Ep 2: Learning Through Reflection and Reflective Writing for Personal, Academic, and Professional Growth
2:02PM May 8, +0000
Speakers:
Shelli Ann Garland
Simone Cameron Coen
Keywords:
people
reflection
reflecting
learning
journal
students
programme
writing
simone
good
reflective
important
life
bit
volunteer
write
education
experience
emotions
helps
Hello, and welcome to a dash of salt. I'm Dr. Shelli Ann. And I'm so glad you're here. Whether you stumbled upon this podcast by accident, or you're here because the subject drew you in welcome. Salt is an acronym for society and learning today. This podcast was created as an outlet for inviting fresh discussions on sociology and learning theories that impact your world. Each episode includes a wide range of themes that focus on society in everyday learning, whether formal or informal. So let's get stuck in Shall we?
Today, I'm joined by Simone, Cameron Cohen. Simone is a civic engagement officer in Trinity College, Dublin, the University of Dublin, where she works with staff, students and volunteer involving organisations helping to connect the college to the community. Welcome Simone.
Hi, Shelly. Thank you for having me. I'm really excited to talk to you.
I'm delighted to have you on the podcast as well, to talk about learning through reflection, and reflective writing for personal academic and professional growth. I'd like you to tell us a little bit about yourself, and how you became interested in reflection for learning. And why you feel that reflective writing is so important in general.
Back in the day, I had my son quite young, I had him when I was 19. That sort of put a little bit of a pause on my education and, and eventually, when I was in my late 20s, I returned to university as a mature student. And I went through the Trinity access programmes. And part of what we did, there was a little bit of preparing to do our applications, because they weren't as straightforward as somebody going in through the regular route. When they do, they're leaving certain stuff, you have to do a little piece of reflective writing on why you want to apply to college and things like that. And I'd always done a bit of journaling along the way anyway. And then throughout my college career, I volunteered, I volunteered with the Students Union, and I volunteered with the union of students, students in Ireland and with the Graduate Students Union. So I did a lot of sort of union work. But that was, again, it's something that augmented what I did with education is augmented my degree. And then when I became the civic engagement officer years later, one of the programmes that we do is something called space to breathe, which I can talk to you about a little bit more later on. But that does take a lot of energy, a lot of focus. And it's really important to me encourage all the participants to do a piece of reflection while they're in the middle of that programme, while they're going through it and for afterwards. So there's lots of different reasons I've done journaling and reflection throughout my life. Some of it's been for personal growth and development. Some of it's been to figure out what I'm doing educationally. And some of its to do with work and the programmes that I'm on
reflection is really important. It's really important for you know, our volunteering, reflection when we do things like extracurricular activities and volunteering. And it's really important when we do it as as professionals as well. So what kinds of things are important, do you think are important to write in a reflective journal or a diary?
So I think I'm at a personal level I used to when I was like a teenager, I would write down everything every evening, I would have like, what happened throughout the day and how I felt about it. And I ended up burning all of those when I was in my late teens, I just burned them all. But uh, it's that's one of the things just to kind of help you, I suppose, put perspective on it, to move outside yourself a little bit and look at something a little bit more objectively. When it comes to, I suppose, the academic field, I think it's important to consider what you've learned, and then how you might build on that. And then I think for work, I think for me, it's about kind of keeping myself on track. But also sometimes I mean, we all get overwhelmed at various points. And sometimes you know what might feel like a disaster or a mistake if we can, again, And sort of look at it from a bit of a distance by putting it down on paper, it helps Actually, I suppose neutralise it to a certain extent, and enable you to learn from it a little bit better. Also, just I have I have a general anxiety disorder. So for me, just getting it out of my head and onto a page so that I can actually physically close a book is quite useful. I find that so useful. But it just helps me I suppose, keep track of my ideas and my emotions. And I think that's there, they're not particular to your personal life, I think that all happens in your working life and your academic life as well. And people forget that.
