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.

An insight into my Second Year!

Today myself and everyone else carrying on through to their second year of studying education studies received emails telling us about our reading lists for next year. This may sound uninteresting but actually it's an opportunity for us all to get a head start on what we are all going to be studying.

I am sure I have mentioned in a previous post that we all had to choose two options of our own choices to study next year which I have now had a chance to look at in more depth. However, some of the books are not available as ebooks which means I have to buy them.  

I don't remember ever talking to you all about how important university books actually are... don't think I'm boring because trust me I used to think they were useless but they are soooo not! They were my saviors when writing my essays. I am so not a book person but now I've had to learn to be because there is no surviving university or passing university without opening some books. 

Yep, this is what I felt like my desk looked like a lot of the time...BOOK OVERLOAD! 

But, in all seriousness I am genuinely excited to find out more about what I will be studying in my second year and I think this is mainly down to the fact that I have grown up and learnt a lot throughout my first year and I am now in the complete right mind set to focus solely on my studies and achieve my goals. 

Going to university taught me a whole lot from living by myself to how to write a proper essay, and mainly how important my degree is to me.

Making choices!

Hi everyone!

Seeing as it's the time of the year that A-Level students are sitting their all-important exams that decide whether you'll be getting into your favourite uni, your second choice or going through clearing (preferably not this option), I thought I would dedicate this blog post to narrowing down my UCAS choices front five to just two...and as you who have already done so know this is extremely difficult for a person like myself who picked several courses at the same university.



I say it's hard to make a decision if you're someone like myself, however, at least I was one hundred percent sure on the university I wanted to go to rather than having to choose between unis, yet, I had to choose between courses. I knew from about the end of year 12 which is the first year of sixth form, that I wanted to take the teaching route for my career, and therefore this meant that I had to apply for universities on UCAS, because let's face it there's a degree for everything nowadays, in fact it's more common to have a degree than to not in this era! So I went to look at some universities close to home because I knew I wanted to be closer rather than miles away from home. I ended up loving the university of Bedfordshire's Bedford campus which is where all teaching courses take place and I also liked the look of Northampton, but not as much as Bedford. So, I went ahead and applied for two courses at the university of Northampton and three at the university of Bedfordshire. When it came to deciding on my final two choices I was STUCK. I had applied for the course 'Education Studies' at both Bedford and Northampton but I had also applied for Early Years and the Young Child in Education at Bedfordshire as well, which weren't the courses I wanted to do. I had to decide on the course or the university and eventually I decided on the course and put Bedfordshire as my first choice and Northampton for my insurance, both for the course I was most interested in: 'Education Studies'.

I am SO glad I decided to pick the course over the university itself because at the end of the day the course is what we are all there for. Even though, I got my first choice I would have been happy studying the same course at a different university as I knew it was the right degree for me and I've definitely made the right decision because I LOVE my course!

Of course you've got to like the university you're going to be studying at otherwise your experience will not be great, you should pick universities and courses to suit you and you alone, it's not anyone else's decision but yours. My main piece of advice would be to go to LOTS of open days even to universities you're not overly keen on; you shouldn't judge a book by its cover and you may well have a completely different view of that university once you have seen it for yourself. Oh, and don't pick a uni just because your friend is, you can stay in touch with that friend and, trust me, you'll meet plenty new ones!

Trust your instinct and go for the course and university that you are completely sold on, good luck in your exams!!

Exam advice!

I've decided to write this post to try and give you all some advice on how to prepare yourself for you exams, and what to expect. I think this is important for you all to know because I went into one of my exams this week thinking I knew everything about the topics that were going to come up and ended up panicking slightly when the question wasn't as straight forward as I'd expected it to be.

First of all, and this is the ONE piece of advice I stress you all to take in if you take in at least one thing from this post, and it's to expect the unexpected. The only problem I found when I opened up that question paper was that the question was so difficult to understand and I struggled to read between the lines as to what it wanted me to answer. Luckily, when I came out of the exam I spoke to some friends and it seems as though we all got the same thing from the question and therefore wrote about similar things, but in all honesty I was not one hundred percent sure when writing it that I had chosen the right theories and topics to discuss. 

