During June I also had the pleasure of working with students from the SCOTs project to present our pilot work at two very different conferences at DeMontford University, Leicester.  The financing for the pilot phase of this work ended at the end of June 2009 and with it, the temporary contracts and all arrangements for the students that were running and implementing the pilot.  Sadly, it appears that there is unlikely to be any continuation or growth funding for this innovative project, which is particularly disappointing given its success and the interest it has stirred, nationally. I do still intend, however, to ensure that this work gets written up in a way that it might be considered for publication in the future.

I have not had much time to work on these web pages recently, but I have updated some photographs and my publications page and have started to make use of the new University repository, making some relevant links on the publications page of this site.  I still have more work to do on this, but I am gradually getting accustomed to the process and think is it is useful addition.

I had occasion to visit London twice during June both for working meetings. One of these was my first meeting on the SEDA (Staff Educational Development Association) National Scholarship, Research and Evaluation Committee, to which I am honoured to have been accepted as a member.  As a committee member I am also an editorial board member of the Taylor Francis journal Innovations in Education and Teaching International (IETI), which is the journal of the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA).  Lots to get to grips with here, but much of my learning from working on the editorial board of Practice: Social Work In Action is transferrable. 

On one of these trips to London, Dai and I stayed over for the weekend and went to see ‘We will rock you’ at the Dominion Theatre, which was really good.  We also spent several hours on the Sunday in the British Museum at the Henry VIII exhibition.  Perhaps as a result of my disengagement from history lessons in school, I found the exhibition very informative and interesting.

Betty and Barney (my cats!) have had a good month too!  We (well more accurately, Dai) built them an outdoor cat run, attached to our home, so that they can go in and out safely (they are house cats) – I have added a new video clip to Youtube, follow the link and smile ! 

May has been a month for completing all the marking and beginning to think about teaching commitments for the next academic year. The marking process is lengthy but is now in the latter stages with reports being prepared for various examination boards in the next couple of months. I know that students wait anxiously for confirmation of grades, so this is an important time of the academic year.

At home, the kittens, or rather ‘cats’, were one-year old. As pedigree pusses, they are house-cats, but following a safe exploration in the back garden, it became clear that they would enjoy the experience of fresh air and some different scenery. So amid much laughter in the family, my ‘other half’ has agreed to build them a cat run – I will upload some photographs here when the run is finished and in use!

I completed a large set of marking by the middle of April, knowing that there is more student work coming in for assessment in May. Whilst marking represents a hard, concentrated period of work, I always enjoy being able to focus on one aspect of teaching and learning, seeing feedback as a significant part of the process. Over the quieter Easter period, I set aside some ‘chunks’ of time to work on my doctoral thesis and experienced great relief in completing the first full draft of the whole thesis. I updated my doctoral web pages to reflect some of the philosophical, theoretical and practical developments that have arisen through the writing process; this has been a great learning curve. Whilst fully aware that there may yet be several re-writes and further amendments before a final version is arrived at, it feels very satisfying to now be working with a full document and to have a ‘feel’ of the full product. I meet with my supervisors later in May, so the process continues!

My trip to Hong Kong was mainly for work purposes to present as an invited speaker at an international symposium ‘Anti-poverty social work practice’. The symposium was held at, and principally organized by, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. With a colleague, I represented the journal ‘Practice: Social Work in Action’ and spoke about the special issue of the journal to be published next year (2010) focusing on Poverty in East Asia. I am one of the guest editors of this special edition which will be published to coincide with the Joint World Conference on Social Work and Social Development which will be held in Hong Kong in June 2010.

Of course, it would make little sense to travel all that way (12 hour flight from Amsterdam) without adding on some annual leave and a little sightseeing. I have not been to Hong Kong before, so everything about it was new; some wonderful sights; a different culture; interesting food; a safe environment; and kind, polite and generous people. I am hopeful of being able to visit again for the World conference next year and look forward to meeting colleagues at the Chinese University of Hong Kong again, and perhaps going into the Chinese mainland afterwards. In the meantime, I have various exciting projects planned for the coming months…but more of that in future blogs.

The SCOTs project has also begun to be fully implemented in that last couple of months. I participated in the facilitation of a two-day training induction programme and whilst this was initially postponed by heavy snow in our area, the two-days were really enjoyable and got the project off to a sound start.  Now the co-ordinator is overseeing the day-to-day running of the project, which gives me some relief.  With three students from the SCOTs project I attended a Higher Education Academy subject centre conference The Festival of Learning in Wolverhampton.  We presented a workshop on the project and were overwhelmed with the interest and enthusiasm with which this was received.  Here is a small photo of us all taken at the end of the conference.

The CPD framework project that I am involved in is also moving apace now with a structured project plan in place through the hard work of the newly appointed project co-ordinator.  Again, a project close to my heart that was instigated as a direct result of my early local research, so it is particularly pleasing to see such progress.

Another reason for the blurring of time over recent weeks has been my self-imposed schedule of writing the final chapters of my thesis.  Sometimes this feels like walking backwards through treacle with flippers on (whatever that might be like) and at other times I really feel I can see the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’.  At the time of writing this blog, I have four out of six chapters in good draft form, with another part-way there and the final chapter also roughly planned.  I hope to have a first full very rough draft together by the end of next month – I am ever optimistic!

As ever, I don’t like to forget to mention that I still have another life, despite the busy times…and last month managed a long weekend away from it all in the bright lights of London.  Dai and I went to see The Lion King at The Lyceum Theatre, which was a spectacular performance; we also saw Carmen at The Royal Albert Hall, this time a spectacular venue, but also a wonderful performance that was only being shown for 12 nights.  Whilst in London I was treated to an ipod classic and have had great fun since ‘playing’ with my new toy – I love new technology!   We also enjoyed a more local show recently, when my son, Rob, solo’d at the ‘The Burn’, a local acoustic club – whilst I might be accused of being biased, I thought he was fab!  Hopefully I will be able to put a link to his new CD or DVD on these webpages soon. The cats are fine; I cannot call them kittens anymore – if you want to see up-to-date photos of them, click here to see a new slideshow on youtube ENJOY!

At home, any spare time has been geared towards planning for the festive break.  We had a lovely weekend in Manchester, looking around the German Christmas market and enjoying a Tapas meal out.  So the focus has been on shopping for presents, planning meals, thinking about decorations – and wondering how we will manage the challenge of putting up a Christmas Tree with baubles and decorations, with two lively 6-month old kittens charging about…. 

Family life was also somewhat difficult this month with a very sad and unexpected family bereavement putting us all in a bit of turmoil.  However, on a more cheery note, family pulled together and we are now all looking forward to the festive break and some time to ‘gather strength’.  December will be a busy time workwise, but with some precious family time built-in.