Last Blog Post :(

Hello Everyone,

Yes, this is my last blog post of the year which is actually quite sad. I have enjoyed posting and reflecting back on the weeks gone by.
I do have some exciting news which is that I will hopefully be back next year! I'm over the moon about the fact that I could be carrying on my blog as I think it's such a benefit to both you all reading it, but also for myself too.

Readers are able to get a real inside scoop on what their university life will bring for them and even better if you're hoping to study teaching at the University of Bedfordshire! Those of you who are have been given a real good head start in a way as you know in some respects what to expect from your first year and I would love to be able to carry on and tell you all about how you second years will pan out.

I'd like to thank everyone who read any of my posts throughout the past year and also the people who gave me the opportunity to start this blog. It's been a great experience and I will hopefully get to speak to you all soon!

Good luck to everyone getting their results this month, I hope you all get what you achieve and maybe see those of you hoping to attend UoB next year!

A little more about the course..

Education Studies is a great all round teaching course and for people like me, who know they want to go into teaching but don't know whether they want to teach young children or older children, it opens up brilliant opportunities to figure out and decide what career it is you want to go into.
Personally, I always thought I wanted to teach young children, of the reception/year one age, however, after being on Education Studies for the past seven months I have changed my mind and now want to go into year 6 or year 7 teaching as I feel this would be more suited to me.

Some people will be wondering if we get to go on placements, and then answer is YES, but not in your first year. Which I was quite disappointed about but I am excited to go into my second year this September knowing I get the chance to go into settings and get a real feel for what it is exactly that I want to do.

Education Studies in your first year is a broad range of subjects, with early years, understanding education, social constructions of childhood and inclusion through professional practice as your four subjects. However, these are not carried on throughout the three years of the course, for your second year you get to choose two of your own subjects and you have two core subjects, so as you can see this is where you begin to shape your own career in teaching and education.

I am so happy I chose to do education studies as I was still so unsure of what I wanted to do as a career, I didn't even know if teaching was the way to go but I've always loved teaching and thought "why not!".

Can't decide on a course?

For those of you wondering what the course actually entails, I am going to describe as best as I can the main points:
1. Understanding Education and Schooling is a subject that covers a wide range of education as a whole. The first assignment I did was to make a timeline about someone who went to school between a certain period of time, which was so interesting and allowed me to learn more about education in that particular period of time.
2. Social Constructions of Childhood covers mainly the history of education. This is also a very interesting subject as it teaches us about where education comes from and how it has evolved over time.

These first two subjects are the only two subjects we have exams for in our first year.

3. The Young Child in Education is a as it sounds really, it is only focused on early years education which is not exactly suited to me but allowed me to make a decision about where I wanted to focus my teaching career in.
4. Inclusion Through Professional Practice is the most difficult to get your head around at first. It looks at all different educational policies and also focuses on disability studies at points. I really enjoy this subject as a whole and the assessments are really suited to me. We had to do a poster presentation and an annotated bibliography to accompany this, and I have just handed in my critical essay for this module(which is not as suited to me as the presentation).

Good luck in whatever you decide!

So there's a quick insight into Education Studies as a whole. I know from experience, that looking at all for the education and teaching courses is a bit daunting and can confuse people(it did me!). I hope this blog post gives you a good idea into the course and helps you to make a decision about your university career!

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.

Assignments, assignments...oh and a presentation!

Hi Everyone, I hope you have all had a fantastic week!

I suppose I should start off by explaining the title of this blog...if you haven't already guessed I have been extremely busy these past couple of weeks and I am proud to say that I have FINISHED my two assignments that I have been working on.

The first one is a group presentation that we were assigned and this has been quite interesting to work on because I have been working with other people rather than sitting alone writing an essay which has been great! It is all set to be presented in our seminar time slot this Thursday so the nerves are definitely building up now. Fingers crossed everything goes to plan! My group and I are meeting tomorrow to make any last minute adjustments and make sure that everything works properly and our presentation isn't going to fail on the day. That would just be a disaster!

Feeling good! 

Secondly, I have been writing an essay discussing gender in education an how educational inequality persists. This has been quite interesting too actually because I have found a lot of knowledge from the reading around this topic and I have enjoyed writing the essay itself which is always a bonus!

Excited for the weekend!

I am very excited this week as I am going away for the weekend, which will be so nice as I have the weight of assignments off of my shoulders.

Another exciting thing that I have to tell you is that I filmed a short video last week for you all to watch, of me answering questions about my life at university and why I chose to do it. So I look forward to seeing that and I hope you all do too!

Have a great week!

Megan.

Semester 2!

Well that's that then, back to uni and I am already well into semester 2!