So here's my advice and tips for you all:

- read the question, and I know what you're all going to think, everyone tells you this and it's obvious, but trust me I panicked and confused myself even more. Everyone was expecting that a significant name of a theory would be written within the question and it turns out it wasn't and therefore we all worried ourselves. What the question actually wanted from us was to think outside the box a little bit and understand what theory the question was actually talking about. 

- plan your time, this is vital. This particular piece of advice was a godsend to me when I was writing my exam answers. As soon as I opened my exam papers and read over the questions until I understood them completely(or as much as I possibly could), I then wrote down every last piece of information that I knew about the topic in question and then went from there and began to write whichever question I had decided to write first. 

-re-read your answer as you write, most people tel you to read over your answer at the end of your exam, however I think it is a much more beneficial idea to read as you write. I think this solves a lot of babbling and going off of topic which is unfixable when you have five minutes left of your exam. 

So, I hope this post gives you all some confidence in how to prepare and plan yourselves for your exams now and in the future, I will certainly be sticking to these rules from now on. 

Social Constructions of Childhood (Exam Overview)

Ok, so I think I need to go into more detail about which subjects my exams are on and what the revision I'm doing entails.

Social Constructions of Childhood is one of the four subjects that I have been studying for my first year of university. It involves a lot to do with the history of education and the theorists supporting these views. I'm going to break this post down into two parts.. firstly I will talk about section A of the exam and secondly section B.

There are four questions in total, two for each section and we have to answer one question from each section.

Section A
This is examining part two of the unit and the first question supposedly deals with older sociological thoughts which therefore means we have to talk about theorists and their ideas about childhood, dating back to historical childhood.

The second question is dealing more with recent sociological thought. So, new theorists ideas on childhood and perhaps linking back to the ideas from previous years and seeing if there are links? Well that's my thoughts on how I would answer that question anyway..however even though I will look over this question I am mostly going to be revising for the first question as I feel this will be the easiest option for myself.

So, for my revision I have made a mind map containing a section for each theorist/idea that may come up under the first question in section A, and I have included a few bullet points of the most important things for each theorist/idea.

Section B
This is all to do with part three of the social constructions unit.
The first question focuses on images, culture or literature. So, how the child is perceived in these views.

The second question, which is the one I have chosen to write about focuses on children in film, TV or news. I decided to pick this one because I remember enjoying this particular lecture the most out of the two and I find it overall more interesting to talk about.

I think it is so important to pick the question that you feel most comfortable talking and writing about, there is no point picking the one that you think the examiners will 'like most' because there is no such thing. It should be interesting to you and therefore encourage you to revise more and come out with a good result in the end because you took the time and made the effort to construct a good response to your specific question.

I hope this blog post gives you an idea into the structure and layout of what you will experience in terms of exams if you are coming to education studies at the University of Bedfordshire next year.

On another note I think I should inform you all that I was able to choose my optional units for next year. It took a while but I am happy with the options I have chosen and I think these are definitely the best ones for me.

If you don't already know, in year two of education studies everyone has the same two core subjects and we are given about five or six optional units to choose from so I chose 'Lifelong Curriculum' because it is recommended for anyone wanting to study a PGCE (which gives you qualified teaching status) after their degree which is what I want to do, and also 'Children and Young people in the Digital Age' which is briefly described on our unit selection document as these three questions:

1. What are the challenges and opportunities experienced by children and young people in the digital age?

2. How are these constructed and understood in different media, settings, policies and practices?

3. What are the potential implications of new technologies for children and young people’s welfare, education, employment and social experiences?

I decided on this other option because it seemed the most interesting for me and I enjoy working with computers and this is one of the main things we will be using, it also involves a 5000 word e-portfolio for our only form of assessment which encouraged me even more because exams are not for me! 

