Work/Social life balance

Hi everyone, I hope you're all doing well and enjoying your summer holidays/exam leave.

I've just got back from my holiday and I'm off again tomorrow how exciting!!!

Anyway, this post is going to be all about how I juggle my time between work and social life whilst at university and also why it is important to get involved in different activities.

As you all know I commute to university, however this has only been since I started my second year I did live in halls of residence for my first/fresher year. I personally would not commute for my first year of university as I think this really makes it a struggle to meet people and socialise as you'll only be seeing your course mates in lectures. Of course after a while you'll get to know people and establish friends but I think you'll really be distancing yourself if you live too far away to go on those crucial first nights out.
Not only the nights out but you must take time to attend all of the fresher events as this is where you're going to meet some of those lifelong university friends that you will never meet otherwise. People from different courses, all sorts of people. Get yourself involved in every activity going even if you're not that keen you need to be sociable and approachable so that you can have the best chance at meeting some really great people in those first few weeks of moving in.

The balance is difficult, however when you're at university if you want to make sure you can attend every student night all you have to do is make sure you get a weekend job as these always take place during the week and that way you'll never miss out. Although if you are a home person and want to be visiting home at the weekends you'll certainly need to budget you money well in order to be able to not have a part-time job whilst you're at uni. I simply could not afford to live without a part-time job, student finance didn't even cover my rent so I already had to find money for that elsewhere. It was very difficult and I was so thankful for my parents helping me out because otherwise I'd of lived of tins of beans, literally.
The balance between university work and your social life is a lot easier I think because most social events at university happen at night and are mainly nights out. I think as long as you don't overdo it you'll be able to keep on track of work and have a decent social life whilst you're at university.

I don't agree with this image I found, I think as long as everything in your life is balanced you can have a good social life, as well as good grades, time with family and even enough sleep. Just know when other things should come first and don't be silly about it. 

My main piece of advice for this post however, is to put yourself out there when you move to university. Although this may mean you being out of your comfort zone, really that's what uni is all about. Being independent and living by yourself is one of the best things about university as you really find out how difficult it is and everyone grows up when they move away I think.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this post.

Until next time,

M

Open Days

Hi everyone, hope you are all well and have had a good week!

This weeks post is going to be all about university open days, the benefits, my experience of open days, tips about where you can find out about selecting a university and all that fun stuff!

Going to as many open days as possible is going to give you the absolute best variety of universities to choose from, I think it is absolutely vital that you visit your potential university before putting it as one of your choices and heading off in September. There would be nothing worse than turning up to a uni that you're going to be living at for 3 to 4 years and finding it's nothing like the pictures because everything is different and pictures can lie, or even realising that it's not everything you wanted in a university you just chose it because you were rushing and didn't visit any open days. There are no negatives to going to several open days, only positives. You need to see your potential university for a number of reasons:

• You have to live there for 3 years
• You are paying a lot of money to attend university 
• It needs to suit all of your needs e.g. close to home/far from home
• It could look completely different to the pictures
• Just because your friends like it doesn't mean you will, do not take someone else's opinion
• You need to work out the halls you want to move into as there are different options. 
• Is there any part time work you could sign up for
• Does it have all the facilities you require for both leisure and studies e.g. a gym for leisure and enough computers for studying 
• Are the lecturers people you could see yourself getting along with
• Does the course offer everything you want it to 

The list is endless really, but there's a few vital things that you need to consider. 

My experience of looking round universities is quite minimal. I was very unsure of what I wanted the one thing I knew was that I wasn't ready to be miles and miles away from home I wanted to be close enough that I could commute for my second year if I wanted but I needed to be far enough away to experience freshers properly and living in halls of residence. I picked Bedfordshire and another university however I didn't actually look around the other one I picked which was why I was so happy when I found out I had got into Bedford. I was so unsure of the other university as I had seen Bedford and it fitted every one of my needs and I didn't want to go to an unknown university and have regretted my decision. I think this is why I believe open days are absolutely necessary I should have visited the other university to make sure it was right to put down as one of my options but I didn't which was a mistake because I'd have been so nervous if I hadn't gotten into Bedfordshire.

Tips on where you can find out more about university selection and open are available on UCAS or even the universities websites themselves. My advice would be to scour these websites and find the ones that seems like they would suit you the best, then apply for some open days and get a real feel for the universities, your choices could change dramatically when you actually visit the universities themselves. 

Just please do not apply for anything before seeing and looking round it. Make sure everything suits you before making any drastic decisions. 

The University of Bedfordshire offers open days throughout the year and this is what they include on the day: 

An open day includes the following activities

• Welcome talk and introduction to the University of Bedfordshire
• Course session with academics from the course you're interested in
• Tours of our campus facilities and student accommodation
• Talks on topics including: student finance, application and personal statements and student life
• Opportunities to speak to academics, support services and current students

Thanks for reading, I hope this was helpful. 

Until next time, 

M

How is Education Studies taught?

Hi everyone, hope you all had a great week!

In this post I'm going to try my best to talk you all through the different teaching aspects of my course, 'Education Studies' so I hope this will tell you all a little bit more about the way the course is set out and hopefully give those of you looking to start this course a little more insight into it rather than feeling like you're going in blind as that can seem extremely scary!

First things first this course is mainly about lectures and seminars, in your second year there is one unit which requires you to go out and find a placement however other than that you can either do a placement as well as your university studies but you will have to find this yourself. There are careers advisors who you can talk to who will be able to put you in the right direction of a placement so you're not entirely alone on this part. However, I would suggest if you think this would be for you to write a letter and/or a generic email and send it to several different schools in the area or wherever you can travel to asking if they would take you for some voluntary work experience and I'm sure some will get back to you.

So, the course is split up into three years and I thought I'd explain year by year:

• Year 1: This consists of four units all of which are core which I know some have changed since I was a first year but basically this year will be entirely lecture based with assignments dotted about in each term. For most units you will have two to three assignments, so around I'd say between 8 and 12 for your first year. This year is not difficult and no it does not count towards your final university grade, however you do need to put effort in because if you don't pass your first year you will not be allowed into second year which you obviously need if you want a degree. The assignments will most probably be mainly essays, but also presentations too. 
• Year 2: This year also consists of four units, two of which are core and two are optional. So, you do get to choose two out of your four units this year. The two core units for me this year were 'Comparative Education' which was all about different countries education and history of education and 'Research Methods' which is a unit dedicated to preparing you for your dissertations. There were several options to choose from including 'SEND' which is special educational needs teaching, 'Understanding the Workplace' which is the one that requires you to find a placement, and the two that I picked are 'Lifelong curriculum' which supports this wanting to go straight into a PGCE or some kind of teacher training, its basically all about the curriculum, 'Children and young people in the Digital Age' which is all about technologies influences on children and young people. This particular unit assesses you through a web folio which you work on throughout the whole unit and the final deadline is at the end of your second year, I really enjoyed this assignment. 
• Year 3: Now I can't tell you much about year 3 in detail as I haven't actually started it yet however as you all will know this year consists of your dissertation and a few other assignments within your units. The main thing this year though is the 8,000 word dissertation. 

