Well I am not sure what happened to February, it went past in a blur and suddenly it is March and I haven’t put an update in for last month! So I will try and summarise the last two months of blur, in this blog! This term is a busy teaching term for me and whilst much of the direct teaching is now done, students are still needing support to complete written work and the marking process has begun. I actually quite like marking as I see this as one of the few opportunities to interact on a 1:1 basis with students and hopefully honest, supportive feedback will be prove meaningful and developmental.
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!
I am writing this blog, just as we are coming towards the festive break and I really am looking forward to a few days of quiet time with my family; December has been another busy month. At the very beginning of the month, the 1st, I participated, with colleagues from the REACH network in a one-day colloquim at Northumbria University. This was an event organised by ‘Escalate’ the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Education and its focus was on credit-bearing CPD in academia. It was a very interesting event with lots of opportunities for networking. Then later in the month I travelled to Liverpool to participate in the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) annual conference. This was a very large event with a wide range of papers and workshops presented. There were some good social events too, including a reception with the ‘Cheatles’ , a Beatles tribute band – well, what else would you see in Liverpool? As well as being at conferences, I have been doing alot of preparation for teaching in January and February, when I will be working with employment-based part-time students on a number of undergraduate modules. Consequently, my thesis has not progress greatly during the past couple of weeks, although I have been doing some more reading and planning in preparation for a good ‘onslaught’ in the New Year – ever optimistic! I am also aware, as noted in last month’s blog, I still haven’t done more work on this website….the ‘to do’ list continues to be a ‘live document’, as they say!
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….
As predicted, November has been a hectic month. Just as it feels as though things should settle down towards the end of the calendar year and the festive break, so it gets busier and more frantic! I seem to have been away alot in November, both for teaching, attending external exam boards as external examiner and presenting research work at conference. I have again, this month, been supporting part-time, open-learning undergraduate students with final dissertation work, including individual tutorial support and group-led taught sessions. I have also been working with teaching colleagues to share some of my learning and experience of using the NVivo qualitative data analysis software for my research work. I participated in two external events during the month; with REACH network colleagues I presented some or our work at a workshop at the annual SEDA (Staff Educational Development Association) conference at the Aston Conference Centre in Birmingham; then I attended a SRHE (Society for Research into Higher Education) event at Edinburgh exploring ‘policy discourse and local enactments’. I also took part in a very interactive day at the University of LIncoln exploring our Learning Landscapes agenda further, ‘Working in partnership, working with partner colleges’. Between all of this, I completed first good drafts of chapters 1, 2 and 3 of my thesis and have started planning the next chapters for a new year on-slaught! Therefore, I have not had much space to do any work on furthering this website, but it remains written large on my ‘to do’ list!
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.
