Well, here we are again!
Some general thoughts about last week…I reckon I was a wee bit ill; I definitely was fuzzy headed, needed lots of sleep and felt a bit de-motivated. I went to the gym on Tuesday, and felt good…for about 1 hour and then knackered! So it was not a particularly productive time, and I certainly wasn’t in the mood for blogging.
It’s worth considering that there will be times that I’ll be feeling less than 100%, and therefore reflection & analysis will tend towards the negative. That’s OK as long I can look at them again later and laugh!
Anyway, the positives:
I worked well on my History essay with updated drafts produced on Tues, Thurs & Fri morning before the hand in. I had it at just under 2300 words, which was about the target…but then realised I hadn’t written about criticisms of the 11-plus, so back up to 2455. I could have taken out some unnecessary prose, but it seemed a shame and Evan won’t mind. Would a better essay plan have helped? Or I could keep a version for me, as I did with the Investigating Europe.
Spanish – Yup, I’ve got a general plan and some phrases sorted out.
Literature – Nope, wasn’t in the mood and it was not a priority.
French – Yup, I did a little revision probably not enough but sufficient for the course. Au revoir et merci Cedric!
Communication – I watched the “Age of Genius” programme as relaxation (ie not notes taken!), and damned good it was too…tied in nicely with the reading assignment. We looked at some presentation skills in class, which should be interesting & useful.
This week:
Mon – use tutorial time for quick review of my Spanish h/w, and maybe start the Powerpoint work.
Tues – see what Madelaine unleashes upon us! Go to Library 1pm;
45 mins working through Voila exercise to prepare for Deborah’s class
45 mins on Spanish presentation
45 mins on Philosophy of Language stuff, then meet Sara to go over it
Oh, got to find time to see Hamish at TLI see need to be at Haymarket at 5!!
Wed – 30 mins French revision, then 45 mins Spanish work
Thurs – Go to Library 2pm. Specific plan to depend on Tues/Wed success.
Although could be an idea to do some background for Historical Investigation, and revise a bit for the assessment!
Fri 9am – continue History revision: Read an essay & note key points.
Monday, 25 January 2010
Monday, 18 January 2010
Monday 18th
Here we go again!
Well looking at last week’s goals, I realise I’ll have to print them out and put them in my diary otherwise they’ll just get forgotten! Anyway
I have a diary and a Carlisle Utd calendar.
I spoke to Jordi, and reckon I’ll go with “El uso de los moviles telefonos en nuestea sociedad” theme. I also downloaded a lot of images of mobiles for the presentation.
Literature – nope…didn’t do the techniques stuff. The class just confused me a little, and I think it’s best to take a breather; my essay was fine so look at it later.
French – nope…didn’t do vocab work. I was a bit disappointed that we are losing our teacher, Cedric. Although I took notes to Dundee, I didn’t have time or sufficient sobriety to look at them!
History – yup, 1400 words written up, and that’s with reflections and rewrites! I’m now trying to get my message across within the 2000 word limit – the first 2 essays were nearer 3000, and that will cause problems at uni!
My evening class was interesting, but this whole Philosophy business…well, what does it all mean???? I did print out and read up a bit on Plato’s “Cratylus” text, Locke’s “Limits of Human Understanding” and Frege’s “On Sense and Reference”. I will try and read through them tomorrow before class.
So – for next week>
Spanish – read through my communication essay and translate some key phrases. Make a general plan for the presentation.
Literature – I don’t have to attend class, but I should rewrite my techniques section to include more quotations as evidence.
French – More specific – rewrite the past tense structures. Remember Dr Mrs Vadertrampp!!
OK food….more later!
Well looking at last week’s goals, I realise I’ll have to print them out and put them in my diary otherwise they’ll just get forgotten! Anyway
I have a diary and a Carlisle Utd calendar.
I spoke to Jordi, and reckon I’ll go with “El uso de los moviles telefonos en nuestea sociedad” theme. I also downloaded a lot of images of mobiles for the presentation.
