The results for my English course were due to be released by 6 August, so it was with some surprise that there was a big notification on the OU website on Tuesday saying they were available. As always, I had that moment of hesitation, not actually wanting to click on the link in case it wasn't good news. However, with much relief, I managed to gain a grade 3 pass. I was never going to get a distinction as my coursework results weren't high enough, and a grade 2 would have been a minor miracle, so I was pleased that I managed more than just a bare pass.
So now it's time to crack on with my final French assignment and then revision for both the written and oral exams. If (and its a very big if) I can get 87% in this assignment, I would still be on track for a distinction, but realistically a grade 2 is more likely! I just want to do as well as I possibly can in order to make sure my final degree classification is ok - I don't want to go through all this and come out with a third as that will be no good for anything!
Need to do as much French as I can and then keep it up over the winter until my level 3 course starts next February - less time on the PC and more on the books I think!!
Thursday, 5 August 2010
Sunday, 1 August 2010
Vive la France! (et les vaches!)
Back home after a tiring but fantastic week in Normandy at the University of Caen for my OU Summer School. My trip started on the last day of term (a day of tears for me as one of my daughters left Primary school and my youngest son left playgroup) when I headed down to London to stay overnight near St Pancras ready for the early Eurostar. Saturday morning at 06.22 the Eurostar departed and I was on my way!
Met up with friends at Gare du Nord and we then all negotiated the RER together to Gare St Lazare for the train to Caen. Have to say that the French rail system is very efficient and everything ran smoothly. Arrived in Caen early afternoon, registered, unpacked (rooms very compact!) and then bought essential supplies in the local shop before beign a proper student and heading for the bar! Saturday evenign mainly involved meeting the other students in my tutorial group, along with my tutor, and having lots of information thrown at us - followed by more wine in the bar later on.
Sunday started early and we were off to the market to chat with the locals and find out more about the French way of life. Have never seen so many 'poulets rotis' in one place! The market was huge and sold pretty much everything you could think off. By the time we got to the office du Tourisme, the pour ladies in there seemd very fed up of endless streams of students through their doors, but they still answered our questions very patiently! More classes and wine followed - a recurring theme of the week! Sunday evening was the Soiree Normande - an opportunity to eat lots of traditional Normandy food, washed down with plenty of cider and Calvados! This was followed by entertainment from Sylvie & Guillame with traditional Normandy music and dance.
The rest of the week followed a very similar pattern - classes in the morning, organsied visits in the afternoon, optional grammar classes and preparation for a presentation on Thursday. Our group - Les etoiles verts - chose as our project 'Les vaches en ville', which was a presentation based on our vision for lots pf painted plastic cows placed around the town of Caen to draw in visitors - much like the current elephants in London. Sadly our group didn't win, but we had lots of fun putting the presentation together and celebrated this in typical style on Thursday evening in the bar!
I was lucky to be with a group of lovely people in a beautiful town - my only regrets being not enough time to see everything I wanted to and the fact that I will never get back the monotonous 2 hours spent in a very stuffy meeting room at the Conseil General. However, I spoke lots of French and have more confidence in my abilities - at least the taxi I booked arrived at the right time and in the right place.
Friday came round very quickly and it was time to say au revoir to everyone - I hope we manage to keep in touch. After heading back to Paris on the train, I then diverted to Maisons Lafitte to spend a lovely evening with the Byrnes. After a trip to the market in the morning I headed back into Paris for a wander round, although my planned route was slightly ambitious as Rue Lafayette was far longer than I imagined from the map! However, I did make it to Galleries Lafayette for some retail therapy before heading back to Gare du Nord and my Eurostar home.
Although glad to be home, I had a fabulous week and am determined to finish this course with a good grade, so next step is my final assignment due in a month, then the final push for both exams. I need to keep up with my spoken French somehow and use every opportunity to improve.
And after chatting to the OU Learning Advisor, I also need to speak to the local university about the PGCE as it appears that the OU degree may not be sufficient for the PGCE I want to do...nothing is ever straightforward! It seems I may need to rethink my plans for the future - update to follow!
Met up with friends at Gare du Nord and we then all negotiated the RER together to Gare St Lazare for the train to Caen. Have to say that the French rail system is very efficient and everything ran smoothly. Arrived in Caen early afternoon, registered, unpacked (rooms very compact!) and then bought essential supplies in the local shop before beign a proper student and heading for the bar! Saturday evenign mainly involved meeting the other students in my tutorial group, along with my tutor, and having lots of information thrown at us - followed by more wine in the bar later on.
Sunday started early and we were off to the market to chat with the locals and find out more about the French way of life. Have never seen so many 'poulets rotis' in one place! The market was huge and sold pretty much everything you could think off. By the time we got to the office du Tourisme, the pour ladies in there seemd very fed up of endless streams of students through their doors, but they still answered our questions very patiently! More classes and wine followed - a recurring theme of the week! Sunday evening was the Soiree Normande - an opportunity to eat lots of traditional Normandy food, washed down with plenty of cider and Calvados! This was followed by entertainment from Sylvie & Guillame with traditional Normandy music and dance.