Very true. And sometimes it is good to not, you know, to be able to, to sort of reflect on professionally and then walk away from it at the end of the day as well. Or even if I remember you giving me some really good advice, advice not too long ago, when I was struggling with some stressors with work and that type of thing, and you had said and I said I'm really having a terrible time sleeping, I don't know exactly what it is. And I remember you saying to me, Listen, you need to do you need to have pen and paper or a journal or notebook or something like that next to your bed. And you just need to you know, write whether it's a few sentences, or whether it's a page, you need to write about whatever it is that you're thinking about before you go to sleep. And then you need to close the book, I need to I need to put it on your bedside table, and you need to go to sleep. And I have to tell you Simone. And that was the best advice that I that I needed right then and there. And I did I took it up and I found some old journals that a friend had given me before I moved here to Ireland, the one that I'm working in right now are using next to my bed as it's called, it's going to be okay, a journal to reassure myself when I'm overwhelmed by the creeping sense of impending disaster, and all in the all encompassing fears, both specified and vague, that colonise my mind, body and soul, all of which from the completely far fetched to the sometimes probable, do me no good to contemplate and in fact, make me miserable. And even though optimism may be self aware, and Ill paced, I know I'll be happier as a blind fool than as a clairvoyant, apocalyptic, apocalyptic. And these were given to me and I brought them here to Ireland. I know. And I didn't, I never used them. I never cracked, cracked them open. And so when you gave me that advice, I thought, yes, I'm stressing right now. And I know I have these somewhere, and I had to dig them out of the boxes that I had. There's another one called I got to be need to, but obviously, that one's for later. It was it was just so true. And if you hadn't given me that advice, I wouldn't I wouldn't have no, you know, I wouldn't have thought about I would have tried other things like drinking tea, or, you know, having some meditation, which I think those things work as well. Don't get me wrong. It's all about well being. Yeah, yeah, sure. But, but you give me that little bit of advice. And then me finding that journal that says, you know, just put all those thoughts aside, has really, really helped. So thank you for that.
I'm, so glad, this is how it works. Like, I mean, somebody had done the same for me, they had given me that advice about starting a journal again, back when I was, you know, in the middle of all my stressy stuff, and it makes such a difference.
It is amazing. It is amazing how if you put pen to paper, and I one thing I did want to ask you, as you said, You burned all your your journals, I used to journal as a teenager as well. And I think they stayed in my parents attic, attic or the basement for years. And I think they ended up getting waterlogged and thrown away. But looking back on it now, do you think that you would have not burned them and looked back on them? Or do you use your journals in a way that you just finished writing, set them aside and never look at them again?
Um, depends on the thing. So for some things I need to write to get it out and then I don't need to think about it again. And I know that I'm being even sort of in the moment I know, I'm being melodramatic about whatever it is that I'm going through. Yes. Okay, acknowledging that, yes, this is a thing. But oh, my God, like, like, the apocalyptic clairvoyant, at the end of your little spiel there is like, I need to put some perspective on this and then just close it up. closing it is fine. And I think, for me, when I was a teenager, I was going through an awful lot of stuff. There was a bit it was a bit of a chaotic household, and I was glad not to carry that forward to actually I don't need to relive that I don't I got the learning I got from us. And I moved along. And you know, I don't need to dwell on the chaos anymore. You know?
that's, yeah, that is absolute good. Sage. Wisdom there for sure. No pressure. But do you have an entry or something from a journal that that you do look back on that you might want to share with us?