Literature – nope…didn’t do the techniques stuff. The class just confused me a little, and I think it’s best to take a breather; my essay was fine so look at it later.
French – nope…didn’t do vocab work. I was a bit disappointed that we are losing our teacher, Cedric. Although I took notes to Dundee, I didn’t have time or sufficient sobriety to look at them!
History – yup, 1400 words written up, and that’s with reflections and rewrites! I’m now trying to get my message across within the 2000 word limit – the first 2 essays were nearer 3000, and that will cause problems at uni!
My evening class was interesting, but this whole Philosophy business…well, what does it all mean???? I did print out and read up a bit on Plato’s “Cratylus” text, Locke’s “Limits of Human Understanding” and Frege’s “On Sense and Reference”. I will try and read through them tomorrow before class.
So – for next week>
Spanish – read through my communication essay and translate some key phrases. Make a general plan for the presentation.
Literature – I don’t have to attend class, but I should rewrite my techniques section to include more quotations as evidence.
French – More specific – rewrite the past tense structures. Remember Dr Mrs Vadertrampp!!
OK food….more later!
Monday, 11 January 2010
Monday 11th Jan 2010
Happy Bloody New Year!
I socialised on both a family and friend level over the Xmas break, and did no work whatsoever! Although, I did sign myself up for a Philosophy of Language course at the Lifelong learning centre, on Tuesday eves. Having dealt with all my college classes without too much difficulty, this course should provide more of a taste of the level of lectures I’m likely to get when studying Linguistics at Uni. I borrowed the set course book from the library, and it looks well heavy! I tried to have a flip through the intro, but it required a degree of concentration I was unable to supply at the time; I’ll wait until after the first lecture to have another look. Hopefully, it’ll make more sense then.
Gols for this week:
Beg, Borrow, Buy or Steal a diary!
Spanish – read through old essays, and consider a topic for my presentation. I should ask Jordi if I can do something about mobile phone usage!
Literature – try and write a short piece about the techniques used in Secrets; that’s what Madeleine said I was short on.
French – Read through old notes, and transfer them to new notebook. Well, start doing this at least!
Communication – We didn’t really have a full class last Thursday. Scott did return my opinion piece, which was fine although I did make a couple of typos and had too many exclamation marks!!!!!!!
History - I want to have at least 1000 words written on the Labour Govt. by the weekend. This could, of course, be altered by new assignments for other classes! I should also draw up a short list for potential subjects to investigate.
“Language Instinct” – shall we say read another 2 chapters? A lot depends on how I’m feeling; there’s no point in trying to read if I’m tired or unfocussed!
I socialised on both a family and friend level over the Xmas break, and did no work whatsoever! Although, I did sign myself up for a Philosophy of Language course at the Lifelong learning centre, on Tuesday eves. Having dealt with all my college classes without too much difficulty, this course should provide more of a taste of the level of lectures I’m likely to get when studying Linguistics at Uni. I borrowed the set course book from the library, and it looks well heavy! I tried to have a flip through the intro, but it required a degree of concentration I was unable to supply at the time; I’ll wait until after the first lecture to have another look. Hopefully, it’ll make more sense then.
Gols for this week:
Beg, Borrow, Buy or Steal a diary!
Spanish – read through old essays, and consider a topic for my presentation. I should ask Jordi if I can do something about mobile phone usage!
Literature – try and write a short piece about the techniques used in Secrets; that’s what Madeleine said I was short on.
French – Read through old notes, and transfer them to new notebook. Well, start doing this at least!
Communication – We didn’t really have a full class last Thursday. Scott did return my opinion piece, which was fine although I did make a couple of typos and had too many exclamation marks!!!!!!!
History - I want to have at least 1000 words written on the Labour Govt. by the weekend. This could, of course, be altered by new assignments for other classes! I should also draw up a short list for potential subjects to investigate.
“Language Instinct” – shall we say read another 2 chapters? A lot depends on how I’m feeling; there’s no point in trying to read if I’m tired or unfocussed!
