Task 3C Sources of information

My most current sources of information:

The Internet:

Without a doubt this is my primary source of information. When I began thinking about how much I rely on the Internet to inform me about auditions, events and everything really I began wondering what would I do without it? Imagine if one day there was no more Internet? If there was no internet would that mean I would have to develop other networks and gather information from different places? Would I still be well connected within the industry without it? Am I too reliant on the Internet? This source of information for networking supports the connectivism theory and helps the sharing of information suggesting networking if a system where we can all interact. 

Other dancers/friends:

Knowing people in the industry is vital and essential to 'making it' in the performing arts world. Not only will this help you advance with auditions and being in the right place at the right time but without knowing people in the industry I think it can feel like a very lonely place. At auditions everyone seems to know each other so it can feel very solitary if you are completely alone and this can lower your confidence. Also having people in the industry to talk to and people who can understand and sympathise with professional issues you may be having is very important. Knowing people who can support you and give you advice on how to progress in the profession is very useful and can benefit you massively. Lots of the professional decisions I have made had been influenced and advised by others in the industry, whether that be ex-teacher or friends as these are people in the best position to help me and likewise I will advise my friends and other professional to help them. This way of networking and co-operation supports the social connectism theory where relationships are formed and we extract meaning from them. 

Workshops:

You cannot leave a workshop with making new connections within the industry. There's always lots of other participants and of course the work shop leaders and assistants. They are a great way to broaden your network and meet like minded people. Also they can be a great way to 'get your foot in the door' with a company. Often before a big Matthew Bourne audition the company holds a workshop where they will be scouting for talent already so it is a good way to be seen and make yourself memorable before the audition. Also it is an opportunity to talk to the people involved in the company and have your questions and queries answered. 

Other publications, magazines etc:

There are many dance and performance related publications which are a great way to be involved in the industry. Before I moved to ballet school I was subscribed to the Dancing Times and RAD Gazette and because I didn't know that many people in the dance world this helped me feel connected and informed of current events in the industry! I feel like now I don't use these types of publications as much as I could because I rely on the internet so this is an area of networking I will try to broaden. 

For me personally I think I need to use a wider variety of sources to improve my current practice. I will try to use other publications and actively search for workshops and other related events I can attend and participate in. I think in our generation people mainly rely on the internet for a main source of information so perhaps we should try to find alternative ways to broaden our networks.

Task 3b Concepts of Networking

An example of networking. I have just received an email from a company asking me to work as an assistant choreographer for a few performances and workshops they have coming up in the summer and this made me think about how I got this job through networking. I did a job for this company about 6 months ago and really liked the company so I spoke to them after the project ended and said how I would be really interested if they had any future work and I emailed them after the event just to remind them who I was and pass on my contact detail and randomly 6 months down the line I have got a job out of it. Which just shows that it is important to out yourself out there and make connections with people! 

Concepts of networking:

CO-OPERATION:

I understand that in order to network efficiently it is important to cop-operate with people. Whether they be a colleuege or a boss or even someone that you cross paths with at an audition it is important to be easy to get on with and pleasant to talk to. The first impression you create of yourself is very important, especially in my industry as often people or potential employers will judge you immediately when you walk through the door at an audition! In the Robert Axelrod has a theory that cooperation is important until you can maximum benefit and then 'defecting'. I don't completely agree with this in terms of networking in my industry and after reading Lois-May's blog I can see that she feels the same way. I believe if someone has helped you reach a certain goal in your career then it is important to be greateful and try to help them back, not 'defect away'. Another example I thought of is after a teacher has helped you and passed on a lot of knowledge I think it is important to remain in contact with them rather than defecting away! 

AFFILIATION:

Generally people will affiliate with people on a personal and professional level and much social research has been conducted to discover why this it. There has been an interesting discussion on Lois-May's blog about how you might network different,y and less informally with friends rather than with people you know on a more professional basis. In an extract I have read from .... It states about the benefits of affiliating and networking with people on the same level as us aswell as higher up in the networking hierarchy. For example for me I should networking with other dancers and performers as well as choreographer and producers! 

As it says in the Reader it is important to give time to think about these concepts and see if it provokes any thoughts or ideas in regards to my own professional network. How can I use these ideas to broaden my own professional network and advance in my career. 

Task 3A Current networks

Current networks:

How do I engage in my professional networks? 

