The Teacher’s Notebook: How Writing Builds Better Classes and Stronger Students
Using Notes to Track Progress, Plan Lessons, and Improve Your Teaching Method
In the first article of this series, we explored the value of taking notes in martial arts in general. Then, we looked at how students can use notetaking to enhance their learning, reflection, and progress. Now, let’s flip the perspective. Because while note-taking may be essential for students, I’d argue that it can be just as important for teachers.
Most instructors usually have a curriculum to follow, even if it’s loosely defined. Whether you teach a highly structured traditional art like Karate or something more fluid like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the question remains: how do you know when a student is ready to progress to the next level?
In BJJ, there’s rarely a formal test. Teachers often rely on intuition and experience to award stripes or belts, but intuition can be honed. Taking notes helps you become more deliberate in your judgment. You can track progress over time, compare your current impression to past performance, and identify patterns. Maybe a student has improved drastically in rolling but still needs help in positional escapes. That’s a nuance you might miss if you rely only on memory.
In Karate, where rank is usually awarded after a formal test, notes can help you prepare your students more effectively. Maybe you notice that two weeks before the test, they consistently struggle with a kata transition or freeze when called to perform in front of others. Recording these details allows you to fine-tune your approach, both for the individual and for the group.
And if you don’t have a curriculum? Then note-taking becomes even more critical.
Without a written plan, classes can become repetitive without you realizing it. You may end up favoring one set of drills or techniques while unintentionally neglecting others. Notes help you spot these blind spots. You don’t need a detailed lesson plan, just a few lines after each session about what was taught and how the class responded. Over time, these quick reflections form a history of your teaching, one that you can learn from and build upon. It may also help you create your own curriculum.
Especially for new instructors, notes are like training wheels. They help you structure your classes, stay focused, and develop your teaching method. Veteran instructors can improvise and adapt more easily, but even they benefit from written records, especially when managing large groups.
These past notes can also help you prepare for a seminar, especially if you are out of ideas. You can select techniques that were well received by your own students and use them in the seminar. The bonus here is that some of your advanced students might also remember these techniques and help you during the seminar as “uke” and also guide the newer students.
Your notes don’t have to be pretty. They just need to be useful.
Here are a few things I recommend keeping track of as a teacher:
Student Progress: Track individual students’ strengths, weaknesses, and readiness for advancement.
Class Content: Record what you taught and how the class responded. Note any drills or sequences that worked particularly well (or didn’t).
Exercises and Drills: Document your favorite warm-ups, combinations, or partner drills. Include ideas you pick up from videos or seminars or ideas that you come up with during class.
Curriculum Notes: Keep a running list of core techniques for each level. You’ll spot gaps more easily and know what to reinforce.
Teaching Insights: Sometimes, after class, a phrase you said or a metaphor you used sticks with you. Write it down. It might become one of your signature teaching tools.
Martial arts teachers are often practical people. We like movement, not paperwork. But a good notebook is not bureaucracy, it’s a map, your own map. One that helps you see where your students have been, where they are now, and where you want to take them next.
Just like a student reviews their notes to grow, so can we as teachers.
And if one day a student surprises you with a thoughtful question or reveals a new level of maturity, you’ll know that the notes you took—and the thought you put into them—played a small but important part in getting them there.