I do, actually, when we had our little chat about, you know, the ideas we might talk about, I pulled out my really pretty journal. It's such a pretty journal, I love it. It's the one that I take with me on the space to breathe programme. And we've had a number of iterations of that programme at this point. So space to breathe is a programme where Julian Hamilton, who's the Methodist chaplain in Trinity, and I work together to bring a group of young people from all over the island of Ireland, usually students, but don't have to be over to Israel, and then to Palestine, to meet with young people and live with them for a few days and get to know them and have conversations with them. And then the really important pieces, the next leg of it is when those young people who we've met and spoken to and listen to their experiences, they come back to Ireland, but together, so we live for a week together in a peace centre. And we do some really intense work about hearing each other's stories, and about hearing each other's narratives. Because it's not possible for those young Israelis and young Palestinians to meet each other, except in Ireland, in a third space. So we all, I suppose, come together and do some quite intense work, which is really good and really fulfilling. But we're all encouraged to journal during that time. And I went back and I found a couple of different ones. The first one I'm going to share with you is great, because it set me off this experience set me off on a journey and it's kind of about reflection. So I've dated an eighth of November 2017, and the Lucan centre as ever space to breathe has brought me on a question filled journey, or as a nearly wrote a journey filled question. The work and practice that Toka Kieron and brona have brought through the art of hosting is tapping into some old questions, old forgotten practices, and reminding me or perhaps further reinforcing that I need to establish a practice in my life. The flow game was freaking brilliant. And it was hard to ignore the universe, insisting that I take a look at my priorities. And I know the tools to do that. A personal inventory is waiting for me, I need to take some time and really consider my wants, needs, skills, flaws, etc. So there's stuff in there. But the flow game, which is something that I am now trained to host, I went on and did some fantastic training with Toka and Kieran who I met mentioned, and that's about, I suppose, helping people make better, more informed, more collaborative and well rounded decisions. So it's, it's, it's an actual board game. It's fantastic. I love it. But that's part of something called the art of hosting which is about participatory leadership, and about it's really democratising, how we make decisions and how we practice, I suppose working and living together. And we bring some of those practices into space to breathe as can be seen. And then do we have time for another one? Absolutely. So this is from space to breathe 2019 and it was the third Of March 2019. So just over two years ago, and I've titled it Belfast trip and afterwards. So much to process. This evening, people took time to listen with courage to each other, as they expressed with courage, some intense emotions and difficult truths, which is what made me cry in the first place. parlour for room double oh seven, that room where people met with courage that risked their lives in a leap of faith and trust for the benefit of others. Listening with courage to words spoken with courage is the stuff of true heart To clarify, the the parlour for room double oh seven. That was a room that was used. It was in the Clonart Abbey. So it's a monastery I think, in Belfast and it sits right on the edge of one community right on the you can see the peace walls what are called peace walls. You can see it from the window. You can walk around the corner and you're at one of the sides of the wall. And so in there, they facilitated the community there facilitated very, very, very early talks between people who would go on to be big movers in the back in the Good Friday Agreement. And those initial talks had to be done in highly secretive circumstances. It was very, very Hush Hush. And it was very brave for everybody who who participated in those very early early talks. It was a huge challenge. And it did put put their lives at risk. And what came from it was the the Belfast agreement eventually years down the road, that's what happened. But I always get kind of really emotional around that because of the violence that was in that community that the Good Friday Agreement has helped to address. And I mean, it's not it's not perfect, the peaceful still exists, they're actually harder than they used to be. But it's, it's a path and it's on the way so young people seeing, we've been on a we've been on a trip. And
we'd had some difficult conversations. And that afternoon, we actually got everyone up, no one in the evening, we got everybody to sit down. And we were using, I think there was seven or eight different languages in that group. And everybody could speak English, some better than others. But what we decided to do was to get everybody to speak in their mother tongue first. And then with the help of others to translate. And the way the reason we did that was because we needed to acknowledge the emotion in the room. So we were reflecting on the day, yeah, okay, there were facts, we got on a bus, we went to a place, we saw some things, okay. But the emotions that were there were really, really big. And to get those out, to help analyse that whole thing we needed to, we needed to let the emotions come out first. And the best way to do that was allowed people to speak in their, in their mother tongue, and then you know, translate. And it was really intense. And it took a terribly long time, because everything had to be said, like, twice. But but it was really worth it. And that was a reflective experience. And I just, I'll never forget that, and how difficult it was to sit sometimes in somebody's truth, that might have been very different to another person's truth in that room. And that, that is part of all of that is, but nobody walked out, not one person left that room. Everybody stayed, and they are the kinds of things that I think are really important and important to capture and important to consider and, and to see the good in it. And to see the difficulties in all of that.
Yeah, yeah, no, that's, and thank you for sharing those. Um,
you're welcome.
