Reflective writing.

A part of our summer project was to watch 9 videos about reflective writing and make notes.I found after so long the videos started to repeat what they were saying, but still found them really useful, as they had some good points and ideas for recording various things in a reflective manner.

Main points made were that it is important to express and discuss your ideas, thoughts and feelings in a very honest way. As Heather Pickard stated, it is important to record how you see yourself, and the skills you have to be able to analyse how these will help you in industry and in the future. I figure it is best to record things as soon as you think of them, as then your ideas, memories and thoughts are fresh in your mind and you'll record your gut feeling. I carry a notebook with me the majority of the time, which I use to note down various things, keep a record of events, things I need to do and things I find or gather up when I'm out and about. But I realise after watching these videos that I rarely go back and reflect on the things I've noted down. I think this is something I should try and do more often, as it will help me to gather my thoughts and organise things I've learnt, to provide me with a way to identify the good things and any difficulties I may have encountered and noted.

Darren Raven encouraged me in to thinking more about my reflective writing and how to express this, with his example of his own reflective journal. He records quotes, lyrics, ideas, diagrams and images in his notepad then organises them in a file in greater depth and with images. As he said, a brilliant way to remember experiences and various memories theoretically and visually.

Although repetitive, the videos were very useful and make me want to put more of an effort in to collecting my thoughts and ideas, to reflect upon at a later date. It has also given me encouragement to jump in to doing my PDP much more regularly than I currently am, and to just record everything and anything that I've seen, heard, liked, disliked, as it will help me to assess and interact with my thoughts.