Monday, 21 December 2009
Monday 21st Dec
Whiteness is all around, but not the blank pages awaiting my input for an essay! Nope, it’s been snowing! And I reckon I’m up to date!
My UCAS personal statement has been approved by Dieca, she & Jordi have written a lovely reference and the whole kit & caboodle has been sent away to those University dons in their academic towers of ivory…I can but wait!
The Spanish essay on the various themes of “Lengua de las Mariposas” went fine: Jordi gave me a “Very Good” so I must have managed to write literately! I haven’t seen the corrected version yet so by the time I get it back, the writing will just be a distant memory! I must try and do some exs from my grammar books over the Xmas hols.
I passed the “Father & Son” assessment, which caused a lot of people problems. I’ve written an essay comparing and contrasting “Secrets” and “Dulce et Decorum est” and their treatment on war. Again I find that I’m quite happy explaining the themes, but I don’t feel comfortable discussing the literary techniques used; maybe I should try and read up on this…but I don’t want to study Literature at Uni!!
French went fine: full marks in reading 7 listening, and just a few mistakes in my writing. Cedric didn’t mention our speaking, but I think it was OK. I need to go through my notes and organise the vocab notebook..
Joe was happy with my project, and I did my wee presentation. It went OK, but I’m sure I can improve – it was strange speaking in front of my peers! I reckon I used the technology without problems, but I should have organised my notes better. I should find Joe and ask him for some comments.
I wrote the Mobile Phone essay in a bit of an altered style; more like an opinion column than a discursive essay. We’ll see what Scott has to say, but I think it was good to try and do something in a different voice.
Handed in the essay on the Liberal welfare reforms – the subject didn’t grip me as much as the other ones for History. That’s the way it’s got to be though – I can’t expect every subject to tickle my interest bones to the same extent, and there are bound to be subjects to investigate that I find dull or uninspiring.
My UCAS personal statement has been approved by Dieca, she & Jordi have written a lovely reference and the whole kit & caboodle has been sent away to those University dons in their academic towers of ivory…I can but wait!
The Spanish essay on the various themes of “Lengua de las Mariposas” went fine: Jordi gave me a “Very Good” so I must have managed to write literately! I haven’t seen the corrected version yet so by the time I get it back, the writing will just be a distant memory! I must try and do some exs from my grammar books over the Xmas hols.
I passed the “Father & Son” assessment, which caused a lot of people problems. I’ve written an essay comparing and contrasting “Secrets” and “Dulce et Decorum est” and their treatment on war. Again I find that I’m quite happy explaining the themes, but I don’t feel comfortable discussing the literary techniques used; maybe I should try and read up on this…but I don’t want to study Literature at Uni!!
French went fine: full marks in reading 7 listening, and just a few mistakes in my writing. Cedric didn’t mention our speaking, but I think it was OK. I need to go through my notes and organise the vocab notebook..
Joe was happy with my project, and I did my wee presentation. It went OK, but I’m sure I can improve – it was strange speaking in front of my peers! I reckon I used the technology without problems, but I should have organised my notes better. I should find Joe and ask him for some comments.
I wrote the Mobile Phone essay in a bit of an altered style; more like an opinion column than a discursive essay. We’ll see what Scott has to say, but I think it was good to try and do something in a different voice.
Handed in the essay on the Liberal welfare reforms – the subject didn’t grip me as much as the other ones for History. That’s the way it’s got to be though – I can’t expect every subject to tickle my interest bones to the same extent, and there are bound to be subjects to investigate that I find dull or uninspiring.
Monday, 7 December 2009
Tues 8 Dec
Well, Happy December you festive frolickers! Assessments are looming, especially in languages, so I probably should be revising but I reckon I’ll get by...
I think I’ve got the UCAS personal statement sorted...it was a lot more difficult than it should have been...or was it? It’s one thing to write an essay about Chartism or a poem we’ve read, but when faced with the task of trying to explain yourself in 4000 characters.... Maybe we should have interviewed each other to get a fix on our strengths!