You bring up a really good, you've brought up some really good points there that made me actually think about sort of the different types of reflective writing. And I'm hoping that maybe you can talk again, because you have experience across your professional, your volunteering, as well as your personal life in these these types of reflective writing that comes out. So maybe you can tell us a little bit about the different types of reflective writing that there is, and why they're important for learning.
Mmhm, For sure, I suppose there's two particular models that come to mind when I think about reflective writing. And one particular tool that we encourage our students to use. So one of the models that I really like, and I think it's very useful is the Gibbs reflective cycle, which I know you know quite a bit about, and I think you're going to share about in a minute, but the other one is blooms, revised taxonomy. So back in the day, Bloom did a taxonomy, but he's done a revised one, which I think is quite good. And it's more simplified, I think. And that is just remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate, create, and for me, when you're looking at an experience in the immediate short term, you remember an understand, right, you know, you go on, what have I just done? What was that? What What have I just been through? Then you apply that understanding? Okay, so I've understood what that experience was. What do I do next with it? What what model, you know, I've learned something, then you analyse that you're like, what did I learn? What is the piece of learning that I've learned here? You know, why is that good? Why is that Not great, what worked? Well, what didn't work well. And new evaluate, you know? I suppose that some what what worked well what didn't work well you figure that out but but not in a judgy way for me, the reflection has to be non judgmental it's not about berating yourself or even, you know, on the flip side of that thinking, you're all good and amazing. And you are all good and amazing, and you're flawed, you're all of these things, but you don't need to judge it in the moment, you just need to evaluate it did this work? Well? Did this not work? Well. It's not about your failings. It's about did the situation work and why? And then you create, you sort of move along to the next thing, what is next from this? What are the next steps? You know, where can we go? What's the growth that comes from this, whether it's a new project, whether it's a new understanding, whether it's a piece of writing, whatever it is, there is always something there. So for me, the remember understand is short term, the Apply on analyse is kind of medium term, and then the analyzer value creators long return. And I think you can obviously do all of these things in the initial moments after an experience. But I think you come back again to the analyse, evaluate, create, I think that's one that you can go away and come back again. So you might have closed off your your little book for a moment, but maybe in a week's time, you'll open it back up again and have a look.
And maybe you come back in at a later date, and you say, you know, this changed or, or that type of thing gives is very similar in that you start your writing with a description, a description of what happened, and what happened in your experience that day, or in the class, or in those in placement or things like that. And then you talk about your feelings, and what you were thinking and what you were feeling. And then you follow that up with an evaluation you evaluate, you know, what was good or bad about that experience that you had? And then after that, same as with Bloom's, you analyse? And what sense Can you make from that situation or that experience that you've had? And then you do a conclusion, and you write about what else could you have done? You know, what could you have done differently? If if given the opportunity. And then finally, you discuss an action plan. In, you know, you talk about if the experience or the situation were to arise again, for you, if you were put in that same place, with that same type of experience again, what would you do, what would you do differently, would you do things the same, so forgives very much like blooms, his description, feelings, evaluate, analyse, come to a conclusion or make a conclusion, and then formulate an action plan. It gives us something that I use, when I teach, I talk to my students and my student teachers about in in sociology of education. But then I also talked to them about academic reflective writing, as part of their their learning process, and it's the one gives is the one that I recommend most, to really helping them and to aid in that reflection process, when they're taking in what they're learning then in there, in incorporating more opportunities for them to think critically, and to reflect critically on the learning material that they're getting in their classes and their modules in their courses, along with their own experiences of learning and, and then to write about what those concepts and learnings means to them. And, and Gibbs reflective cycles is, is a model for reflection that really works wonderfully, When reflecting specifically on learning and incorporates the role of the feelings on learning that I believe are really important. And so if you haven't heard of either Bloom's or Gibbs reflective model, you can find loads of helpful information, graphics, tips, tools and resources just by googling Bloom's Taxonomy Bloom's reflective model Gibb's reflective model, why do you think that this is important for growth?