How I felt when trying to choose my options!

Speak soon! 

Third Term!

Ok, so I guess it's time to start thinking about my 3rd and final term as a first year at the University of Bedfordshire. It's not much of a term to be honest for me because we have one final week of revision lectures and that's it. Most people will probably stay in Bedford until their exams are finished but I've made the decision to go home after the last teaching week and then drive to Bedford for my two exams.
As for preparation, I think I am as prepared as I can be at this stage, I feel a little skeptical about my exams at this point but I think after I have attended the revision lectures I will feel a lot more comfortable and ready to sit my exams in May.

My Easter break has been jam-packed! I have actually managed to bag myself a job back home which is great as I have a lot planned over the summer and therefore need money! I feel like I have been at home for absolutely ages so goodness knows what I'm going to do with myself all summer. Work , work and work I suppose..oh and go on holiday..

I have been asked to talk about when I applied for university in this blog post which has actually proved quite interesting for me because it snow feels like a lifetime ago! My decision was pretty easy when it came to narrowing down to my firm and insurance choices. I knew I wanted to stay close to home and all of my university choices were within an hour away from where my family and I live. I picked all of the same courses 'Education Studies' for each university and therefore all I had to decide on was the university and halls of residence. I chose Bedford for a few reasons, 1: the halls are so nice and clean, 2: the university is also very nice and small which I liked, 3: the lecturers I met where all so friendly and welcoming and 4: it was my all round favourite university that I had visited. I wasn't fussed whether I got my firm or insurance choice purely because they were both as good as each other and meant I would be doing the exact course that I wanted to do.

The inside of my accommodation in Bedford, and yes it actually does look like this! 

The entrance to Liberty Park. 

I want to stress that it's not all about the stats and figures(it is partly) but you have to like the university you are looking at, one thing I think every applicant should remember is to not settle for second best. Aim high and do not be afraid to come out with your insurance choice, so choose wisely everyone!

Good luck with your UCAS applications and Happy Easter to you all!

Lazy at uni?

So many of my friends and I have been talking about how LAZY we've become since moving into halls, this doesn't really apply if you're a commuter, but we often sit in bed all day because we either haven't got the money to go out and do something, or everyone's gone home for the weekend and we have absolutely nothing to do.

I admit that before I moved into my new flat I was guilty of most of these things, mainly because I didn't want to socialise with my old flat mates, so I'd sit in my room watching tv on my laptop, on social networking sites, speaking to family and friends from back home or when my other friends weren't at home I'd try and spend most of my time with them...although they did go home a lot.
I think it's hard to get motivated and go out when you're at university because it's just so easy and you've got everything on your doorstep, well we have here in Bedford.

But since moving into my new flat after Christmas I have been so much happier, because I'm a sociable person I hate being by myself as I just get bored so quickly, so now being able to sit in the communal area of the flat and just being able to talk to nice people is so much better, I don't think I would have many nice things to say about university life at all if I hadn't moved flats.

Saying that I would always want to be out and with people is a lie because uni gives you the best of both worlds, you can have a cosy night in by yourself which I'm sure everyone needs once in a while, or there's always someone about wanting to do something.

I'm definitely not as lazy now though, but tips to get out of that lazy, room hermit mode are;

1. Join the nearest gym, I was a member at a gym for a long time before starting university and I had every intention of joining the gym on campus however I never got round to it, which is silly because it was only £35 for the whole year!
2. Bag yourself a job! This has been a godsend to me for so many reasons; I'm not bored on weekends when uni's shut. I have met some wicked friends in my colleagues. I enjoy the job I do which is working at weddings and big events for a local hotel which helps. It gives me that extra cash to be able to go out on student nights and enjoy the fresher experience, and it means I can keep running my car whilst I'm at uni which I know I'm lucky to be able to do because most of my friends have either sold or sorn their cars while they are away. 
3. Invite friends or family from home to come and stay with you. 
4. Leave food shopping and other weekly errands until the weekend so you have something to do with your time if you're bored and your flat mates have gone home. 