The Investigating Europe project is nearly there in all its glorious technicolour...all I need is for Jordi Montserat to come to college mañana! Lesson to be learned...you can’t rely on unknown volunteers to help when YOU need! I reckon it’s a good piece of work though, and it’s been an interesting and learning experience creating it. The most important thing is a good plan, and then being able to adapt that plan as you move forward. Still have to organise a wee presentation though... maybe best watch some this Wed and suss out exactly what is required!
In Literature we had a good look at ‘Dulce et decorum est’ and considered the horrors of the Great War. We then ignored the ‘Secrets’ short story, and jumped onto a 2nd World War poem ‘The Naming of the Parts’, which confused me a bit...sometimes it’s hard to switch from one form to another, especially when you’ve prepared for discussion about certain works.
Madame Deborah was off sick last week, so we were dans le curs tres grande in French...more revision, which was good fun. I just need to keep writing out my key sentences. I’m confident about reading & listening, but need to stay focussed for writing (damn those male/female changes!). Speaking should be OK providing I remember to say “Oui” and not “Si”!
We’ve got the big “Lengua de las Mariposas” essay details, and it’s a comparing & contrasting of the various themes that we’ve encountered in the stories and the film. The build up has been good, with the assignments in English pushing us in the right direction. We had a good chat last Wed about the structure of the essay to be written, but yesterday was a bit of a waste of time in my humble opinion. We spoke a bit about what we’d written in our draft but without said drafts being marked! Hard to judge how good/bad anyone was without considering the full work, no?
More essay writing work in Communication...some fun activities organising texts about elephants & surveillance cameras - not in the same text mind! I think I’ll write about mobile phone reducing real communication for my discursive essay. And we get the next 2 weeks for working in class, which is cool!
Finished the final Maths assignment no prob... poor John was getting a bit harassed as everybody is at different stages and needs different help! Maybe I should volunteer to tutor a bit...we’ll see how I feel come Friday morning!
My “Women’s Vote” essay was well received, but now we’ve got to write about the Liberals creation of a welfare state...sigh, it never seems to end! I did meet an interesting and enthusiastic History teacher on Saturday night, and we had a good chat about all the stuff we’ve been studying. She was so much better than that ignorant idiot from Hawick!!!
I think I’ve got the UCAS personal statement sorted...it was a lot more difficult than it should have been...or was it? It’s one thing to write an essay about Chartism or a poem we’ve read, but when faced with the task of trying to explain yourself in 4000 characters.... Maybe we should have interviewed each other to get a fix on our strengths!
The Investigating Europe project is nearly there in all its glorious technicolour...all I need is for Jordi Montserat to come to college mañana! Lesson to be learned...you can’t rely on unknown volunteers to help when YOU need! I reckon it’s a good piece of work though, and it’s been an interesting and learning experience creating it. The most important thing is a good plan, and then being able to adapt that plan as you move forward. Still have to organise a wee presentation though... maybe best watch some this Wed and suss out exactly what is required!
In Literature we had a good look at ‘Dulce et decorum est’ and considered the horrors of the Great War. We then ignored the ‘Secrets’ short story, and jumped onto a 2nd World War poem ‘The Naming of the Parts’, which confused me a bit...sometimes it’s hard to switch from one form to another, especially when you’ve prepared for discussion about certain works.
Madame Deborah was off sick last week, so we were dans le curs tres grande in French...more revision, which was good fun. I just need to keep writing out my key sentences. I’m confident about reading & listening, but need to stay focussed for writing (damn those male/female changes!). Speaking should be OK providing I remember to say “Oui” and not “Si”!
We’ve got the big “Lengua de las Mariposas” essay details, and it’s a comparing & contrasting of the various themes that we’ve encountered in the stories and the film. The build up has been good, with the assignments in English pushing us in the right direction. We had a good chat last Wed about the structure of the essay to be written, but yesterday was a bit of a waste of time in my humble opinion. We spoke a bit about what we’d written in our draft but without said drafts being marked! Hard to judge how good/bad anyone was without considering the full work, no?
