The Impact of Journaling On A First Year Teacher\u27s Self-Awareness

Connect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhkyxjwwN9s (15 min.) This qualitative exploratory case study is about a first year teacher who writes a daily reflection in her notebook. As she journeys through her first year as a second grade teacher, she finds several themes that emerge in her writing: balancing her personal life with her professional one, feeling overwhelmed and exhausted at times, coping with the stresses that emerge during the course of the day, focusing on student engagement, honing classroom management skills, and content-specific challenges, such as setting up math circles. The reflective journal leads to the preliminary finding of greater self-awareness both personally and professionally. Along with the themes that surface, questions such as the following emerge: How has journaling fostered my self-awareness? How has journaling been a healing tool for me? How has journaling helped me identify my strengths and my weaknesses as a teacher? How has journaling helped me become aware of my professional growth this year? Research is needed on the benefits of reflective journaling and first year teachers. Although a benefit of this experience is self-awareness, a larger sample size is needed to be able to draw any conclusions. Courtney Bernicky is a first year teacher at Alan Shepard Elementary School in Bourbonnais, Illinois. She is a graduate of Olivet Nazarene University. Dr. Marianne Glenn was her professor in the School of Education for several courses during which a friendship of mutual respect and regard was developed