My professional network:

Ballet dancers - dancers - friends - teachers - people who I have met at auditions - agents - choreographers - producers - photographers 

I engage in my professional networks by talking to people and keeping in contact with people I know in the industry quite often my being connected on Facebook or LinkedIn. Always trying to make connections in as many areas as possible, including photographers and producers because I have learnt from past experiences that opportunities can arise! 

Established ways others network? 

Professional groups and networks. Perhaps signing up to a dance magazine or organisation like Dance UK

Any networks I use socially that I can use to network professionally? 

I have already began to network using my social media accounts like Facebook and Instagram! I have been approached for job through my Instagram account and use Facebook to keep up to day with auditions and jobs as offer companies post these on their company Facebook page. Obviously there are ethical issues here and questions raised about privacy and employers being able to see your personal online profile. LinkedIn in solely a professional network so I have started to use this more to network and make contacts within the industry. 

Motives of others in the network? 

When employers post online that they are looking for dancers or an employee of any type they are hoping that people will share and pass on the information and as a result find the best person for the job! It is important for companies to network so they can hire the best people. By talking and networking with others in the industry you can find out about people's reputations. For example whether someone is a quick learning, which can be especially important if they are looking for a last minute dancer or employee! Like wise this can work the other way around too and through the networking and talking to people you can find out about a company's reputation and whether or not they look after their emplolyees! For other dancers keeping in contact with each other they can keep each other informed about events within the industry. Whether that be auditions, master classes or workshops. Also just the general sharing of information about the industry, for example a good dance website that has a sale on leotards or a local studio that offers a good jazz class! Possible the people in the industry that need to have the broadest network would be agencies. They have to find out who the best performers are so they can represent them and then they have to network with the best companies to get the best jobs for them! 

What would my ideal network look like? 

My ideal network would consist of a wide range of people from the industry and outside because you never know where an opportunity may arise from! 
Network include:
Other dancers 
Singers 
Actors 
Musical theatre performers 
Teachers 
Ex-teachers
Agencies 
Photographers 
Producers 
Filmmakers 

What could I do to work towards developing my ideal network? 

Becoming more active on sites such as The Hustle on Facebook and Dancers Pro. Perhaps participating in online forums and talking to more people in the industry.

Task 2C Reflective theory

Critical reflection on reflective practice:

If you asked a group of people what reflection means to them and how they self reflect you would probably get a wide variety of answers. This is because reflection is a very personal thing and there is no right or wrong to it and many of us might not consciously realise that they are doing it on a daily basis. I certainly didn't! Before reading through the Reader I was unaware that I already had an existing relationship with reflection. Then as I began to think about it more I realised that reflection is a completely common and instinctive thing for us to do. I'm sure many people when they are travelling back from work in the evening will think about the event's of the day and what went well and what didn't. This is reflection. Or sometimes replaying the events of something in our head over and over again thinking 'what could I have done differently?' This too is reflection. So it is not something we have to always consciously decide to do but more something that will naturally occur. However, if we want to learn from reflection and use it to benefit us in our lives, education and careers then perhaps then it becomes something we should be putting a little more consciousness towards. 

When I think back at my vocational ballet training at school I can see that the idea of reflection was introduced to us in the form of writing a dance journal. This is a book where we were told to write down corrections for us to work on and goals that we wanted to achieve which our teachers would read over at the end of every term. Although I remember I found writing this a bit of a chore at the time, it was actually extremely helpful with consolidating what we had learnt in classes and helped me retain corrections. Since graduation I haven't continued to do anything like this however, I have written down my goals whether they be short term or long term and I find this helps me to keep focused.

In my company we are encouraged to think over new choreography after rehearsals and write it down so we remember the spacing and steps!

Looking outward:

I have found it very interesting reading what philosophers have said about reflection and the impact their revolutionary ideas have had on our education and schooling. Never before in my education have I been introduced to the way that the reflective process can enable you to be more actively involved with your learning and aid yourself in the educational process, so I had no idea that some of these educationalists had such a huge impact on the way we learn and their theories are something that has helped our education system develop and thrive.

John Dewey is one of the most influential thinkers in the history of modern education and is probably most well known for his role in 'progressive education' where he believes people need to learn through doing and partaking in a hands on approach. This is directly linked to the BAPP course as it is a work based learning degree so we are constantly learning through our work in a practical way so his beliefs are definitely relevant to our course and I can learn though his research and beliefs. Dewey's views make him a pragmatist as he believed that students must interact with the outside world in order to learn.