Because I think you can, you can sleep walk a bit through life, honestly. And you can sleepwalk a bit through your education. And I think this to make proper connections and to begin to, it helps creativity and creativity is really, really important, particularly in education, to be able to come up with new ideas, new innovations, new new ways of looking at things, new perspectives, perspectives are so important. But being able to come to that you need to be able to reflect on what you've just learned. You need to be able to understand what you felt about that and sometimes the feelings can be overwhelming. So you need to get them sort of, not out of the way exactly, but you need to have understand them. And I was trying to explain this to to my stepson who's a teenager, because he was he was having a tough time expressing himself one day. And I said, it's like, all your emotions are like, all fuzzed up and you know, one of those rubber balls, or where you got all of the elastic bands wrapped around each other. And they're all really tight. And what you need to be able to do is take one elastic band off and have a look at it, and make use of it. When they're all tied together. Yeah, find their big bouncy ball. But they're, they're all one blurry blob of a thing. And you need to be able to identify them. And that helps you understand things which helps with creativity. So I think for me, it's about getting to the point of creativity, and understanding. One of the things that came to me when you were speaking, one of the things that I learned from that, speaking in your own language thing, I went off and I was doing a flow game thing, it was a retreat. I was with a group, again, of lots of different languages. Everybody spoke English spoke English very well, I was in Denmark. And there was a Danish woman I was speaking with, and we're having this really intense conversation and she was getting stuck. I said to her, Say it, say it in Danish first. And she did it. She was like, Oh, my God, that's so much better. And she was like, what I'm trying to say is this thing. But she could only get the emotion out through through Danish, in that particular moment. So she began that practice, then, with the people that she worked with on the flow game, the particularly with kids and stuff, say it in Danish First, let's get it out first. And then we can go back to English if we need to, you know, bringing it to a new context new perspective, right?
Yeah, absolutely. And I love that visit, visualisation that you gave about the rubber band and, and the knotted up and how it's all knotted up. And it's ready to spring at any moment. And I really, that really did a lot for me just even in you talking about that. And just taking off one of those, those rubber bands, or one of those ready to spring emotions or whatever it is that you're dealing with. And then just having a look at it, you know, like, this is a you know, let's just just look at this one thing, we don't have to deal with the whole knotted up ball, let's just look at the one thing at a time, I love that song, it's fantastic
That's what reflection helps you do is just, you know, take a look at things from a little bit of a distance. And that makes all the difference.
Or in the same token, taking one thing and looking at it up really closely. I'm putting the other things that just so you can use that in so many different ways. And I think that's also the beauty of sort of writing reflectively is that you can you can deal with it and take it take it to whatever point is most meaningful for you and what works for you and and what brings on that creativity. And then and, and causes that growth to happen. So spot on similan do you think that whether time of day or that type of thing? When do you would you say is the best time to write reflectively?
I think it depends on the person. So I am somebody who gets up very slowly in the morning. I might wake up very early, but it takes me a good couple of hours to kind of become myself. rabbi who who's on the space to breathe programme with us talks about this Jewish idea of, of when you're asleep, there's a your there's a 1/60 of you leaves your body, right. And his idea is that in the morning it it comes back into you. And he said for some people it's it's like a puzzle piece that needs that final puzzle piece that you need to kind of squish in into place to make the puzzle complete. And it just needs a little bit more effort. And that's the way it is for me. So I can't do reflection in the morning. I'm much better doing it sort of either in the middle of the day or in the evening or like not not right before I go to bed but maybe a couple of hours before I go to bed. That's that's a good point for me, but it can happen. It's a lot of people I've heard do it in the morning. Whether it depends I suppose again, what they're reflecting on if they're not reflecting on their day, but reflecting on their peace of mind or whatever it is how they're feeling. They do it in the morning. You can do whatever you like.
