Journal Writing Experience- Task 2b


I remember when I first got accepted into The Royal Ballet School and my dad bought me a journal, he said 'You have been given such a wonderful opportunity to go here and you will make so many memories, I want you to remember them all and one day sit with your grandchildren and read to them the experience you had!'
I kept my journal for the first year and a half of being at the school. I stopped when I got a back injury, I remember feeling like I had nothing positive to write about as I was miserable sitting out of class in pain constantly. After nearly a year of pushing through the pain (14 years old) the doctors explained I had a back fracture in L5 and it was permanent. I am pleased to say that after medical treatment I am no longer in pain and still perusing my dance career!
Just now, writing about this experience, I realise stopping to write my journal during this critical time was a big mistake. The bad days and disappointing experiences are important to address in reflective journal writing, to learn how I personally dealt with the experience and learnt from them!

9 ways to write a journal....

DESCRIPTION- writing about what happened, where and when and what the main events were.
I found this would be beneficial if I was in a managerial position (for example if I was trying to set up my own dance school), it is very direct, yet impersonal way of writing keeping a record of the place and event. I would feel comfortable having anyone read my journal in this style of writing.

INITIAL REFLECTION- What did you feel about it? What were you thinking? Did anything unexpected happen? What was your mood?
I found this style of writing one of the easiest. The day I wrote in this style was when my colleagues were asked if they wanted to resign for another year as they came to the end of their contracts. Reflecting and distinguishing the difference between my feeling, thoughts and my mood was helpful to find written clarity concluding my experience and planning the next step.

LIST
This style of writing forced me to come to conclusions about the events in my day in a clear and concise way (writing in broken English). I found writing about 'what I'm glad I did' showed me the things I need to make a permanent part of my schedule. 'Things I felt'  was also significant because I wrote about how my body felt in the show and therefore the level of the performance I gave and the improvements I can make.

EVALUATION- What did you think went well? What worked? Did you learn anything, discover anything, notice things to avoid?
This was an easy style of writing, dancers self critique every day usually it is easier to write what we learnt and thing to avoid! Most of the events I experienced were reflection-in-action and evaluating the event afterwards (reflection-on-action) giving meaning to what I produced on stage.

GRAPHS
I chose to compare my day to this time last year. Along the x axis I listed, fun, freedom, stress, focus, financial stability and happiness and along the y axis a scale from 0-100. I will aim to use a graph as reflection of my professional practice every 6 months comparing my new situation to the place I was in my career 6 months before.

CHART
I chose to compare the first show at 6pm to the 9pm show. I based the comparison on fear, anger/disgust, joy, surprise, focus and exhaustion/tiredness (x-axis) on a scale of 1-10 (y-axis). The graph showed me that the exact same show has a different reflection dependent on the people around me and my emotional state.

DIAGRAM
I used the diagram as a visual representation of the different aspects of a performance. Each arrow gave more depth into the subjects within a performance and how they link into making a successful performance. This felt impersonal as a style of writing.

WHAT IF?
I found bullet pointing different scenarios the most effective way to consider, what could have happened and what I would love or hate to happen. I found this style of writing very negative and completely unrealistic, although writing about what I would love to happen reinforced what my dream for my professional practice would be.

ANOTHER VIEW
After considering to write in the view of an object, such as my water bottle, I found myself unable to focus on my feelings in respect to my professional practice. I wrote the journal from the perspective of the Artistic Director, I found this interesting as it made me think about how my boss would be feeling and his many responsibilities that I had not thought about before.

I really enjoyed this task and it has really helped me to see how writing a reflective journal is helpful for my professional practice currently and thinking about my future career too.

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