There is a lot of use of facilities throughout the degree, the library is used a lot and particularly for m in second year there was a lot of computer suite use for my digital age unit as the web folio assignment is all online there's no paper submission for this assignment. 

If you go onto the universities website and search for 'Education Studies BA Hons this is the overview it gives you: 

Choose Education Studies BA (Hons) degree at Bedfordshire and:

• Learn about the workplace and choose optional themes depending on your own interests
• 
  
• Study inclusion, disability and special needs education, education and technology, sociology of childhood and education, philosophy and psychology of education
• 
  
• Develop your employability skills through work placements, volunteering and a research project
• 
  
• Gain a qualification that allows you to progress to a teacher training course such as postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) or graduate teacher programme (GTP)
• 
  
• Benefit from studying with staff with extensive experience in teacher training and education, with teaching informed by the Education Research Institute
• 
  

- See more at: http://www.beds.ac.uk/howtoapply/courses/undergraduate/education-studies#sthash.dwysHULF.dpuf 

I hope this post has given you a bit more information about how this course is taught. 

Until next time, 

M

My most memorable moment of second year..

Hi everyone, hope you're all doing well.

This post is going to be all about my single most memorable moment of second year. Now this is extremely hard to pin point as there's been so many memorable moments, however the one that stands out the most to me for some reason is when I achieved my first A+ in one of my assignments. I can't remember if I've told you about this already or not but it is by far the best moment I can remember. I never was and probably never will be a straight A student, I always tried really hard to achieve pretty average grades of B's and C's, and I knew if I didn't try at all those grades would be E's and F's. So for me to achieve my best grade yet in possibly one of the most unlikely assignments was an unreal feeling.

The assignment was some phase tests which were carried out on Microsoft Excel, it involved inputting data correctly. I was never good at Maths at school, in fact it was my worst subject throughout Primary and Secondary school, I despised it and I know this was because I was no good at it, or thought I wasn't. This was very much an academic assignment and not only that, the tests were carried out the day after I had some devastating news in the family, it's safe to say I thought I would fail horrendously. My mind was elsewhere, for obvious reasons, I didn't think I would understand the questions, it was an all round bad experience... until I got that grade back at least!

I've certainly enjoyed the assignments more this year. They've been much more challenging but it's been great to see hard work paying off in terms of grades. My grades have been much better this year and I'm not surprised really, my circumstances are much nicer with living at home and I'm just in an all round better situation with university. I think things would be a lot different if I were still living in that first flat and not looking forward to finishing my lectures and going home.

In terms of challenges, I think the most challenging thing this year has been when I had to be given extensions in January. I have already spoke about the reasons behind this so for this post I'll just explain why it was challenging. The main reason being because I vowed not to fall behind this year, although I didn't last year I did seem to leave everything till the last minute which made me so much more stressed in general and I just wanted to keep on top of everything this year. However, it was out of my control. I couldn't have stopped either of the two things that cause the extensions happening and I just had to deal with the fact that I needed them in order to pass the assignments. Obviously, not everything goes to plan but I still managed to stay calm throughout this period of university and because of the extensions on my assignments I wasn't stressed either.
I think the hardest part was accepting that I needed extra help to get me through this tough time in my life and that had to be the way. No one can plan for everything and I made it through the year so YAY!

I think it is so important to reflect on your time in education and also listen to other people's stories as you never know you could well relate to others that you never would of known otherwise. Its a great way to express how you felt throughout a particular time in your education and also makes you feel great about completing certain aspects for example, A-Levels. I hope you all enjoyed this post.

Until next time,

M

Picking The Right University

Hi everyone, hope you've all had a great week!



I know you'll appreciate this post as you're all going through exam period at the moment and are probably stressed about everything education related. Everyone gets so worried about whether they're picking the right university for some reason (me included), but really is there a right university?
Your choice should be right for you, this won't necessarily be the right choice for your friends. I've made a list of all the things I think everyone should consider when they're choosing their potential universities:

1. Does it have the course you want? This is THE most crucial thing, for me anyway. If the course isn't right, then nothing else will be. You need to realise that you're going to university, you're paying all this money to study a degree and eventually graduate. You cannot pick a university because of where it is and skimp on the course itself. At the end of the day you're there for three-five years on average, you need to enjoy what you're studying more than anything else because essentially this is what you're expecting to get a job in one day.
2. Does it have the facilities you require? Look around the town/city you're visiting, don't just scour the uni, you need to know you can feel comfortable living in its surroundings. 
3. Does it make you excited to start university? There would be nothing worse than turning up at your university choice in September/October and feeling glum. Make sure the university gives you that buzz and happy feeling.
4. Are your potential lecturers friendly and welcoming? Get to know the tutors, find out more about them, ask current students maybe. Just get as much inside information as you possibly can, you're going to want to know the truth.
5. Is the location right for you? Is it close to home or far from home, this is obviously your personal preference, not your parents or partner. Choose what's right for you. 
6. Accommodation. Is it going to be comfortable to live in? Can you spend a year there before moving into a house with your friends, it's a long time to spend somewhere you can't stand. 
7. Money. Can you afford to live in the area? This shouldn't matter too much if you've got the right course as I'm sure if the course is that important you'll work your bum off over summer to pay for a room. BUT, if you don't think you can save money or afford it then simply, rethink. 

My main reasons for picking Bedfordshire were first and foremost, the course. I knew this was the course I wanted to study and luckily for me it is a course that most universities offer. Location was second, I wanted to be close to home, I just wasn't ready to live 100 miles away from my family. This was 100% the right decision for me, I didn't hesitate at all and that's mainly because I gave myself the opportunity by studying close enough to home to commute but far enough to live there at the same time. I lived there for my first year, loved it and then moved home for my last two years. I still have my friends, I still go out on student nights, I'm not missing out at all. In fact I much prefer the way I'm doing university right now. 