I think for me specifically I am. Well you know that I've been reflecting at night before I go to bed because again, it's been helping with some of my anxieties and my stresses that I've had. And that has been very helpful. I keep i'm i'm very good about keeping it very short, usually just one page, getting that out there. It was funny because when I first started doing it, that book, that little journal that I was telling you about, they really only give you one page and date it and so the pragmatic person in me says, Okay, I only have one page with the date. And if I go on to the next page, you can't put the same date because that's a new day, right? So I have to stay on the same page. But the great thing about this journal is that you have the one line page with the date. But then on the on the left side, they usually provide you with this fabulous little quote, and I'm, in the beginning, when I started writing, I just had so much I had to get out that I would go to the end of the paper. And of course, what did I do, I twist my journal, the sideways, and then I start writing all the way around that quote, and I did that for like three or four days in the journal, where I was just sort of, you know, enveloping the quote, with, with all the things that I had to say. But then as they eased into the process, and after, you know, several nights of of doing this, my my, it started to get shorter, because I had less that I was stressing about, or thinking about before I went to bed, and I was able to just get those few things out, close the book and move on with it. So for me, when it has something to do with anxieties or knowing that I need to get something out of my head to go to sleep, I keep it brief, and I get to the point and then I close it up. Now one of the other things that that you are aware that I do is I love to blog, and I have a WordPress blog, where I write about reflections on learning and things like that. And for me, that's more of a professional, the more professional side of me, but but it's very much reflection. And a lot of times for me creatively, when that comes to me in the afternoon, or the mid afternoon of my work day, it's when I become creative, when it has to do with things that are professional. So I think you're absolutely right, it depends on the person. Now there were times in my life where morning time, I used to be very much an early bird Get up, you know, and I would I would write about what I was what my plans were for the day. So I think you saying that, you know, it just really depends on the person. But I think it also depends on what you're writing for. And, or what you're going through at any given time. You know,
Exactly, Like I think also depends on where you are in your life. Like if you are somebody who is getting up early, and you don't have to worry about anybody else, and that's fine, or are you getting up early, because you have to make for it for packed lunches, you know, before you get out the door and, you know, bring children to four different places, or whatever it is. I remember Madeleine Albright I saw an interview with her years ago, and one of the things she talked about was living her life in segments. You know, and I think that's so true, particularly for women, like, you know, I've done the sort of ratio kids thing, you know, My son is he's cooked. He's done. So now I I, the way my day functions is quite different than it used to maybe 15 20 years ago, you know, where you where you might do your reflection, or even what you're reflecting on Eh?
yeah, absolutely. Um, one of the you actually made me think, again, of something that I wanted to ask, ask you is that, you know, sometimes we say we set out to say, Okay, I'm going to start journaling, what would you say to someone who tries to write reflectively gets interrupted or stops and starts, or they become really discouraged? Because, you know, they feel like, you know, oh, I haven't been diligent with my writing every day, what would you say to somebody like that?
I would say a couple of things, I would say, first of all, be kind to yourself, be kind to yourself, it is not the end of the world, if you are not reflecting every day, if you have something pertinent to write about, maybe that's how you will do your reflection. If there is a particular thing that strikes you, you know, that might be what, how, how, who get inspired to write. I would also say it is good to develop a regular practice. And that's something that we're trying to encourage our students to do in a number of ways. So we have this lovely tool that we developed called the guided reflection tool that we have on our Trinity website that we bring, we're encouraging students to engage with for their CO and extra curricular activities. So it's, it's done through the prism of the graduate attributes. And, and it gives them some prompting questions. And it would be sort of based on sort of Gibbs Blooms, that kind of thing, how the cycle goes through. But the idea is to get them to use it regularly. You know, whether it's, have you done a piece of once off volunteering and you want to capture what you felt about that, or whether it's you're engaging with tutoring second level students on a weekly basis, and you reflect on each itterance of that or whether you are way for three months over the summer, and you're reflecting on that whole experience. But to get into the regular practice of that doesn't have to be every day, but regular practice and to build it up. And the thing is, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. And initially, I think people are a little afraid. And they don't know who they're talking to. Right? Who am I writing this for? Do I write it for somebody else to read in the future of my, you know, fabulous memoirs, when I when I've died? Or are you writing for yourself, so finding that voice, and almost the audience, like, it can be a self conscious thing to do. So if you're feeling self conscious about it, I say, stick out it, give it another go, you will eventually find the voice to express for yourself to yourself.