When reading through some quotes of Dewey's one that really stood out to me was “We only think when confronted with a problem.” This really struck a chord with me as I realised how accurate this was. Do we only begin searching for a solution for something when it is already a problem. Perhaps we should focus on the prevention of issues before it actually develops into a problem? I automatically linked this to injuries and how we should work on the prevention of them rather than waiting until we actually feel pain! Another quote I liked was “The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.” This develops the idea of continued growth and having control over yourself and how you evolve. After all we are in complete control of ourselves, no one else is telling us what to do and our actions, choices and decisions are down to ourselves. 



Dewey's ideas influenced Kolb and helped him in the creation of his learning cycle which I have posted below. This cycle isn't intended to be steps 1,2,3,4. It is developed to be a continual cycle where one thing leads into another. Although we will all experience each of the ideas, the point at which we enter the cycle is how we start to learn and can sometimes be called our learning style. So as well as helping us reflect on experiences the cycle also helps show us what kind of learner we are which will enable us to be able to learn from our experiences. 

If I look at the creation of my blog as an example of an experience then I can use the learning cycle to help find out what my learning style is by seeing at which point I enter the cycle and start finding meaning. When I first sat down to start to create my blog one of the first things I did was look at previous BAPP students to see which blog platform they had used and the style of layout. I immediately learnt from this and gathered some of my own ideas and I also found that this gave me confidence to start my own blog. So I think the point at which I enter the learning cycle would be reflective observation. I definitely also used active experimentation shortly after I had started my blog because I switched blogging platforms as I wasn't happy with my original blog so using a bit of trial error and active experimentation I found which platform and style worked best for me! It's very interesting to use this cycle because you can apply it to lots of difference experiences and see how you learn and at which point do you begin to extract meaning from what you are doing!

Inspired by Kolb's learning cycle Peter Honey and John Mumford created a questionnaire (Honey and Mumford 1986b) that can help identify your preferred learning style. Lots of academic institutions introduce this to students to help them find out what kind of a learner they are. 

The four types of learners are:

Activists - Those who will try anything once and consider the consequences afterwards. They will learn from experiences and opportunities. 

Reflectors - Those who review experiences, this may link to Kolb's learning cycle and journal writing. Spend time listening and observing. 

Theorist - Those who like to understand the theory behind the actions and conclude from the experience. 

Pragmatists - Those who are keen to try things out and plan the next steps. Look for solutions for the problems in hand.

I found an interesting read on the Open Univeristy website about Honey and Mumford and used it to help me decide how I learn best! 

http://www.open.edu/openlearnworks/pluginfile.php/69355/mod_page/content/1/learning_styles.pdf

Schon looked at reflection in another way and was interested in how time impacts how you engage with new ideas. The idea of the present and future giving two different ways to reflect. Reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action. For example learning whilst you are doing something or thinking back after something has already happened.

Professional practice mind map

I saw on Lois-May's blog that she had done a mind map about what professional practice means to her and I thought I would do the same thing. Doing this has shown me that there are many different avenues within the arts that I am interested in and lots of areas for my career to progress to!

Task 2D Inquiry

What in my daily practice gets me really enthusiastic to find out more about? 

Strangely enough I really struggled to pinpoint what exactly I am enthusiastic about in my practice! I sat for a long time asking myself this question and began to get slightly worried when I couldn't immediately find an answer! After reading through my journal to help me gather some ideas I realised that something that I had repeatedly written about was how to stay motivated and positive for performances everyday. How do we, as performers manage to put the same passion and love into our performance for every single show? I had noted down in my journal on some days 'good performance' and other days 'bad performance' what constitutes a good performance? What does a bad performance entail? Would this be noticeable to other people of is it just a personal thing? Something I had also written about in my journal was how to keep on pushing myself in daily ballet class and keeping motivated. Even days when my body feels fatigued I always try to keep on pushing myself to improve my technique. This triggered some more thoughts about how as dancers we are used to criticism and rejection and made me consider whether this effects our self confidence or  does it make us stronger? Perhaps a line of inquiry I would be interested in following would be physcology in the performing arts and dance as this is something I would definitely be interested in finding more about. 

https://www.danceuk.org/healthier-dancer-programme/health-faqs/psychology/

http://www.foundations-for-excellence.org/file_storage/beyondphysicalpractice_1.pdf

Beyond physical practice
Terry Clark, Sanna M. Nordin and Imogen J. Walker, Trinity Laban 

Found a link to a really interesting read about physiological skills to boost training and performance! 

Who do I admire in my industry? 

