For some months now, I could see from my diary that July 2011 was going to be a very hectic month – it turned out to be more hectic than I could have imagined! For two weeks of the month I was largely occupied teaching and supporting students through doctoral summer schools, one in Ireland, the other at the Lincoln campus. These were both busy, but very enjoyable and interesting weeks. In Ireland the study school was opened by the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, it was an honour to meet him – in his opening speech, Enda Kenny stated that it was a ’unique and special week in education in Mayo and nationally’ and that the study school was ‘creative and innovative’ – you can see the Lincoln teaching team with the Prime Minister in this photo -
As well as the study schools, I also presented, with colleagues at two conferences this month. The first was the Higher Education Academy’s national conference in Nottingham where we presented on an innovative project to develop and implement our own Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Learning in Higher Educaiton at the University of Lincoln. The second was the Joint Social Work Education Conference held in Manchester, where we presented on a SWAP (social work and policy subject centre) funded research project to explore students’ experiences of mentoring children and young people looked after by the Local Authority. These are just some of the areas of work that made July such a busy month – all in all, I felt as though I was hardly at home all month! So, I am looking forward to a chance to catch up and have some annual leave in August! 
I managed to get two short breaks during June, which really only came about because they were planned so far in advance. One break was a long weekend to the West coast of Ireland (County Mayo) not only to see some of the magnificent scenery, but also to go to an Imelda May concert. The concert was really brilliant. The second break, at the end of the month was another long weekend, on the Isle of Wight, to visit family and friends whilst also spending some time touring places where I spent some of my childhood.
In between the short breaks, June was a busy work month. I had alot of external examining work, which is the nature of this time of year, including attending assessment and examination boards. I was also, with a colleague, asked to present some research work related to assessment in higher education, to colleagues at Birmingham City University; it was good to be able to share some of the findings and ideas that arose from our work. I am bracing myself now for a very busy July as my diary is totally full with a whole variety of commitments!
June 2010 has been an amazing month. I have had the good fortune to present papers at two international conferences. The first was the International Joint World Conference on Social Work and Social Development held in Hong Kong. I presented a joint paper with a colleague (details on my publications page) and met with some wonderful people too. It was a huge conference, more than 3,000 people! There were almost too many papers and events to choose from, so it whilst it was stimulating and interesting, it was also very tiring Hong Kong was extremely warm and humid throughout the few days that I was there. Here are a couple of photographs taken at the conference venue,
Shortly after getting back from Hong Kong, I went to Barcelona, where I presented at the International Confederation of Educational Developers conference ICED 2010. This was a smaller conference held in a university in Barcelona, again, though there were many very thought provoking papers and workshops to attend. Weatherwise, more very hot, sunny days, but with much less humidity than in Hong Kong. So, a couple more photographs
As if that was not enough travelling for one month, I also had a short visit to Ireland to commence the data collection work on the evaluation project I mentioned in last month’s blog. All in all, this month, my feet have hardly touched the ground … literally!