I think this is a picture of the gym in my accommodation or if not it's very similar I was struggling to find it online.

University living is what you make it so try hard and you'll have an amazing experience. Everyone's in the same boat remember! 

April Fools!

April Fools Day is not my favorite day of the year, no one like to be pranked!

I am officially assignment FREE! Today I finished and handed in my final two assignments of the year and I am so relieved because I have been working on them all month! I am not technically work free as I do have two exams coming up in May(I'm not sure on the dates of them yet though)!
I enjoy revision for exams more than I do writing essays though I have to say, I get so bored writing essays, especially when it's nice outside like it has been today!
Oh well, summer starts here for me!
It seems crazy that I have almost finished my first year at university(minus exams), I actually move out of my halls of residence tomorrow and as much as I've enjoyed my time living here, I honestly cannot wait to be back home and eating home cooked meals!!

So.. yeah I have about four and a half months off from uni for the summer, as exciting as that sounds I do have to work to afford to pay for everything I have planned over the summer..so it's not just going to be lazy days all the time.
I guess this is the last post I will write sitting at my desk in my little room and honestly, I'm quite glad. I don't want to put anyone off staying in halls when they come to university because obviously that's the done thing(unless you commute). However, it's definitely not for me. I am so glad I have done it and experienced it for the first year but as I may or may not have already told you, I am commuting to uni next year. I am one hundred percent a home girl and I only live 40 minutes from Bedford anyway so that's the plan for next year.

I am also so annoyed that I haven't mastered how to cook certain things..for example spag bol...I still cannot cook it and I have given up trying!

Bye Bedford..Hello Home!

Vibe Monday's!

So, I went out this Monday with a group of friends and as usual it ended up with me buying a takeaway...total waste of money but it always seems to happen!
As for student night's out here in Bedford, they are quite good! I've tried a Saturday night here before and it was nowhere near as busy as when all of us student's out on either a Monday or a Wednesday!

The morning after wasn't exactly the best...I have to admit I gave myself quite a headache this week haha! It's all good fun though..
I managed to drag myself out of bed for my lectures and seminars on Tuesday which is always ten times more difficult after I have been out the night before considering I have an extremely busy day on a Tuesday.

Moving on.. I think I have mastered how to make a curry now, I never used to make them before I came to university and now I am such a pro! I am getting quite sick of having them EVERY night though so now I'm living off of easter eggs...




I found out today that I have four weeks left until Easter which has made me really excited because that means I have five term weeks until I move home forever!
I can't remember if I've mentioned before that I am commuting to university next year instead of living here as it's not far from home and I will save a lot of money that way.
I also miss home a lot....that is my main reason! I'm glad I have had the 'uni experience' by living here for one year but I am so glad I have the option to move home now!

Megan.

Check list!

So, seeing as I have just started my second semester at university and I know a thing or two about being a fresher I thought I would give you all a post about things freshers should and should not take to university with them... I thought this would be an interesting post for anyone starting university next year to take on board!

I basically took the entire contents of my house, I may as well of took the kitchen sink I took that much!
So, here is a list of things I took that were not needed:

1. Hundreds of different types of kitchen knives..I only used one sometimes two at most!
2. A shower rack, there's nowhere to fit one of those in student accommodation! 
3. A bedside lamp...I didn't even have a beside table so don't take one of those unless you have one.
4. A clothing rail..it did not fit in my room.
5. Too many clothes..There was absolutely no room in my wardrobe and my clothing storage became a huge mess! 
6. Kitchen utensils I didn't even know how to use.
7. Too much food, you need to know how much storage you've got before you go ahead and buy all this freezer stuff that then can't be stored.
8. Random stationary bits that you're never going to use..E.g glue, or sellotape(I never used these).
9. Too many cushions, I took far too many and they didn't all fit on my bed which was annoying! 
10. Cash, you'll just spend it all during freshers and be skint for the rest of the year haha! 