However, I will say that I think if I hadn't lived in for the first year I'd probably be lonely. Purely because everyone would have had the time to socialize on student nights and I wouldn't have. I still think I would have friends but I do think I'd miss out on the nights out.

Hope this post gives you some inspiration! 

Until next time,

M

Completing Second Year..

Hi everyone,

So this weeks post is going to be exactly as it states in the title, all about how it feels to have completed another year of university, plans for what's to come (i.e. dissertation thoughts) and placements.

I'll start with my thoughts and feelings on finishing the year....

.... and in a nutshell, that picture sums up how it feels.
I didn't really pay much attention to the fact that I have in fact completed my second year of my three year degree, I am over halfway through my degree, I have one year left before I go out into the big wide world of work and I honestly don't know if I'm ready for it all. One thing I do know is how proud I am of myself for actually making it through this past year, it's been difficult and I had a very big knock back in January when I lost someone extremely close to me and had a heart operation, I ended up needing extensions on my assignments etc, which I never thought I'd have to do. I did feel behind at one point but as soon as I was through the worst of it I picked myself with the help of friends, family and my understanding lecturers and got back on track. You can never plan for things like those to happen and it was my luck that I had a double whammy all in the same week, but it's all down to motivation (self and from peers) to get back into the swing of things and I was and still am so determined to do well at university that nothing will stop me. Sorry, I know this went off on a tangent but basically what I'm trying to say it that despite having those hiccups, I made it through the year and I couldn't be happier with how far I've come since starting this university journey.

Now onto plans, now none of these are set in stone, I haven't completely decided on my dissertation title but I do know that I want it to be something to do with university level education, disability and technology. That's about as far as I've got with dissertation planning, I have done a research proposal already for my final Research methods assignment but I'm not completely happy with it. I may end up using it and tweaking it to make sure its suitable and better quality but who knows! There are SO many options for it and it's quite overwhelming, I do know that I will have decided on a title by July, I'll seek approval from my personal tutor and then I'll make sure I've done at least 1,000 words of my dissertation by the time I start my third year (watch this space). I do not want to be going back to uni with no clue of how I'm going to do my biggest assignment of my university career, I want to and will be planned ahead and feeling ready to tackle it. So, yeah that's what next for me education wise.

Placements are at the top of my mind at the moment, I am currently attending one on Friday's with years 5 and 6 and I love it, however because I'm only doing Friday's I'll have only had a weeks worth of experience with this age before I go away in June and I'd like to have more.So, I'll hopefully be able to return to the school in September and rack up a good couple more weeks there before starting back at uni in October. I already have key stage 1 and 2, but it would be nice to have more when it comes to applying for teacher training. I enjoy placement so much, I know all the kids really well considering I only go one day a week. I can truly see myself working in a key stage 1 or 2 environment one day, I guess that's when you know you've picked the right career path!

Well, that's it for this week!

Until next time,

M

Third Year Expectations...

Hi everyone, hope you're all well.

Seeing as I've finished uni and am not quite sure what sort of things you'll be interested in I thought I'd write a bit of an expectations post. So, what I think third year is going to be like and how it will pan out from listening to peers who have gone through it, my own judgement and what my lecturers have been saying...

My first and probably biggest expectation is that it's going to get very real and very serious. I have heard a lot of people say before that first and sometimes second year are complete walks in the park compared to the final year of university and this seems to be a recurring theme no matter what course you're studying. I personally don't think anyone is ever fully prepared for what to expect for the whole dissertation aspect of final year. Me included, I think it's definitely a huge shock to our systems from what I've heard and I wish I could know what to expect fully but obviously I never will because it's definitely one of those things that if you don't ever experience it, you'll never really understand what it's like. So, yeah dissertation is most probably going to shock me into wanting to be a complete uni nerd and do everything by the book, having said that I don't think anyone ever does every little thing we're supposed to.

I thought this image represented expectations brilliantly. 

Secondly, I definitely think the social side of uni will die down completely, especially in those crucial 'diss' months. This is another reason I know third years going to be the biggest struggle of my uni career, because third year students are barely out on student nights throughout those key dissertation writing months and then all of a sudden they all start appearing again when they've submitted and finished them. I don't think this will affect me as much as others because I'm commuting again and that means less nights out anyway because the thought of a home cooked meal and a bath often outweighs the thought of going out in the freezing cold and waking up feeling horrendous, this makes me sound like I don't like going out, I DO! I have just learnt over the years I have been going out that it doesn't need to be every night because I found myself getting bored of the same old thing every week.

Another big change I think I'll notice is my personal time spent in the library. I thought this year I'd spend more time in the library but I actually barely did, apart from when I had a massive three hour break between lectures. I find it so hard to concentrate in there but I know it will be essential for dissertation work next year so I think I'll be forcing myself to spend many hours in there. I work so well from home, I have my own office and everything gets done so much quicker, eBooks are literally my savior. Although, I much prefer having a book in print as I find it so much easier to find what I'm looking for, so library books are going to have to be my new thing.

Other than these three main things, I don't think much else will change. I mean obviously my lecturers, timetable and all of those things will but the way second year has gone, I really want to keep the approach to uni I have as it's very positive at the moment and just get through this final year of my degree.

It's so weird to think I'm so close to graduating and that massive step closer to my dream job. University was honestly the best decision I ever made. I think my current placement has made me realise how much teaching will suit me and I know I'll be good at it. I have had cold feet about teaching as my career path but my love for it has been restored, all I needed was to get into a setting and remember everything I love about it!

Graduation can't come quick enough! 

Until next time,

M.

FINISHED!

Hi Everyone, I hope you've all had a brilliant week... I certainly have!

I finally finished my final assignment which was my webfolio for my digital age unit, it's not due till the 25 of this month but I feel so relieved to have it done and submitted now, weight off my shoulders! Now all I have to think about is placement and going on holiday next month, yay!

Its scary to think that I am basically a third and final year student now (bearing in mind I get decent grades back). I have a lot of grades that I'm waiting for, as does everyone around this time of year I guess!

This year has been so different to my first year, for some reason I've felt less stressed out about deadlines, felt confident about what I'm handing in assignment wise pretty much every time and just in general been happier in the way I'm experiencing university life. I mean I guess this is all mainly down to the fact that I'm not commuting, going home to my own bed, a bath, my family and a home cooked dinner is bliss to me after last year which seemed like I was away for a lifetime. I appreciate everything so much more and university has stayed interesting for me as I'm not living and working in this same environment constantly. I love that I go to uni, have a good number of nights out with friends per term but am not obliged to have to go out every week if I don't want to, I'm lucky I've got good friends who let me crash at theirs otherwise I'd of missed out on a lot socially I reckon. I honestly enjoy going to my lectures this year because I travel about 35-40 minutes to get there I find myself engaging more and actually wanting to learn, whereas last year I missed a lot of lectures and found myself not listening more often than I should of.
Thursday's were quite tough at the start of this year as I had a three hour gap between lectures which isn't enough to go home but also long enough to get bored, but once the workload kicked in I was so grateful for these three hours in the library, I managed a good load of assignment work throughout the months.

