation and coaching, and reflective journals indicated the experience required great trust but was well…

The article outlines the use of reflective journal writing to help develop preservice teachers as reflective practitioners. Journals allow students to determine their own focus and what they want to understand, and to have their ideas seriously valued as knowledge being personally constructed. The importance of collaboration is examined. (SM)

This book presents, in journal form, the teaching philosophy of Louis Schmier, a university history professor. Through a series of brief essays that were originally published as electronic mail on the Internet, he challenges teachers to reach out to their students. He suggests that unless the teacher values, respects, likes, and accepts himself,…