We all have the best of intentions when it comes to writing in journals. We encourage our students to do it daily, but sometimes we do not take the time to do ourselves. Make starting a daily journal part of your New Year’s plan. Whether you write in a spiral bound notebook or create a private blog to journal on, you may find that it is a great way to reflect on what is going on in your life.
One of the most challenging parts of journaling is figuring out what you are going to write about on any given day. That’s why we have come up with 50 journal prompts just for you. Choose a different prompt below for each day and before you know it, journaling will become a part of your daily routine.
50 Journal Prompts for Teachers
1. What are your goals for the day?
2. What is one thing you want to do today and why?
3. Write about five things that make you happy.
4. Write about a day you will never forget.
5. What do you want your legacy to be?
6. Where do you want to live and why?
7. Write about 3 things about yourself that you love.
8. Write about 1 thing that you would change about yourself.
9. What is your greatest strength?
10. What is your secret fear?
11. What would you do differently?
12. How do you want your students to remember you?
13. What challenges you most about teaching?
14. What is the most rewarding thing about teaching for you?
15. Who has been your most memorable student and why?
16. What is one thing you are looking forward to this coming school year?
17. What was a highlight of last school year?
18. If you were not a teacher, what would you want to be?
19. What is one activity you would love to try, but haven’t yet?
20. How would you describe your teaching style?
21. If you had no traditional teaching supplies at all, what would you use to teach your students?
22. What is the most important lesson you have ever learned?
23. What is the most important lesson you want to teach your students?
24. Who has had the biggest impact on your life in a positive way?
25. What are you going to do/have done today to make yourself happy?
26. Describe your quiet spot of rest.
27. Write about a quote or verse that has inspired you.
28. Describe a perfect morning for you.
29. Describe a perfect evening for you.
30. What is one path you are glad you did not take?
31. Write about a person you love.
32. Describe your ideal vacation.
33. Write about a funny experience or time in your life.
34. What or who challenges you the most to be a better person?
35. Write about something you have done that you thought you would never do.
36. Write a letter to yourself at 16 years old.
37. Write a letter to yourself at 90 years old.
38. What do you need to let go of?
39. What is your favorite thing to do to relax?
40. When are you at your best during the day?
41. What was the funniest thing said by your students/children today.
42. What motivated you the most today?
43. What was the silliest thing you heard today?
44. What was the cutest outfit you saw today?
45. What was the most interesting thing you saw on your way to work/while out?
46. What was the most disgusting item on the cafeteria menu/restaurant menu today?
47. What has been the saddest thing a child has ever told you?
48. Write about the funniest excuses you have heard for students not doing their homework.
49. What is one thing you learned from someone else today?
50. What was the best part of your day?
What are some of your favorite journal prompts? Share them with us below.
When I student taught, my supervisor suggested that I journal every day and listed one thing that went well and one thing that I could work on. This really helped when I had a bad day – I could go back and look at all the good things that I did in the past.
About 15 years ago we had options for evaluation besides observations. I chose to journal. At first I felt like a student staring at a blank page and wondering what the heck I was going to write. Then I began to reflect on specific lessons: what went right, wrong, changes I wanted to make, student responses, etc. Next thing I new I was writing about individual students needs and what I’d seen work, what I wanted to try, etc. When I sat down with my evaluator, the principal, he just looked at the pages I’d written and shook his head. We were required to write once a week and I had written almost every day. He spent very little time reading but I knew the value of the reflections I had made!!
What a great idea! I think its great to self reflect on a daily basis and putting it on paper is a great resource to look back on. Your able to get some insight on how far youve grown and what needs improvement. 🙂
I started a prayer journal about a year ago, and this is the first time I’ve really stuck with it. I don’t write everyday (although I should), but its a great outlet when I need it most. It makes me feel connected and keeps me writing.
I absolutely love this!!
Thanks! I have copied and pasted these to my documents. I am always looking for good journal prompts. My kids write in their journals every morning as part of their morning work.
At the beginning of the year we talk about journal writing, writer’s block, and writing as much and as well as you can. For the last 2 years as part of the intro to these lessons,I would play Natasha Beddingfield’s “Unwritten”. The kids love this song and and call it their “writing song”. I hope that whenever they hear the song away from the classroom it will make them think about writing and inspire them to do so! (We use the literal translation of the lyrics in 2nd grade, but hopefully when they are older, they will get the real meaning;-)
I kind of went a different direction on that last comment…I would also like add that I model journal writing by keeping my own journal. I write in it while they are writing. I share some of my entries so that they have a model of what it expected.
When my friend’s mom passed away, he got five of her five-year journals and had 25 years of her life in her own words, a priceless keepsake! So I’m almost done with a five-year journal of my own that one day my children will likely treasure. A journal prompt I’d like to add is: Who is your character role model and whose character role model are you?
I am always looking for journal prompts to inspire my students. Great collection. Thank you.
Thanks for the reminder! I would definitely like to start journaling so I can go back and refer to what worked and what I can continue to improve upon.
Great prompts! I am going to use these to go with my Kagan Strategies (cooperative learning) this year!
I have enjoyed reading some prior comments and look forward to enjoying this Teaching site. I am a big big big Journal/writing fan. In fact I just found out that is one thing I have passed down to my 15 year old son. One other comment I wanted to make is; when I taught Kindergarten I would have my class of 14 sick in a circle every Monday morning and we had to mention “one really good thing that happened to them over the weekend”. Who was involved, where was it, and why was it fun.