Third year I know is going to be tough, I got my grade back for my research proposal assignment which I want to use for my dissertation but I didn't get as good as I'd hoped so I need to make sure I tweak this over the summer to make it a more worthy piece of work and a good starting point for my dissertation to go off. Although I've got a lot of work to do next year (well October) I am still so excited and I know I'll be more than ready to start back in October after having such a long summer break. In terms of blogging this week I will try and make a list of topics to post about as these weekly posts wont exactly be relevant any more, so maybe I'll post more about A-level life and exams as I know you're all going through this stage in your lives at the moment.

Well this was an interesting image to find, third year... yay?!

Revision was never my strong point so I truly feel for all of you taking exams, all I can say is I hope you're not too stressed and keep thinking about that post exam party! Ha!

GOOD LUCK!!!

Until next time,


M.

Accommodation thoughts...

Hi everyone! 

Hope you've all had a good week, this weeks post is as promised all about accommodation in particular these three bullet points:

• First year and how living in halls was for me
• What I think are the benefits of living in halls
• Tips for those of you that are thinking about living in student accommodation

Let's start this off with my experience of living in halls. So my thoughts were similar to most people who are heading off to uni "living in halls will be great, I'll have amazing flat mates" "I'll never be lonely or bored" etc. Just FYI this post is going to give you a very negative view of living in halls at first but I promise keep reading and you'll realise why I'm being so honest, it gets better is all I'll say.. 

I moved into my flat, I was the first one there which was difficult enough it felt like I was waiting a lifetime for my next flat mate to arrive, she arrived that evening and wasn't exactly welcoming or friendly. She sat in her room and barely came out and this was exactly how she carried on throughout the next couple of months. The next day my other three flat mates moved in, one was so lovely at first we got ready and went out to the first freshers event that night, this is actually the night I met one of my closest friends I've made at university, still to this day we are such good friends. After this everything kind of went briefly downhill in the living department(just to clarify university itself, the course, friends I'd met outside of my flat was all brilliant). My flat mates bar one were not as nice as they seemed and made it difficult to be in the flat, I wont lie it wasn't a good experience. 

HOWEVER...

The team at reception were brilliant, they managed to get me another room in a different flat within a week or two, I moved in just before Christmas break started and that changed my whole living experience. My new flat mates were so friendly and I got on so well with all of them as soon as I moved in, it made everything so much easier having a relaxed, welcoming living environment. 

I think the reason behind all of this is because I was put into a flat where they all had similar interests and I just didn't 'fit' into those interests.

Benefits.. 

• Being independent, not relying on my parents at first was hard but I am so thankful for this now. 
• Meeting new people, although my experience wasn't great first off, I ended up meeting some really great people in the end. 
• Managing work loads, not only having to manage my university assignments but I also had a part time job whilst I was in first year. 

I really did learn a lot from living in halls of residence for my first year and although it wasn't my cup of tea to live in student housing for my second year(I commute) I am so glad I lived in Bedford for a year. I would never have met some of the friends I have now otherwise and I feel like the experience wouldn't have been nearly as good. 

These are some pictures of the halls in Bedford. 

A few tips I would give those of you thinking about moving into student housing or halls of residence for your first year at university:

1. Meet your housemates if you're choosing to live in a student house, there is nothing worse than being stuck living with people you don't get on with and it would be ten times harder in student housing as you don't have people in the same situation next door. 
2. In terms of halls, if there are options to choose the type of flat mates you want to live with i.e. loud, quiet, party people etc.. do so. Make sure you're being honest with yourself and not just picking the party flats because you think thats what uni is all about.
3. Visit the halls/house you're going to apply for. Make sure its convenient for you and has everything you need/want in and around it there's nothing worse than applying for accommodation and then getting there to realise its not at all what you wanted. 

I hope this post has informed some of you into how to make a decision about accommodation, its a scary decision to make so just be sure that you're making the right one. 

Until next time, 

M. 

May... Already?

Hi everyone, hope alls well!

I cannot believe it's May today, that means so many different things, two weeks until uni is completely finished, six weeks till I go on holiday, two months till my birthday.. So many exciting things!

I have had a fairly chilled week really, well apart from Monday. I'll explain, hang on....
Monday we arrived home from a weekend away in London, watching and supporting the London marathon. Got home and thought I had better go and get my poster printed ready for hand in on Wednesday.. Could I find anywhere willing to print it? No I couldn't! It was an absolute nightmare, I was ringing around every printing related company I could find online and also driving from printing shop to printing shop after being directed by the previous shop owner. This was so utterly frustrating because of finished my poster and got t exactly how I waned it but nowhere would print it and if they would it was going to cost around £40 which is absolutely ridiculous!
In the end I managed to get somewhere with a company I found online, I had to upload my poster file onto their website and then purchase a poster size to go with it(nightmare) I then had to wait as they said it would be next day delivery, however it got to about 4pm and I was worrying slightly as by this time it was Tuesday and my poster needed to be in Bedford for 11am the next morning. I ended up having to go and collect the poser myself only to find them all sitting around doing nothing which annoyed me even more obviously. I mean I know it all worked out in the end but far too much hassle took place for such a simple task.. I don't know!
The poster was handed in on the Wednesdays morning and thank god it was, I genuinely think that's been my most stressful assignment yet, even though it was one of the most exciting/simple assignments in my opinion!

Friday I had my second week of placement with years 5&6 which was really interesting yet again! I've been asked to focus on supporting two student innparticular who seem to struggle more than the rest of the class which I am really enjoying. It's nice to be trusted by the teacher and also to get to know the children better than usual perhaps. They're such a great bunch they really are, majority of the children are so great to work with and I've really learnt a lot from them too in terms of gaining their attention, and how to create a good bond with them. It's so refreshing to have children respecting me even though I'm not a teacher.

The weekend is full of work this time, unfortunately not another trip to London... Boo! Then it's my presentation for my poster next week and hopefully I'll have finished my webfolio by the end of next week so I should have a lot to tell you in that post! Oh I'm also going to be discussing accommodation next week, so the whole halls thing, student housing etc.!