The rest of the week followed a very similar pattern - classes in the morning, organsied visits in the afternoon, optional grammar classes and preparation for a presentation on Thursday. Our group - Les etoiles verts - chose as our project 'Les vaches en ville', which was a presentation based on our vision for lots pf painted plastic cows placed around the town of Caen to draw in visitors - much like the current elephants in London. Sadly our group didn't win, but we had lots of fun putting the presentation together and celebrated this in typical style on Thursday evening in the bar!
I was lucky to be with a group of lovely people in a beautiful town - my only regrets being not enough time to see everything I wanted to and the fact that I will never get back the monotonous 2 hours spent in a very stuffy meeting room at the Conseil General. However, I spoke lots of French and have more confidence in my abilities - at least the taxi I booked arrived at the right time and in the right place.
Friday came round very quickly and it was time to say au revoir to everyone - I hope we manage to keep in touch. After heading back to Paris on the train, I then diverted to Maisons Lafitte to spend a lovely evening with the Byrnes. After a trip to the market in the morning I headed back into Paris for a wander round, although my planned route was slightly ambitious as Rue Lafayette was far longer than I imagined from the map! However, I did make it to Galleries Lafayette for some retail therapy before heading back to Gare du Nord and my Eurostar home.
Although glad to be home, I had a fabulous week and am determined to finish this course with a good grade, so next step is my final assignment due in a month, then the final push for both exams. I need to keep up with my spoken French somehow and use every opportunity to improve.
And after chatting to the OU Learning Advisor, I also need to speak to the local university about the PGCE as it appears that the OU degree may not be sufficient for the PGCE I want to do...nothing is ever straightforward! It seems I may need to rethink my plans for the future - update to follow!
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Inspirational Day
Spent a fantastic day today at a Languages Conference, with our lovely languages teacher, organised by the local Primary Languages team. It was lovely to see languages in action - the Theatre Sans Frontieres was brilliant. It is such a shame that we don't have any money in the school budget to pay for things like that. I also really enjoyed the ideas for a Languages Day, which we are planning on adapting for our school Language Day in September. The children would love it - we just need to get the rest of the staff on board now!
I also went to a workshop which looked at languages in secondary schools and feel that this is definitely the area I want to head for. On the down side, I also found out today the the local University is not running the Student Associates Scheme for MFL at secondary as their funding has been cut, meaning my plan of spending some quality time in a secondary school has disappeared. I will have to find another route in now.
Anyway, my head is now buzzing with all the things that can be done with languages and I just want the opportunity to put them into practise. Need to get my head down and ensure a good degree classification and really improve my language skills so that I am employable!
I also went to a workshop which looked at languages in secondary schools and feel that this is definitely the area I want to head for. On the down side, I also found out today the the local University is not running the Student Associates Scheme for MFL at secondary as their funding has been cut, meaning my plan of spending some quality time in a secondary school has disappeared. I will have to find another route in now.
Anyway, my head is now buzzing with all the things that can be done with languages and I just want the opportunity to put them into practise. Need to get my head down and ensure a good degree classification and really improve my language skills so that I am employable!
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Where did the last month go?
Clearly I was busier than I thought, as I haven't managed to post here for a month! The last month seems to have been a blur of revision as I attempted to remember enough to survive a three hour exam on Understanding the English Language! No idea how I did, although I did manage to keep writing for all three hours if that means anything.
So now I'm playing catch up on my French course, which was severly neglected during my revision time, although thankfully I still managed a decent score on the assignment which was cobbled together in amongst learning linguists and theorists! With less than five weeks until I head to Caen for my Summer School I need to get my French back up to speed as quickly as possible. A school French course has left me feeling confident at leading French lessons at Primary level, and the feedback from the native speakers who came in on the second afternoon was positive as well, which was lovely. I am also applying for a job shadowing opportunity in Toulouse, which would be fantastic experience as well as being really useful for the school, as we would gain a link with a school there. I need to apply for funding for the trip, but have a twilight session next week which gives more details.
So - onwards! Have put the English course behind me (until I know if I need to resit!) and need to spend as much time as possible on French. Amazon love me - I have bought so many DVDs, books and CDs it is ridiculous - now I just need to find time to watch / read / listen to them!
So now I'm playing catch up on my French course, which was severly neglected during my revision time, although thankfully I still managed a decent score on the assignment which was cobbled together in amongst learning linguists and theorists! With less than five weeks until I head to Caen for my Summer School I need to get my French back up to speed as quickly as possible. A school French course has left me feeling confident at leading French lessons at Primary level, and the feedback from the native speakers who came in on the second afternoon was positive as well, which was lovely. I am also applying for a job shadowing opportunity in Toulouse, which would be fantastic experience as well as being really useful for the school, as we would gain a link with a school there. I need to apply for funding for the trip, but have a twilight session next week which gives more details.