I would say that in most ballet companies dancers tend to admire the principles in the company. I had a really interesting conversation with someone in the industry the other day and she was talking about a company she works with and said that she didn't feel the principles were taking on the role of being a principle dancer. She explained to me that she felt that being a principle dancer is more than just dancing a principle role it's also about setting an example for the rest of the company and being someone that other dancers can look up to and aspire to be! She explained that even things like having clean pointe shoes and looking neat for class are ways you can take on the role of being a principle dancer. I found this an interesting point and it made me consider how I portray myself within my company. Personally someone I admire would be my ballet mistress, she is always very positive and I think she sets a great example for the rest of the company!

What am I passionate about? Who works with something you are passionate about? 

When I was at school something that I used to find interesting was Pilates and I strongly believe it can hugely benefit dancers. This is something I am definitely still passionate about now and still try to incorporate this into my working day. Someone who I admire who is also passionate about this is a woman called Lottie Murphy who is a Pilates teacher and wellness coach. She promotes a healthy and balanced lifestyle and I follow her on various social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. She often uploads blog posts and photos with positive quotes about living a balanced life. Lottie Murphy also trained as a ballet dancer so I find it interesting how she made the transition between ballet to health and fitness! I find that she has a positive vibe and I admire this and try to channel this during my day, especially if I am feeling run down or tired. 

http://www.lottiemurphy.com

What makes me sad or angry? Who else shares these feeling but finds a way to work around them? 

What can make me sad in my industry and practice are injuries and dancers can be treated badly because of them. They can happen to anyone at anytime and can sometimes lead to people having to stop dancing altogether which is very sad to see. I've seen this happen to a number of people whilst at school training. Sometimes people find that it is just ballet and it's unnatural movements which cause pain so they will look at going down the jazz or contemporary route but sometimes the repetitive moments of ballet can cause serious injuries which may cause people physical difficulties in the future. Our profession is so heavily reliant on physical capability that it is vitally important to look after you body. Many companies aren't understanding about injuries and can treat dancers like they are disposable which makes me very annoyed. I don't agree with these ethics and because I have experienced first hand being treated badly because of an injury it makes me feel very angry. I understand that a company needs to have fit and healthy dancers in order to put on a show but I believe once a dancer is employed with a company they should be looked after and cared for.  For instance if a dancer requires to see a physiotherapist I believe that this should be supported by the company and not seem as a negative as it often can be. I have learnt that looking after your body is so important, especially when you have a very heavy workload. It is important to find time for rest as well as knowing when to push yourself. Since starting writing my journal I have noted down a few occasions where I have had a few ethical disagreements with how dancers have been treated due to injury. This has initiated thoughts about equity and dancers rights. Do we as dancers actually understand our rights? Also in comparison to other industries are we treated fairly? I'm sure people are aware that the dance industry is a brutal one but should it be so cutthroat that if you mention an injury you loose your job? 

Appropriate ethical response to given situations?

It's enevitble that diffevent people will hold varying opinions in regards to different ethical situations and when working within a company it is almost impossible to please everyone with company decisions all the time. During this past week a number of issues have been raised in my company in regards to the dancers welfare and I'm not going to go into too much detail because this is a public blog but when I have been reflecting on the day I have had some interesting thoughts which could lead to an inquiry topic. I have been thinking about leadership. What qualities make a successful leader and what qualities make an effective team member? Is it important to voice your opinion in regards to company issues to directors or is it better talk about it with co-workers? This week has shown me that it is important to take initiative and stand up for what you believe in. After all we all have rights and it's important to be heard because that is when problems can be solved and improvements can be made. There is another member of my company who shares my opinion and isn't afraid to voice their opinion which has produced results.

Task 2B Journal Writing Experience

Over the past week I have been using the table provided in the module 1 handbook to structure my journal each day. It has been interesting for me to see which methods best work for me and enable me to reflect effectively  upon my days and engage in critical thinking. 

DESCRIPTION:

I found that writing descriptively came quite naturally for me as this was how I used to write in my diary when I was younger. On the day where I wrote in this style a lot changed throughout the day as one of the dancers in the company sprained her ankle and had to leave the company. Quite a few ethical issues here were raised and some of the dancers had conflicting opinions about what should be done in this situation. I learnt more about my own views from writing this all down in my journal. It was a bit of an awkward situation in the company so I was reluctant to share my views so it was good to express my thoughts on paper and give time for reflection. This triggered my thinking about dancer's in my company have no insurance and how if we get injured we are left without a job. Is this right? Would this kind of thing be considered normal in another profession? 