Until next time,

M.

Finshed... Already?

Hi everyone,

So, I know by the sounds of last weeks post it seems I had a full term left of university... well I think I judged that wrong because I've basically finished for the WHOLE year! Yes I said whole year.

Let me explain...

1. Both of the essays I spoke abut last week have been handed in which therefore means no more lectures for those two particular units.
2. My Lifelong unit there is just a poster presentation to be handed in which needs working on today and tomorrow ready to be printed on Monday for handing in on Wednesday next week, the presentation of the poster will be the Wednesday after for an hour... pretty much finished that unit.
3. Finally, Digital Age is the one I have the most work left for, including an audio presentation and the rest of my webfolio to finish off for handing in on the 25th May, this unit can all be prepared from home and if necessary I can attend drop-in sessions on Thursday's between my normal lecture slots of 10am-12pm, however, I feel well prepped for this unit and probably will not feel this is necessary to my webfolio.

I am pretty much telling you that I won't be at uni after the 6th May until October when I begin my third and final year of my Education Studies degree. This certainly does not mean I won't have things to talk about as I already have some exciting news to fill you all in on.

I don't know if I mentioned in any previous posts, but I was stressing a couple of weeks back about redoing my Science GCSE. Mainly because I really do not have the focus to redo a GCSE subject seeing as I'm not working at degree level education and it just really seemed ridiculous. It was also mega expensive to do. I dug out my old GCSE certificates and realised that I did in fact get a C at GCSE Additional Science and a D at core Science. Now additional is actually harder than core so it is bizarre how I managed these grades but that's what happened, I spoke to my personal tutor who also happens to know his stuff when it comes to education, teaching and applying for PGCE's and he enlightened me by telling me that it is of course an accepted Science GCSE qualification which I really did know but I had just worked myself up about redoing it and forgot about the simple answer to this problem. So, all is good in the world, I do not have to think about my GCSE's again and I can focus on finding the perfect teacher training course for me over the summer months, ready to apply before Christmas this year.



Another amazing piece of news is that I GOT A PLACEMENT. I have been ringing round different schools trying to get a placement for a good month now and I have managed to bag myself a placement with years 5&6 at a brilliant little primary school where I have actually worked with younger years before. I am so excited about this, I start today and can't wait to tell you all about it in next weeks post so be sure to look out for that one!

Other than that, I had a hilarious night on Monday with so many of my lovely friends and am completely buzzed about heading to London tomorrow to watch the London marathon. London is one of my favourite places in the world, I love how the city never sleeps and there's always something to do there. I can't wait to live and work there one day, but for now home is where I want to be.



Until next time,

M.

First Week of Final Term..

Hi everyone, as you may have guessed from the title of this post.. it's basically one of my 'week overviews'.

It's been all go this week on assignments, I handed my second to last essay in yesterday which was my 3,000 word Research Proposal for my dissertation. It took me a long time that's for certain. Over Easter my aims were to do both of the essays I have due in, one for this week and one for next. I did the one for next week which was 2,000 words for my Comparative Education unit all about Japan's history and current education system. I managed this essay in about two days which was impressive for me because I thought this would be the one I'd find the hardest, turns out I was wrong. I did this essay first purely for the reason I thought I'd find it a struggle and would take me a long time, I thought I would find my Research Proposal easier as its on a topic I'm interested in.

However, it turns out the Research Proposal took me a lot longer, I think because the structure of the assignment was very different to a normal university style essay and I was overall more worried about getting a good grade in this one in particular. Having said this, I managed to finish it in time and it's finally submitted and awaiting feedback and a grade. The Japan essay I found a breeze, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but hey ho its done and dusted and just needs to be handed in now.

It's so interesting to learn and research about other countries education systems, everyone does it so differently and I'd highly recommend doing some research even if you aren't doing a particular assignment just to get your knowledge up about different countries.

As for un-uni related things this week, it's been an expensive one. I've booked a holiday to Rome with my cousin, bought a new laptop that isn't arriving for another four to six weeks (depressing) and a few holiday clothing bits. It's less than two months untill my summer holidays start (as in go on a plane, abroad) and I'm healthy eating and gymming crazily at the moment. I've got a running programme that finishes in two weeks when I'll be up to five k and a resistance training app which finishes the week before I go to Turkey! This may not be interesting to some of you but I'm really into fitness at the moment and I'm feeling really good about myself (for once)!

So, yeah that's an overview... I've got a more chilled week next week with a night out back at uni, a poster presentation to complete and my Comparative Education essay due which I need to read over and add a conclusion too.

Look out for another update like this one next week!

Until next time,

M.

Making the jump..

Hi everyone, hope you're all doing well.

This weeks post is going to be all about making that big jump from school or college to university and trust me it is a big one!

It can either be extremely daunting for some people or others can brush it off thinking it "won't be that hard" but actually from experience I can tell you that the jump is actually massive. Some of you probably think, "oh, it's just essays like school" well yes it is, but the whole way you write completely changes, you will not be writing essays you did at school, the structure, length and pretty much everything about them changes.

The main things I found most difficult to adjust to are, time keeping, referencing and self motivation. When you go to university you are usually (unless you're a commuter) all by yourself, and it's up to you to make friends, get yourself to lectures and generally live. So for me, moving away from home and having to get myself to lectures, seminars, meetings etc on time and be prepared for each was very hard at first. Throughout most sixth forms and colleges we are constantly being reminded and motivated by our teachers, parents and fellow learners, yet coming to university that completely changes; and so self motivation is definitely a key skill to obtain. Lecturers are quite relaxed, but it's up to you to turn up to classes, and is your problem if you don't, as you're the one paying all the tuition fees, so it's up to you to turn up. And that's the same with deadlines too. You have to be aware of them and you cannot rely on your tutors telling you what to do and what to write, much like the teachers at school do. It is all down to you and you only. If you are not self motivated, you are not going to succeed and it really is as simple as that.

Another thing I struggled with was referencing, and even now I am still getting my head around this and still have to follow the referencing guidelines for every essay I write. Referencing is hard to explain so I'm not going to try, but basically EVERYTHING you write at university level HAS to be backed up with some literature and therefore you must highlight who backs up your point - hence referencing. I think every other first year struggles with this to begin with, as most of us have absolutely no clue of the referencing concept or what it entails, so it took me pretty much a whole year to understand the full reasons and regulations behind referencing, and even now I use the referencing guidelines as I'm not 100 percent on what full stop goes where (yes, it is that strict)! This concept is where you can probably tell how university writing is completely different to school/college writing, you have to be all round more sophisticated with the way you write and really show a developed and academic form and structure in your essays and all university work.