More essay writing work in Communication...some fun activities organising texts about elephants & surveillance cameras - not in the same text mind! I think I’ll write about mobile phone reducing real communication for my discursive essay. And we get the next 2 weeks for working in class, which is cool!
Finished the final Maths assignment no prob... poor John was getting a bit harassed as everybody is at different stages and needs different help! Maybe I should volunteer to tutor a bit...we’ll see how I feel come Friday morning!
My “Women’s Vote” essay was well received, but now we’ve got to write about the Liberals creation of a welfare state...sigh, it never seems to end! I did meet an interesting and enthusiastic History teacher on Saturday night, and we had a good chat about all the stuff we’ve been studying. She was so much better than that ignorant idiot from Hawick!!!
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Thursday 26th
Thursday night blog??? Well, I glass of vino has been consumed and the rain has stopped – we shouldn’t underestimate the effects of the weather on students’ ability to study and, hell, even to make it into college!
However, I’m really writing to praise the SWAP workshop thing at the beautifully located Craighouse Campus – I believe one Siegfried Sassoon once recuperated and reflected upon his contributions to the ‘glory of slaughter’. It was really good to break from routine, and have a day away from Stevenson. I realised I had been caught up a bit in the mounting pressure of the work load – half the teachers seem to have suddenly picked up on the fact that we’ve only got a month till Xmas, and have determined to chuck assignments at us, Arriba, abajo, al dentro, al centro!
Anyway, they gave me a cup o tea, which is always a winning start, and it was encouraging to see so many people, of a mature status, all eager to study! Then we heard a good talk on the ‘transitions’ we could expect on moving on up from college to uni. They’ll be a lot less contact time and no obligation to attend lectures, where up to 500 unknown faces may gather in a large, formal, impersonal environment. However, us mature students often WANT to attend because we have something to contribute. And we’re too old to deal with hangovers!
Loads of good advice regarding Note Taking was the 2nd workshop. Many lecturers post some of their notes online BEFORE the lecture, and, of course, you can always read up on the subject. I’d say note taking is a skill that I’ll develop with time, but I’m no too bad at the mo! It’s important to:
• Prepare beforehand
• Develop note taking style & strategy
• Think before you write
• Try to identify key points
• Review, reflect & possibly rewrite ASAP
We then experienced a real live lecture on Sectarianism in Scotland. Seemed interesting, but the lecturer was trying to squeeze a full lecture into 30 mins. So we just got some good stuff about Irish immigration, which we discussed and evaluated in groups before lunch.
A workshop on Academic Writing was next, which re-enforced some of the points we’d been given by Scott, and I knew from my IELTS in Cambridge tutoring. It was still good advice and during the talk... BING BANG BUMP!!
Why the arse was I so hell bent on writing so much for my Investigating Europe project?? I felt the need to write about Barça’s season in a manner that was fitting for the majesty of the triumph, and would show my literary talents to the full. Lovely. However, it’s probably more important to finish the project, and give myself time to do other stuff and have a wee pint!
The last workshop was probably the best! It concerned Reading, and led us into the ideas of being a Passive and Creative Reader....more on this later!
Ciao
However, I’m really writing to praise the SWAP workshop thing at the beautifully located Craighouse Campus – I believe one Siegfried Sassoon once recuperated and reflected upon his contributions to the ‘glory of slaughter’. It was really good to break from routine, and have a day away from Stevenson. I realised I had been caught up a bit in the mounting pressure of the work load – half the teachers seem to have suddenly picked up on the fact that we’ve only got a month till Xmas, and have determined to chuck assignments at us, Arriba, abajo, al dentro, al centro!
Anyway, they gave me a cup o tea, which is always a winning start, and it was encouraging to see so many people, of a mature status, all eager to study! Then we heard a good talk on the ‘transitions’ we could expect on moving on up from college to uni. They’ll be a lot less contact time and no obligation to attend lectures, where up to 500 unknown faces may gather in a large, formal, impersonal environment. However, us mature students often WANT to attend because we have something to contribute. And we’re too old to deal with hangovers!