INITIAL REFLECTION:

I found this way of writing quite difficult as I was reluctant to write down my feeling and thoughts. I approached this method of journal writing by writing in bullet points and this helped me to write my thoughts without going into too much detail. 

LISTS:

I love lists. I write lists all the time mainly about things I have to do so I don't forget. So although writing lists reflecting on events from the day and listing my thoughts was new to me I was familiar with writing lists. I really liked this way of writing and is a method of journal writing I will definitely continue to use. I like the way your thoughts don't have to be organised or logical but when they're written in a list it looks neat and structured. 

WHAT IF:

Could've? Would've? Should've? I found that when writing in this style I was more inclined to think about the negatives rather than the positives which has taught me that I need to have more confidence and think positively. The day that I was writing in this style I received an email which was an invitation to an audition for An American in Paris musical in London, which I was very excited about. I wrote in my journal 'what if the audition goes really well and I get offered the job?' On the other hand I was panicking because there was a singing round in the audition and I am not a confident singer at all! I wrote 'what if I have to sing in front of a big group of people on my own?' I found when writing in this style there were often two contrasting sides to my thoughts. One being more optimistic than the other. Dancers are very used to being critised and corrected so I feel sometimes we should purposely try and channel more positive thoughts. 

ANOTHER VIEW:

I enjoyed this way of writing but ended up writing in an almost fictional manor and I don't think I will use this on a regular basis in my journal. I wrote about my day from the view of my pointe shoes and this triggered some thoughts about how I work my technique in ballet class and shows. 

EVALUATION:

I wrote this after a performance of Swan Lake so I wrote about what went well in the performance, what didn't go so well and what I felt I needed to work on. Some of my notes were about my technique and performance and some of them were about spacing for the different dances. Because we are a touring company we are always changing stages so some days we might have a really big stage and sometimes a really small one which means we always have to be alert about where we are standing on stage. Also where the wings are will change from day to day so we have to be conscious not to stand in the way of these as people will be entering and exiting through these. Reflecting on these things helps increase my awareness and I noticed the next day I was consciously thinking more about my personal corrections and observations from the previous day. I liked this way of writing and I definitely think that it is beneficial to me in my professional practice. 

GRAPHS, CHARTS AND DIAGRAMS:

I found this style of reflection required a bit more time and thought for me to get started. It has been a while since I have had to write any kind of graph, chart or diagram. But one kind of diagram I remembered liking from maths was a pie chart. It's easy to read and I thought this would be a good place for me to begin. I made three different pie charts representing my work/free time balance at this point in the year over the past three years of my life which have all been very different. The first was when I was still at Elmhurst School in my graduate year and was 18 years old at this point in the year I had been told I had a job offer in a ballet company so I was very happy. The second was from last year when I was living in Leeds on the Northern graduate programme and actually exactly a year today was when I had my hip operation! Then this year I am living in London working with Vienna Festival Ballet Company. 

I also did a line graph where I plotted where I felt my stress levels were each day and it was interesting to see if there were any patterns throughout the week! I am quite a visual learning and I like to see things clearly on paper so I feel this works well for me. 

I have found this task extremely beneficial to my journal writing experience and reflective practice. I will adopt some of these new ways of writing, for example the what if method, lists and graphs, charts and diagrams. I am going to continue to research into different methods of journal writing and develop my own style of writing. 

Task 2A Reflective Practice

Paula first introduced the journal writing idea to us in our introductionary Skype session right at the beginning of our course. Initially I thought this was just a tool we could use to write our current ideas about different sections of the course and the tasks we were working on. To be honest it wasn't something I originally gave that much thought into. But now I realise that there is so much more to writing a journal and it can benefit not only ourselves on the course but our work, practice and life in general. I have discovered that journal writing is a great tool in learning and reflection and should be used to maximum efficiency to aid our education. 

At first I struggled with writing in my journal. I found myself reluctant to write down my feelings and thoughts but by following the structure of the table provided in the handbook with the different examples of journal writing I have now become more comfortable with writing in my journal. I think I felt conscious that someone else would read it ... Not that I was writing anything particular private but it was just the idea of having my emotions exposed that made me feel uncomfortable. This never used to be a problem with me because until I was about 14 years old I had a diary that I would write everything in. Sometimes I would even write down quotes from arguments I had with my sister which are extremely entertaining for us both to read back on now! I am so glad that I did this when I was younger because when I read back on them now I can get a real understanding of what was going on in my head when I was growing up and my diaries throughout the years have helped preserve special memories from my childhood which otherwise could have been forgotten. Although at the time I was obviously not writing a journal for the purpose of education I can learn things from reflection now and think about how I have changed growing up and how my feelings, beliefs, likes and dislikes have changed or even remained the same. I remember even from the age of 10 doing doodles of ballet  and pointe shoes on my diary and it's funny to think that dancing has always been a passion of mine and I can see that by reading through my diaries throughout the years. 