Getting to grips with Harvard referencing!

Time keeping is the final thing I found difficult; to understand what time I needed to be up to make it to a lecture was fairly easy for me as my halls were on campus, however I know it was hard for my friends who didn't live on campus. Relying on university buses instead of cars etc, it's all very scary being pushed into an 'adult world'. To walk into a lecture or seminar late is the worst too! In terms of writing essays in time, I think this was the worst part of time keeping for me. Understanding that I cannot do an essay the night before and gain a good grade was learnt the hard way for me. I pretty much worked my way through first year doing this, constantly battling with that 11.59pm deadline on the day it was due. I realised towards the end of first year that if I wanted a decent grade at the end of my degree I needed to put the work in, weeks and months before my deadlines, which is exactly what I have done this year and it feels so much better. I'm getting much better grades and feeling so much better about myself.

Learning the hard way - keeping to time

So, yeah that's pretty much it. I struggled with those main things when I was thrown into university life.

I hope this post doesn't scare you and motivates you to try your best to make sure these things don't happen to you as extreme as they did to me. It's definitely a learning curve.

Until next week,

M.

University Open Days

Hi everyone!

Hope you're all well and enjoying the Easter break, I definitely am!

I thought I would talk about open days in this post as I'm sure some if not all of you are well on your way into visiting universities and finding the ones that you like best, but if not then this post can offer you some advice about choosing a university and what to look for when researching your potential choices.

Visiting a uni is the best way to find
out more

Open days really are the BEST way of getting a genuine feel for a university, the only way you'll ever know what a university is going to be like is by walking round and looking in every nook and cranny there is possible whilst you're there. Bedford was the only university I visited, partly because I had a Saturday job at the time and couldn't afford not to take time off as most of the open days were on Saturdays when I was looking and partly because I didn't have much choice when it came to university as I wanted to stay relatively close to home so that I could have the option to commute if needs be. Don't get me wrong I could have looked at a couple more but I just didn't and luckily for me it worked out ok, however if I were choosing a university far from home I would 100 percent only put it as one of my choices if I'd seen it.

Living away from home for three or four years may not seem like much at time because you're still doing a-levels and its a 'long time coming' but really it is only round the corner and before you know it you could be being shipped off to a part of the country you really no nothing about. So, my first piece of advice is VISIT UNIVERSITIES no matter what you think of their websites of brochures, everything is different in person and I would advise all of you to visit as many as you can because you never know, one you weren't so keen on from the pictures might actually be everything you want and more, so basically I'm using the cliche 'don't judge a book by its cover'.

One thing that made me feel more sure about Bedford than my other choices was because I'd seen it, I knew the distance it was from home which is perfect, I knew where I'd be studying down to the exact rooms almost, I'd visited the town centre and I'd even looked at potential job opportunities, everything about it felt right and that really is only down to the fact that I was familiar with the town and everything in it, not familiar enough to miss out on the initial exploring when you arrive but just enough to feel extra comfortable with my choice of university.

Here's a link to the universities open day page of their website in case any of you want to have a look and come along to one.

And take a look on YouTube to watch some videos all about their open days:

I study at the Bedford campus

If you really cannot gain access to a particular university you are interested in and really think it would be great for one of your choices I would consider scouring their website, google and any online forums for reviews of everything from the accommodation you are applying for to the best place for a cooked breakfast. It might be an idea to contact the university direct and ask for any extra information or even if they can help you in any way to learn any more information if you don't ask you don't get and all that.

I hope this post helps you on the path to finding your university and offers advice in the ways to do so.

Hope you have a good week, I'll speak to you next Friday when my Easter break will nearly be up :-(

Until next week,

M

A Week into Easter...

Hi everyone...

So its already been a week into my three week Easter break :-(! I'm not going to lie little university work has been done this week, however the plan is to get motivated for next week.

I have realised I only have FIVE assignments left of the year which was so exciting to find out, the best part is only two of those are essays, the rest are presentations and poster presentations which are my favourite type of assignments to do.

The two essays I have left are long ones too, the worst kind. I find long assignments so draining which is a bit worrying for my dissertation, ha! I also have a 7,000 word essay due for one of my modules next year so I've nearly got two dissertations to do next year, one due for November!

The majority of this week was spent down in Cheltenham where my boyfriend goes to university, catching up with friends and having a relaxing break before driving back home (which is a two hour journey) with him for Easter, he only gets two weeks for his Easter break!

I've had a bit more of a think about work experience and I'm hoping to do it in a local school which only caters for students who have social and behavioural problems, I think this will link quite nicely to my psychology route I've got in my head at the moment and will hopefully be an eye opening and decision making experience. I've also got a few links to some professionals and have been told it might be an idea to get in touch with them and see if I can have some sort of mentoring a it's tricky to get experience within certain job roles as they are often confidential.

It's going to be a work filled couple of months but soon enough summer will be here and I'll be getting ready for my holidays. I can't remember if I have mentioned but I'm off to Turkey in June, Spain in July and Rome in August, so it's not all that bad being a student you know haha, but no seriously, the only way I can afford this is due to commuting and having a part time job.

Here's a few snaps of my summer, also will include my 20th birthday and at the end of April a trip to London to watch the marathon.














So I think it's safe to say summer is looking brill, Easter always makes me think about and get excited for summer holidays because they're just weeks away from our Easter breaks at university, the semesters tend to always finish earlier than predicted so university finishes so early compared to school summers.

It is certainly one of the many perks of being a university student, there are quite a few actually.



Until next week..

M

Last Week Before Easter!

Hi everyone!

As you can all tell by the title of this post, it is in fact my last week of term two! It has absolutely flown by, I can't quite believe I'm heading into my final semester of second year.. kinda scary!

It's all third year discussions at the minute, like what choices are you picking, are you on track for a decent grade, personal tutor meetings, assignments due, beginning our dissertations, work experience.. you name it we have been talking about it.

My lecturers are all trying to stress how vital this last semester is and that during and after Easter things need to be on the ball. So, I have several assignments due in after the Easter holidays, all around the same date so it is crucial for me to get going throughout the holidays and complete as much if not all of them for before I start back. That's my goal anyway, I hate being behind on work.

I had a meeting with my new personal tutor too about where I am in terms of final grade which is about a 2.1 at the moment which I am very happy about. Ideally I'd love a first as everyone would, but my main reason for that is because the University offers a free masters course to those who graduate with first class degrees. I'd be personally extremely happy if I achieved a 2.1.