I've been thrown into the deep end this term and have been preparing for my first two assignments already this week. I have a PowerPoint presentation coming up at the end of January which I am really looking forward to as I love designing things and being creative rather than just writing essays all the time!
So I can tell this term is going to be a whole lot easier than my previous one, and that is definitely due to the fact that I am no long a 'newbie'. I feel so much more comfortable around uni now, I know where everything(well most things) are in terms of my lecture/seminar rooms which is great because I no longer get lost around campus, ha!

After having a long break over Christmas I was slightly worried that I wouldn't be able to get myself motivated into university life again because I've been so used to home comforts but, it's really not been that bad, so I am a very happy student!

I think a huge part of my happier self is down to moving flats. I'm no longer surrounded by horrible people and I just feel so much more at ease and very happy which is how I thought I was always going to feel after I had settled after the first few weeks of moving in. I guess I got bad luck, someones gotta have it I guess!
Everything's worked in my favor now anyway which is always a bonus!

It's coming to the stage now that everyone is choosing their living accommodation for next year, and I've been thinking long and hard about this decision and have come the the conclusion that I am going to commute from home for my next 2 or 3 years at university, not because I'm not enjoying myself but because I will save a lot of money! Now the decision is to do so by car or train...

I think if I choose train I'll get frustrated with having to time it right with the uni bus and it will also waste a lot of time rather than being able to just roll out of bed and go which to be honest sounds a lot nicer and easier to me.

My little car!

Megan.

CHRISTMAS!

Hello Everyone!


I guess I should start this post with saying a big Merry Christmas to you all!

Moving on...I am currently doing my Christmas reading for my upcoming modules in January along with buying and wrapping a lot of Christmas presents..haven't done too bad on a student budget I have to say!

One of the things I have learnt this semester is that keeping up to date on my reading set by my tutors each week is such a great way to ensure that when it comes to writing my assignments I am not stuck for things to write..which was the main problem I had when writing my first ever university assignment...it was difficult at times! Although, saying that I have had my first essay grade back which was actually for this particular assignment and I got a C+, which I was quite happy with. Alongside my A- for my presentation grade I have had a great start to my university career.

I am looking forward to getting back into my studies in January and I have high hopes for a good end to my first year at university. Aiming high!

Hope you all have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

See you in 2014!

End of Semester 1!

Hi Guys,

So as you can tell by the title of this blog post, I have reached the end of my first ever semester at university and I can tell you it has been a great start! I have finished all four of my first assignments which I have to say, is such a great feeling!

It's definitely been a big change moving to university and I may have struggled at the start, but I am so thankful for my place here and my course is brilliant! It is safe to say that I have made a good decision here, and I am looking forward to next semester and even the assignments...as strange as it sounds it is such a good feeling handing an assignment in and after getting my grades back I am extremely happy with myself!
One thing I have learned is that I CANNOT leave my assignments till the last minute anymore and I ALWAYS have to plan my time, because trust me, I tried and it was so stressful I would never want to do it again. I am so thankful for all of the 'how to' guides I have been given because I am not the most organised person in the world I have to admit, they are lifesavers!

The essay's are not that scary once you get hold of the hang of things, they are actually really fun to write because you get to have your own opinion more so than at school..(or is that just me?)!

Well, I guess I will leave it here for this week. Hope you all gathered my excitement in finishing my assignments in this post and enjoyed reading!

My First Blog Post

Hello everyone!

I'm Megan and I am a first year at the University of Bedfordshire. I'm nearing the end of my first ever semester at university and I have to say it's been a bit of a roller coaster ride! From being a complete newbie in the first two weeks of freshers to really getting to know the university as a whole and my course. 

Assignment 1 in progess

I chose to study Education Studies at The University of Bedfordshire for two main reasons:
1. I want to become a teacher, I'm not sure what I want to specialise in yet but I'll hopefully come to that over the three years.
2.  It's quite close to home and I am definitely a home girl!

So, it has no doubt about it been a rocky start at university, after freshers ended it felt as though I was bombarded with work which made me panic slightly, however I have already handed in two out of my four first assignments and I am feeling very proud of myself! I can't say starting university has been easy because it hasn't, it was a huge change to my life but I just got on with it really and I am so glad I chose The University of Bedfordshire. 

I've always known that I wanted to study a degree involving education for the obvious reason that I have always wanted to become a teacher. I wasn't entirely sure whether to choose Primary Education as a whole but after lots of deliberating I decided on Education Studies...obviously! I do not regret my choice at all because I am definitely beginning to discover the options that will be available to me when I graduate and they are extremely exciting. 


Even though I had a rocky start, I definitely think that university is the right decision for me and I am excited about learning new things on my course in the next semester. So, hopefully lot's of interesting posts to follow!