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

I got a puppy!!

Yep, this is a picture of my new puppy, bit of a different way to start the blog this week! She is the cutest thing I think I have ever seen! Four days before my birthday as well, is there anything better?!

Add caption

At this point I am waiting on a lot of things. Timetable for next year, whether or not I've been given the choices I like and just an insight into what second year is going to bring!
I've got an update for you all this week;

• I am going to be posting my last ever blog post for the year on the 4th August 2014 so look out for that one.

I can't believe I've already finished my first year of university. It has gone so so quickly it's untrue I feel as though it's flown by and I can barely remember back to my moving in day...scary! 

Everyone always said uni goes quick but I guess you never really know exactly what somethings like until you try it! 

I'd like to encourage all of you to start your own blogs just for your own benefit as I have spent the day reading over all of my posts and it's so interesting to read back on, it's like a diary of my whole first year which is so interesting! 

If you enjoy writing and using your imaginations definitely give it a go and maybe this time next year you'll all be in my shoes reminiscing over your first years at university! 

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!