Loads of good advice regarding Note Taking was the 2nd workshop. Many lecturers post some of their notes online BEFORE the lecture, and, of course, you can always read up on the subject. I’d say note taking is a skill that I’ll develop with time, but I’m no too bad at the mo! It’s important to:
• Prepare beforehand
• Develop note taking style & strategy
• Think before you write
• Try to identify key points
• Review, reflect & possibly rewrite ASAP
We then experienced a real live lecture on Sectarianism in Scotland. Seemed interesting, but the lecturer was trying to squeeze a full lecture into 30 mins. So we just got some good stuff about Irish immigration, which we discussed and evaluated in groups before lunch.
A workshop on Academic Writing was next, which re-enforced some of the points we’d been given by Scott, and I knew from my IELTS in Cambridge tutoring. It was still good advice and during the talk... BING BANG BUMP!!
Why the arse was I so hell bent on writing so much for my Investigating Europe project?? I felt the need to write about Barça’s season in a manner that was fitting for the majesty of the triumph, and would show my literary talents to the full. Lovely. However, it’s probably more important to finish the project, and give myself time to do other stuff and have a wee pint!
The last workshop was probably the best! It concerned Reading, and led us into the ideas of being a Passive and Creative Reader....more on this later!
Ciao
Monday, 23 November 2009
Monday 23 November
Wow, how time flies! One month till Xmas holidays begin, and work seems to be piling up!
I managed to write down some sentences for my UCAS personal statement, but it’s going to need a lot of tidying up, sorting out and clarity of vision!
I did spend a lot of time on my Investigating Europe project last week, and, just as Joe predicted, I’m going to go over the word limit. The problem is that when I started writing about last season’s Barca games, it gave me such good memories that I wanted to write more and more!! I’ll speak to Joe this week and ask if he wants a condensed version!
Evan’s history class was very useful, and he confirmed that I was on the right lines for my “Women’s vote” essay, which can also be used in Communications. I actually started working on it on Saturday morning…a glorious sunny morning… I was sitting by the living room window with classical music playing….but then Suzanne & NJ came in, so we had to switch to crap TV!!! And that was the end of my creative period. I don’t like working in my room during the day!
Cedric gave us a wee test in French class. I had no problems with the reading and listening sections…..you get to write your answers in English. The writing section was more difficult….I’ll have to study my mistakes and rewrite my utterings! I feel fairly confident about the spoken section.
I know I made a stupid mistake in the Maths assessment….25+9= 36!!!! Why? Because I was jumping ahead and thinking about square roots. Lesson – one step at a time!
Targets for this week –
(1) Arrange interviews for Investigate Europe.
(2) Complete I.E. Season review, having spoken to Joe.
(3) Complete History essay.
(4) Rewrite French essay.
I managed to write down some sentences for my UCAS personal statement, but it’s going to need a lot of tidying up, sorting out and clarity of vision!
I did spend a lot of time on my Investigating Europe project last week, and, just as Joe predicted, I’m going to go over the word limit. The problem is that when I started writing about last season’s Barca games, it gave me such good memories that I wanted to write more and more!! I’ll speak to Joe this week and ask if he wants a condensed version!
Evan’s history class was very useful, and he confirmed that I was on the right lines for my “Women’s vote” essay, which can also be used in Communications. I actually started working on it on Saturday morning…a glorious sunny morning… I was sitting by the living room window with classical music playing….but then Suzanne & NJ came in, so we had to switch to crap TV!!! And that was the end of my creative period. I don’t like working in my room during the day!
Cedric gave us a wee test in French class. I had no problems with the reading and listening sections…..you get to write your answers in English. The writing section was more difficult….I’ll have to study my mistakes and rewrite my utterings! I feel fairly confident about the spoken section.
I know I made a stupid mistake in the Maths assessment….25+9= 36!!!! Why? Because I was jumping ahead and thinking about square roots. Lesson – one step at a time!
Targets for this week –
(1) Arrange interviews for Investigate Europe.
(2) Complete I.E. Season review, having spoken to Joe.
(3) Complete History essay.
(4) Rewrite French essay.
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