I went out for student night this week, as it was a big night because everyone's heading home(Well those that don't commute) for Easter break. We have three weeks off this year which is more than some universities but I guess that's just the way our terms have fallen, I'm not complaining!

I am looking forward to not having to drive backwards and forwards to Bedford for three weeks though, sometimes it does get a bit draining I must admit, especially if I have to drive back after a Wednesday night out! Other than that I can't really complain about my choice to commute this year as it really was the right decision, it's not a pain until the very end of each term as university is for most people(lecturers included). I really do love being able to go back to the comfort of my own home and family after a day at university rather than going back to a room in a house, it just isn't for me! I haven't missed out on the social life as my friends are kind enough to let me stay with them and I rarely get to uni and find my lectures are cancelled, it's quite an efficient university in terms of getting information across which is vital for commuters as it would be a massive pain to turn up to uni to find your lectures cancelled! I know some of my friends have this problem at other universities.

I had to reapply for student finance today too, I really don't get the point in having to reapply if your details are the exact same, they should just carry if over but of course they don't. So now my parents have to fill out all their details again and I have to wait for ages to find out what I'm getting even though I know it will be the exact same as my circumstances are the same as last year.
Oh well, I couldn't do university without student finance so I'll do what it takes haha!

I thought this picture was brilliant as it represents student finance! 

For those of you applying for uni's now I'd sort out your student finance as quickly as possible as it's a long old process and takes a bit of getting used to on your first go!

I'll have updates about my work progress next week so keep your eyes peeled!

Oh and I forgot to add, it was varsity this week! Which means a big sporting event that every university takes part in each year! I watched the badminton and the rugby which were really good, rugby won by a mile and badminton lost. Our university is against hertfordshire university.
But it was such a brilliant vibe and if you're into sport definitely look into joining a team!

Until next week,

M!

Second Year Progression

Hi Everyone, hope you all had a lovely week!

This week for me was very general and actually quite productive, which is always good. So, what happened? 

Well the weekend was work work work at my part time job, Monday was a day of joining the gym and not much university related. Tuesday, my first lecture of the week! We, watched a documentary of a man lecturing about Finland's education system, I made a few notes however, I did not go into too much detail as this lecture was not supportive of my assignment but even so it's always interesting to know about other countries education systems and it is not an excuse to miss a lecture.

Tuesday also saw my Comparative Education assignment two guidance being introduced which is an essay, 2000 words, due 21st April(which sounds far away but really isn't). 

" Is education different for girls? Critically explore the cultural or religious tensions underpinning gender inequality with regard to education in Japan OR Afghanistan?" 

This is the question I have chosen, we got to choose from five questions all supporting the past few

months lectures and I chose this one because the Japanese education interested me the most and therefore (in my case) will allow me the best possible chance of doing well on this assignment. I always do better if I am interested and engaged with the topic or essay question. 

Wednesday was Lifelong, which was all about the the value of Higher Education, which I obviously am aware of but it actually made me realise how much HE(higher education) can do for you, there are so many different doors that it opens and I really believe that without some form of extra studying or training after school no matter how long or short it may be, if you do not have it you are at a disadvantage, which all of you reading this will agree with because otherwise why would you be reading a university student's blog. 

Thursday, so far you might all be thinking "she said it was productive, it doesn't sound it" or  something along those lines, well that's because Thursday was the day where it all happened. 9.30am I had a meeting with my new personal tutor, who discussed aims and targets etc and I found out I'm on track for a 2.1 at the moment which was fabulous news! He also said he didn't need to worry about me and also pointed me in the direction of another lecturer who helped me out with finding a career within education and psychology which was helpful and I hope I have found the perfect place for some work experience too, I need to ring up next week! 10-12am Digital age lecture took place, which was where I started another tab of my webfolio the 'Risk' tab and until around 2.30pm I managed to sit in the library after the lecture and complete this section which is such a weight off my shoulders as the deadline is on Monday, I only have one more tab to do as well, yay! 

I used a website called 'Powtoon' for my Digital Age assignment which is brilliant and creates interesting and engaging presentations, I really recommend them to anyone, they're very unique! 

3pm I had my Research Methods lecture which was very useful as it was all about ethics when carrying out research and how to carry out research on children without breaking the rules which was extremely helpful! 

4pm was supposed to be my Research Methods seminar but I didn't have to go because it wasn't relevant to Education Studies, just Early Years. 

I then finished the day off by going out for a lovely meal with my family and a long hot bath! 

Here's a couple of snaps of my meal to make you mouth water! It was so delicious! 
Until next week! 

M

Career talks..

Hello everyone!

Hope you've all had a great week, I certainly have.

So, this post is finally going to give you all an insight into my future plans.. because for some reason just before Christmas I panicked that I had changed my mind and no longer had set in stone plans, and I know plans don't always work out but I just like to have some sort of idea of where I'll be this time in five years.

First of all, I would like to clarify that it does not matter if you haven't decided what you want as a career path both before, during and after university. Personally I think it's silly to expect every 17/18 year old to know what they want in their educational/working life but we are expected to choose such specified degrees nowadays that it really can be scary for some if they are not 100% sure on a career path.

Degree's like mine are extremely versatile, 'Education Studies' has so may branches coming off it when you look into it. There's the obvious teaching, social work and anything is possible as you can head off to do a conversion course after your degree if you truly change your mind or even if you slightly go off course. I have decided that after I finish my final year I will be heading off to another university(probably not Bedford purely for experience of going elsewhere) to do a Psychology conversion course.

I want to be an Educational Psychologist, I have done thorough research on this job and I just know it will suit me perfectly! I was always interested in psychology at school and I even chose it for one of my A levels but sadly had to drop it as I had too much on my plate and couldn't even put my focus from subject to subject. I do really wish I had been able to carry it on as it was my favourite but unfortunately failed the first mock exam and I was achieving higher in my other subjects.

I had a meeting yesterday with the careers adviser at university because I have been trying to get round to doing it for ages and now I hope you understand that I couldn't tell you all about this until I had spoken to her for fear of getting my hopes up and telling everyone to then be told it's not possible, but it IS possible which is the best news ever.

I'll do my conversion course and then work my way up through a job setting, it is so exciting knowing that this is the right path for me. Don't get me wrong I am interested in teaching and education I just think using psychology is much more suited towards me and my personal preferences

An example of the type of situations I'd like to be faced with, helping children to reach goals, overcome fears etc.

