Research has indicated that journal writing plays an important part in the development of learning. In secondary school, many educators use student journals as a way for students to process their thoughts and summarize what they have learned. The process of journal writing helps promote critical thinking skills and an interdisciplinary learning approach. However, teachers reading these journals find that it is a timely process. Therefore, many teachers just do a quick check to make sure that students are doing the journals.
Time prevents teachers from reading the journals completely.
By not reading the journals, teachers lose valuable insights into their students' development. If a teacher is able to easily read journals and if the journals give additional insights into student understanding of class activities, then the journal becomes a valuable tool in the learning process. Following guidelines of accepted reading and writing practices, a database with pull down menus was developed. During this school year, there were only a few SOS, however, some did provide me with insights that encouraged change. For the teacher, this ease of reading the ejournals provides a greater opportunity to respond to the students' learning styles.