Keeping a journal

During the term you're doing your practicum, you should keep a detailed journal documenting your experiences. I would keep two different sets of notes: one documenting your hours and what you were doing, any observations you made. You could organize these by date and by type of work you were doing, if that's relevant. The second set includes your interpretations, reflections on your observations, or even how the practicum seems to be going, the progress you're making or not making, frustrations, achievements, etc. With these two sets of notes, your paper at the end will be much easier to write. Do not include clients' names in the journal--keep in mind your obligations to client confidentiality and to your commitments to employers. The standard you should use: if you were to lose your journal, no one should be the worse off for it should someone else read it (meaning the identities were stripped, not that you're not making meaningful entries).

The journal is a good opportunity to work on your observation skills--few things are more important to social scientists and observers, and in the field of social work, along with interviewing, this skill is especially critical. It is important, as with qualitative research, to make sure that you separate your observations from your interpretations of them. Later on, you may feel you need to 're-interpret' events that occurred. If you don't have the 'raw data,' the observation itself, this will be difficult to do. I recommend using a composition book (string bound, so the pages don't fall out), having observations and documentation of work on the left page of the open book, and your interpretations--what you think any of this means (and, by the way, notes that will help you when you are writing up your paper), on the right side of the open page.

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