I chose my degree partly for this reason... I didn't know if I'd always want to be a teacher but I knew I'd never lose my passion for education as a whole. There are so many courses similar to mine in all fields of careers and I would highly recommend a more broad course for someone who does not have a clue what they want to be.

There are hundreds of courses available on the University of Bedfordshire website I urge you to take a browse and have a read of some of the courses!

That's it for today.

Until next time,

M x

First month over...

Hi everyone!

Well this is my last blog post of February! Can't believe its been four weeks already!

I thought I'd talk a bit about internships in this post, so I'll cover where to find them, how they benefit you and how the benefit readers...and whatever else springs to mind!

So, I began blogging for the University back in the first few months of my first year. I got a notification on my 'BREO Shell' which is basically where I get my lecture notes and anything university related is on here. It's an internal site that all members of staff and students use daily to keep track of lectures and assignments and all that good stuff! So I believe the notification was a link to get in touch with the marketing team and arrange an interview. The interview was at the Luton campus however, which is about 50 minutes away from the Bedford campus where I am based, but this didn't put me off because I wanted the experience and realised how interesting it would be to do.

So I am the blogger for Education and Teaching for the University. There are bloggers for the other courses too I believe. I was surprised to find out when I first applied that no one else had snapped the opportunity up and I think this was because we were all new and didn't really know our way around the whole 'BREO' site etc.

This brings me to my first piece of advice; read EVERYTHING. Don't miss out on something really beneficial just because you couldn't be bothered to read an announcement. The University lecturers really do try their best to help you gain experience and have an exciting time at university. I am extremely grateful for my lecturer putting this announcement on BREO back when I was a fresher because now I'm still here and still enjoying blogging about my time spent at university.

Not only is blogging beneficial to the readers, for example possible students trying to get an insight into what the University is really like and whether they would suit a particular course or not, but it is also a really good thing for people like me to do to broaden my skills, have something to stick at, and one of the best things that I cannot wait for is reading back from the very beginning of my blog posts to reflect on university and all the obstacles I've overcome.

In terms of lecturers and seminars this week, not much has been happening. I've been super ill this week but I still managed to make it to all but one lecture, yay! In Comparative ed we watched a documentary on the history of South African education to add to the growing collection of countries we need to know about. It was actually really moving and terrifying to watch how some parts of the world lived. In Lifelong learning we had a lecture on the ICT curriculum. We are currently having lectures on all the subjects to help us decide which two we want to use for our poster presentations we've got later on in the year. Digital age was actually an optional lecture where we got up-to-date on our webfolios, as our next formative deadline is creeping up on us! Research methods was the lecture I missed but it was in qualitative data analysis I believe (I will be catching up on notes soon)!

All in all it's been quite an easy week; just preparing for the next lot of assignments in April/May time. But I thought I'd tell you all a bit more about blogging and internships.

In all seriousness, if you can, go for an internship. They really are great opportunities and if you can manage to bag one that you really enjoy (which I really have) then even better. They also show such commitment to future employers that you were involved in your university and got stuck in. I really would recommend one and good luck to anyone who is interested.

On a side note, if you don't manage to get a blogging internship I'd seriously consider blogging your experience at university anyway... To have all or most of your experiences in writing would be really nice to look back on and treasure. So, have a think about it guys because blogging really is fun!

Hope you all have a great week and I'll speak to you next Friday!

Here's a couple cliché 'Spring time' pictures to brighten up the post and get you all looking forward to the next couple of months!

M

2000 words... DONE!

Hello everyone,

Hope you are all ok!

So I think I mentioned last week that this weeks post would basically be a low down on one of my units called The Lifelong Curriculum, seeing as last weeks was dedicated to the Digital Age unit.

I had to make this image really big so that you can see all of the words, which I hope you can as this is the biggest it will go. This image is one of many that come up when you search lifelong learning online. I personally think it is a brilliant representation of what lifelong learning is. It shows so many different words that contribute to the whole idea of lifelong learning and they are all jumbled together which shows that things may not be in order but they still happen and we still learn. 

As we speak I have just uploaded my 2,000 word essay (well 1,849 to be exact, we are allowed 10 percent either side of 2,000), for my first assignment for Lifelong.

I'm not going to lie to you, this is one of the units I thought I would love. I primarily took it because I wanted to become a teacher which most people on my course want to do (obviously)! However, I'm not sure whether it's because I have had a change of career path or because the unit itself may not suit me as well as I thought it would, but I'm just not loving it,which is a shame I know. One of the main good points about being able to choose two units of your choice in second year is that you are more than likely going to enjoy the two you get to pick.

You are probably wondering now "Change in career....?" Well basically, I still want to work in education, I had just been having cold feet a couple months back about becoming a teacher. I do still like the idea of it, I just don't LOVE it. I'm not upset about it, because I have done a lot of research and am planning to go and see the career adviser's at uni so I  don't want to say anything until I know its definitely possible, I'm sure it is I just want clarification from someone who really knows what they're talking about. A.K.A a career adviser.

So I do still love my course and I know it was the right choice for me, I'm just slightly moving away from the whole 'actual teacher' role.

The course is still completely relevant to my possible career path.

Lifelong curriculum is all about how the current national curriculum supports us throughout our whole lives and is not something we just leave behind at school. You study every subject and complete an assignment and presentation about the subjects of your choice. It is very interesting and has actually opened my eyes to the fact that I do still use such things I learnt in school that I thought would never be relevant in later life.

As far as the assignments go, I've only completed the essay so far but I know the presentation will be the nicer of the two for me because I am quite a relaxed presenter and writing essays is not exactly a walk in the park for me, especially long ones like this one!!!

For this assignment, I chose the English National curriculum for key stage 2, mainly because I enjoyed English the most at school. It was difficult, I won't lie, and I found it hard to start off, but once I was into it, it wasn't so bad. I wouldn't say it was the best essay I've ever written though; I'm not the most confident about this one.

If you want to be a teacher, take this unit as it is recommended by the University that you do so, and I do see the relevance to a teaching career.

I'd also like to say that it really doesn't matter if you don't know what you exactly want to be. I was getting stressed that I had changed my mind and tried to convince myself teaching was what I was doing; I had made up my mind and I just had to stick with it. But I just flipped one day, and realised that I can be whatever I want, and began researching and found something I'm truly interested in. So, basically don't worry if you are taking or thinking about taking a degree but haven't yet figured out your career path or ideas of what you want to do.

I thought this was an interesting image as it represents exactly what this post discuss... the fact that even if you go off track and change your mind, you're still learning no matter what path you choose, and that is what lifelong learning is all about. 

Until next time,

M