Now I'm going to give you a more realistic list containing things that I could not have lived without during my time at university:

1. A washing basket...invest if you don't have one!
2. Coat hangers.... do not bring all of your clothes and forget hangers that would be so annoying especially because no one at university has the time to iron! 
3. An iron is sometimes needed though so don't forget that one.
4. Cleaning products, kitchen, bathroom, clothes all of it! Trust me you'll need it. 
5. Photos the put up in your room or memorabilia to make it feel more like your own.
6. Extra storage if it will fit, uni rooms are generally tiny!
7. Suitable clothes, don't take summer clothes because you're usually at home for the whole of summer and it's not usually warm in winter let's face it.

You would think all of these things in both of my lists are common sense, but I just decided I needed everything and made moving in and out ten times harder and more stressful for myself, so if I were doing it all over again I would definitely give a lo more thought to what I would be taking with my to university and now ending up like this picture.....

That is what you call serious hoarding!!! Don't end up like this haha!

Okay, perhaps that's a bit extreme but you get the drift!

Lectures, Seminars, Workshops

Hi everyone!

I thought I would write this weeks post on what really goes on at university in terms of studying and timetabling. As some of you may already know university consists of lectures, seminars and workshops so I'm going to break those down and explain them to you.

I am going to talk about them in relation to my particular university and degree as I don't want to generalise and then end up being wrong as I'm sure all universities have different ways and means.

Lectures
A lecture for me consists of every single person studying education studies as well as (dependent on the topic of lecture) certain other degrees for example 'Childhood and youth studies' are also in my Young Child lectures and 'Disability studies' accompany us in our Inclusion Through Professional Practice lectures.

So they have the biggest capacity of students sitting in lectures. I think this is because Education Studies has a lot of similar degrees and therefore we all need to study the same things sometimes so why not put us altogether and kill two birds with one stone.

Certainly this is the case for a lot of first years that I have spoken to from other universities. We will all split off into more specific groups in our second years we've been told and I do think the way they do it is a good efficient system.

I have four lectures a week, all but one are two hours long and the other is just one hour, however the time is made up with a two hour seminar. The lectures give you all the information you  need for what you're studying that week and it is entirely up to you to make notes and gain the best knowledge you can from them as you don't have lecturers nagging you like school, one thing about being a university student is how much independence you have compared to what you did have at school.

In my case, lecture notes are put up in advance so that we can print the slides off and make notes from them as that is how some people like to organize themselves. However, I do know that some lecturers prefer to put the slides up after the lecture has finished as it encourages students to attend the lectures.

This is pretty much what my lecture halls look like. Some this size and some smaller, we have a screen at the front which the slides are projected onto.

Seminars

A seminar is a group of about 20 students who have been broken down from the larger lecture group to allow a more one on one experience for the students with the tutor. Seminars always come after the lectures and are a chance for us to recap and discuss what went on in each weeks lecture within a smaller group of people. 

We often have activities to do in seminars which are always something to do with the lecture that would have happened beforehand. These are good because they allow us to think about the lecture in more depth and also hear other peoples outlooks on the lecture and topic. 

Seminars are usually an hour long with the exception of the one I have already mentioned which makes up for the short lecture. They are worth it because they allow both us students and tutors to listen and build a relationship with each other, they also give students more of an opportunity to speak out as some panic if they have a question to ask when in a large group and then never ask it. 

Workshops

Workshops are optional and are about anything and everything. I couldn't find my workshop timetable when writing this post so I will just have to give you a couple of titles of some that I can remember. 

They are basically extra lessons that specify in a very particular topic to allow students to brush up on the skills that they are not so hot at. 

A few workshops I can remember which will hopefully give you a good idea of what they are like:

• How to write a university standard essay
• A guide to referencing 
• Brush up on punctuation skills

That should give you a good insight into how a workshop works. 

They are held in the library and are open to anyone and everyone and personally I think they are a brilliant idea.They are there for students who may be worrying about something excessively and will give them the help they need to understand whatever it is they are worrying about.