I love that. I absolutely love that. I think that is such wise advice. Cuz you're right. I think when I started, you know, journaling in various stages, I think to myself, who am I? Who am I writing this for? You know, am I right? If I'm writing this for myself, then you know, maybe it's just, I just keep it in my thoughts, you know, and I think that was one of the reasons why it inspired me to reflect for writing a blog for others. Because for me, I do struggle a little bit with writing for myself. So when I do my, you know, my, my writing that I do, and reflecting on learning, I often do that for others, because I think it's all about learning and growing together. But what I do before I go to my bedtime routine, that generally I would say is probably just for me, is just like get that out of your head, Shelli and, you know, move on. And so, you know, again, another, you know, depends on the circumstance, and it depends on, you know, what exactly that you're looking at, maybe you have different maybe have one different style or way in which you write depending on what you're writing for. And I bring this up because I happen to know about about you that you have something called a bullet journal, and not sure that I would be able to do it. But I would love for you to just sort of give us an A brief about what a bullet journal is.
Okay, so I have saved my life. I'm being very melodramatic, it really did organise myself. So, my friend Jane, who's actually my son, stepmother, she pulled out a journal one day when an idea had struck her. And she was my bullet journal. And if you google bullet journal, there's a YouTube video of the dude who invented this system. And it's great, it's very simple. It's a way of capturing sort of looking into the future. So it's almost like future writing. So you capture what's going to be happening, say over the next six months. And then you break it down into what's happening over the next month. And then you do your daily log, which is spread over, say, two pages of a notebook, which is just the week ahead. And what happens is, you'll see that all of the tasks that you have to do long term and medium term, you get through each of the smaller sub categories and sub tasks that need to be done for each of those through your data. So you can kind of knit them all together. And you can look back on and see how far you've come. And it really keeps me on track. I'm somebody who works in a team of one. And I have to keep motivated. And I have to keep going. And it's not that I make it up as I go along. Not at all. But kind of my, my day to day is I structure that myself. And I link in with people on the broader goals that we want to do throughout the year. And the academic year goes by in a flash. So you know, I like to be able to see that I'm keeping on target, I like to be able to see what I've achieved. And it's very non judgmental. It takes the judgement out of everything. It's a very simple system of darting down a symbol for a meeting a symbol for emails, a symbol for different tasks, and then you just put a little x through that symbol when you've done it. And it's so very satisfying to look at your your your notebook at the end of the week and go, Oh my god, I have done like 97% of that and the 3% that, you know, well that thing has fallen off the agenda. It's not happening anymore. Or I'm just going to push that into next week. That's no big deal. That's still okay, that's still something that needs to happen. It didn't happen this week. But so what it's it's not, it's not a big deal. So it kind of neutralises the stress of it and keeps you on track. I love it...
you are the one that's responsible for your your performance, you know, and and how and when you get things done. You don't have somebody kind of stepping in the office saying, hey, do you have that report coming for me? You know, I need to buy At three o'clock on my desk or something like that you you actually have to, you know, prioritise the night. And I think that's, that's what that bullet journal sounds like it does really well. So, you know, how do you think that COVID has impacted well being for professionals? And students and volunteers? What do you suggest that they do?