I began my journal writing experience by just making notes on my iPad whilst on the company tour bus every morning when we were travelling to performances and also on the journey back in the evening. In my morning journal entries the words 'tired' and 'sleepy' commonly occurred so I came to the conclusion that the evenings were a better time for me to write as I had more to write because the events of the day were fresh in my mind (and I wasn't as tired). I actually prefer hand writing my journal on paper rather than on a device. Partly because I don't completely trust technology and didn't want to risk my work being accidentally deleted .. So I decided if I bought a nice journal it would inspire me to keep up my journal writing routine! My journal differs to my blog because it is much more informal. My journal is an organised mess of my mind and I use lots of mind maps and bullet point lists to organise my thoughts. I often write in shorthand and probably to someone else reading my journal it wouldn't make very much sense! "Writing is a means of puzzling through what is happening in our work and personal lives..." Boud (2001) I think that this quote from the educationalist completely summarises how I feel about my journal writing!

I have discovered that I actually really enjoy journal writing and find it quite calming and therapeutic. I have always been a big fan of to-lists and more or less write a new one everyday so now my journal is a place where I will write these too. Often during the day at work things will happen that I could use to learn from and reflect upon and writing these events and thoughts down stops me from forgetting them and helps me to reflect through critical thinking. I have learnt that lots of interesting ethical issues will arise at work and now I am writing these things down I am more aware of these issues arising. Even though I have only been writing a short amount each day in my journal and sometimes I will just note down some bullet points it is very interesting to see how my mood and feelings each day at the time of when I saw writing in my journal affects the way in which I write. This is something I will continue to explore.

Over the last nine days I have been using the table provided in the handbook to write an entry each day which is what my next blog post will be about. 

Reflective practice - initial thoughts

What is reflection? 

Dictionary definition:

reflection

rɪˈflɛkʃ(ə)n/

noun

1. 1. 

   the throwing back by a body or surface of light, heat, or sound without absorbing it.

   "the reflection of light"

   synonyms:

   sending back, throwing back, casting back, mirroring, backscattering "the colours seen in soap bubbles are caused by reflection of light"
2. 2. 

   serious thought or consideration.

   "he doesn't get much time for reflection"

   synonyms:

   thought, thinking, consideration, contemplation, study, deliberation, pondering, meditation, musing, rumination, cogitation, brooding,

Reflection is a word that can be used in several different contexts. It could be used to describe someone looking into a mirror or seeing their reflection in water. However, when we talk about reflective practice the meaning of the word has different implications and I have started thinking about what reflection means to me. I feel that reflection is purposely thinking about a certain time or event and analysing your thoughts and actions. When reading through Reader 2 the phrases  about reflection that stood out to me are 'giving meaning to what you are doing' 'active thinking' and 'extracting meaning from events'. I think all of these summarise the term reflection and have helped me understand a little more about how reflection could be useful to me on my professional practice. 

What I already do? 
In terms of reflection I probably do most of mine in bed before I go to sleep when I think about the events of the day ... In task 2 we have been introduced to the idea of journal writing and although previously I have not had a journal since I was about 13 I do have a diary that I write a lot of lists in and this helps me organise myself and my thoughts. Although I don't use this to write down the events of the day I do find that writing down to-do lists quite therapeutic and can understand how writing a journal could be beneficial and help give meaning to what you are doing. 

Something interesting that David Boud said was that 'journal writing can be viewed through many different lenses: as a form of self-expression, a record of events or a form of therapy.'

I found this interesting because he gives three of journal writing. I agree with all these three points and think they could all be helpful in regards to me and my professional practice. A journal is a great was to privately express yourself and your thoughts. It is also a good way to record events and can help preserve memories of things that have happened. I completely agree that journal writing can be a form of therapy because for me personally I always feel better once I have written things done because it almost takes the thoughts and mess from out my head and organises it on paper. In a way consolidating what I have learnt in the day.

Here I have collected a few different images which I think could represent reflection in one way or another.