Learning Journals

Now, what's really interesting about this time is that because of coronavirus kids have all this time to self-reflect and self-assess. And so we should be actively promoting meta learning during this time. And so what I've suggested is that we promote the idea of a learning journal. So the idea is this: Let kids decide their own learning path. Let them decide what they want to learn. It could be if they want to learn how to cook. It could be they want to learn how to drive a car. It doesn't matter. What's important is that they write down their learning journey. And so there are three components to a learning journal. First is to define the goal concretely and precisely. It's better to say I want to be able to run a marathon in less than four hours than it is to say I want to finish first in a marathon. Second is to write down the learning process. So think of a cooking recipe and writing down how you cook something. The third and most important component of a learning journal is to write down your observations, collect data, self-reflect, and develop new learning strategies for yourself. And during this process teachers don't go away. Teachers play a very important role in that they become coaches. I would say that being a coach has three main functions. The first function is to motivate the student. Second function is to identify witnesses in the learning journal. And the third and most important function is to constantly suggest new learning strategies.