I think it's really hard. Because I think everybody's situation is different. So I think there are some positives that are created, but I know it's, it's, it's, it's a challenging time for everybody at the moment, I understand that, with people living on top of each other all the time, people who have kids 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while trying to also reach their targets at work in a new working environment, grappling with technology in a new and different way. That's all very stressful. And for students, gosh, I feel so bad for all of them. for different reasons, like for the first year students, particularly those who are from the more traditional background, not mature students, but those who did their Leaving Cert, or actually didn't do their Leaving Cert. This past year. There's that wonderful summer that you have between when you finish school, and when you start college. It's fabulous, it's it's, you have this wonderful sense of freedom, where you have no responsibilities, you've done that giant examination, it's done, you know, and you have this breathing space for a while, and you're either just turned 18, or just about to, so it's a really fun time to have better freedom. And they didn't have that. And that's really sad. And then they have, once you get into college, you have all these organisations that you can join. And there's this whole element of a social life. And a lot of it is through charitable and voluntary organisations. So you are getting these new experiences alongside your academic life, you have this whole other social life, and this whole life, get involved with societies and committees and sports and you know, all of these things, and they haven't been able to do that in the same way at all. And I think for volunteer, involving organisations, it's been a challenge for them to find good opportunities, but they still have to meet the needs of their service users and their, and their clients, and how to manage that take some creativity, you know, how people have engaged with the technology that we have now with zoom with teams with all of that kind of thing. That works to a certain extent for certain people, in other circumstances where you need physical people on the ground, like, for example, in soup runs for people who are experiencing homelessness, you know, they couldn't take on necessarily new volunteers because of the COVID restriction, so would have to rely on the volunteers they already had, once they had a system in place, and it was developing that system. However, you know, people really, I think, have rallied and reached out, we've actually had an increase in the number of people applying for the deans, Dean of Students volunteer awards this year, the number has gone up, which I think is fascinating, though, I haven't read through all the applications yet or anything like that. But I think it's also really fascinating that more people are applying for these awards this year than they did last year. So that means that the activity out there is happening. And people are beginning to reflect on it, because that is part of the process. They need to have done reflection. And they are beginning to see the value in us. Not beginning to people do see the value in us. But I think I'm glad that they want the acknowledgement for it. I'm glad that they're putting it their hat in the ring for the Dean's list or the Dean's Leadership Award. I think that's fantastic.
I agree. So we're coming towards the end of our time together. And of course, this is always one of my favourite times. Because I love to ask if you have suggestions for resources, books, readings, websites, journals, or things like that, that you can share with the listeners.
Yeah, I think I think honestly, I think the very basic resource is a pen and paper. That's a basic resource. And it's there's something about doing the physical writing, but I think when I really need to get down to the nitty gritty, the emotional stuff I reach for a pen and paper. But I think one of the key things is to develop practice, you know, and carve out some time for yourself. So, recently, you do need a little bit of resources in the pen and paper and some time and carving out that time for yourself is is good practice. I put it in on a Friday as part of my workday. I do reflection at the end of the week, and I reflect on what I've done. Have a look at my journal, my bullet journal. What did I get through? What did I, you know, need to do for next week? Or, you know, did that meeting go? Well? Why did it go? Well, all that kind of stuff. So that's, that's a Friday afternoon thing for me
an hour in your afternoon to reflect is a great idea. I absolutely love that. So, Simone, any final words of wisdom or encouragement for our listeners, as we conclude?
Just get writing? Have a little think about what how your day went and write it down? That's it? Yeah.
Yeah, reflecting is learning. And it is really important. And I think that, you know, anybody that I've ever talked to that, that takes the time to reflect on their learning experiences, and that type of thing really gets gained so much more enrichment out of it, and it stays with you longer, it sticks with you longer. And, and I think that's really important. You know, in a society where, you know, a lot of times, we're pushing young people, especially, to absorb all this information, and then what do they do with it? You know, what do they do with that learning and that information, once they've taken it all in, so it's, you know, I think when you reflect on it, it becomes a part of you, and when it becomes a part of you becomes part of your identity, and you can and you can move forward with, you know, those types of things thinking in that criticality, and that and that analysing that you have. So thank you so much, Simone, for spending some time with me today and sharing your, you know, pleasure, which is, you know, reflective learning and giving us so many wonderful ideas and telling us such beautiful stories, even sharing your, your, your journal, excerpts with us. And, you know, just taking the time to, I hope, inspire others, to do some reflection for learning, again, whether it be for your academic purposes, whether it be for volunteering, and those volunteer experiences that you have, whether it's just getting daily life down on paper, and, you know, getting the stressors out from underneath. Yeah. Or you do it for professional reasons. There's really a lot of important elements in relation to reflective learning. And Simone, you've shared such great stuff with us. So thank you so much.
You're welcome. Shelli, you're so so welcome. Thank you for having me.
I hope that you've enjoyed this discussion on a dash of salt, a space where you'll always find fresh and current discussions on society and learning today. Season with just the right touch of experts in education and a dash of sociological imagination. Please be sure to like and share this episode. And don't forget to subscribe to a dash of salt on pod bean so that you don't miss the next episode. Thanks so much and we'll chat again soon.