So - onwards! Have put the English course behind me (until I know if I need to resit!) and need to spend as much time as possible on French. Amazon love me - I have bought so many DVDs, books and CDs it is ridiculous - now I just need to find time to watch / read / listen to them!
Monday, 17 May 2010
Revision, or procrastination?
Hmm, revision isn't going well! Whenever I sit down with the aim of revising, I manage to find so many more interesting things to do - like ironing! I can't keep putting of revising, as in 4 weeks time the exam will be over, so I really need to get stuck in. But it is so demoralising when I go back through the books and can't remember anything!
Clearly I need to hone my revision skills; a study skills session at the weekend didn't really help as I was hoping it would. My current plan is to complete my Glossary of 100 terms that have to be learned (almost done), and try to learn them using index cards and practising writing out the definitions. Then I need to identify and understand the analytical frameworks - I was rather demoralised by some posts on the OU forum where everyone else had loads of great ideas but I had none! Then it's revising the blocks - I'm aiming for 2 out of 4 to revise as thoroughly as I can and then maybe having a read-through of the other 2.
I'm trying to be proactive in my revision - writing notes and making mind maps (I hate those things!) rather than just reading. Notes are appearing on the kitchen cupboards to try and prompt my failing memory, much to the children's amusement.
I would probably benefit from somebody turning off my Internet connection when I am supposed to be revising, as it is too tempting to check e-mails and OU forums then getting sidetracked for half an hour before getting back to the books! And when the weather is sunny, as it was today, going for a walk is a welcome distraction. I would head to the library to revise, but would probably end up reading a novel rather than my textbooks!
Somewhere in amongst this revision, I have a French essay to submit - haven't looked at the French books for a couple of weeks now! C'est la vie!
Clearly I need to hone my revision skills; a study skills session at the weekend didn't really help as I was hoping it would. My current plan is to complete my Glossary of 100 terms that have to be learned (almost done), and try to learn them using index cards and practising writing out the definitions. Then I need to identify and understand the analytical frameworks - I was rather demoralised by some posts on the OU forum where everyone else had loads of great ideas but I had none! Then it's revising the blocks - I'm aiming for 2 out of 4 to revise as thoroughly as I can and then maybe having a read-through of the other 2.
I'm trying to be proactive in my revision - writing notes and making mind maps (I hate those things!) rather than just reading. Notes are appearing on the kitchen cupboards to try and prompt my failing memory, much to the children's amusement.
I would probably benefit from somebody turning off my Internet connection when I am supposed to be revising, as it is too tempting to check e-mails and OU forums then getting sidetracked for half an hour before getting back to the books! And when the weather is sunny, as it was today, going for a walk is a welcome distraction. I would head to the library to revise, but would probably end up reading a novel rather than my textbooks!
Somewhere in amongst this revision, I have a French essay to submit - haven't looked at the French books for a couple of weeks now! C'est la vie!
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Is Primary for me?
Don't get me wrong - I really enjoy my job as a Learning Support Assistant. However there are times when I think that working as a Primary School teacher may not be for me, and today was one of those days! I have no problem working with the children on literacy and numeracy, can get stuck into science, geography and history and, of course, relish the language sessions! Yet I come unstuck when it comes to practical sessions.
Today the class was finishing off a session on Roald Dahl that we have been working on for a few weeks. The children have written their own scenes for the books they have been reading and have made puppets and scenery so that they can perform the scene. I find the art / DT lessons so frustrating - leaving the children to try and resolve problems for themselves when I want to get stuck in and tell them how to sort things out! I find it difficult to step back and keep quiet! Plus the whole lack of structure of that kind of lesson is something I struggle with. Clearly an area I need to work on if I am to succeed in Primary, or maybe that is my cue ot look more at Secondary??
Today the class was finishing off a session on Roald Dahl that we have been working on for a few weeks. The children have written their own scenes for the books they have been reading and have made puppets and scenery so that they can perform the scene. I find the art / DT lessons so frustrating - leaving the children to try and resolve problems for themselves when I want to get stuck in and tell them how to sort things out! I find it difficult to step back and keep quiet! Plus the whole lack of structure of that kind of lesson is something I struggle with. Clearly an area I need to work on if I am to succeed in Primary, or maybe that is my cue ot look more at Secondary??
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Exam worries
In just under 5 weeks time, I am due to sit an exam for the first time in 15 years! Three hours of writing, in silence - I'm panicking already. Have started revision, but it really doesn't seem to be sinking in. How did I remember things when I was younger? I guess I didn't have so many other things floating round in my head and I could concentrate just on what I was trying to remember, rather than thinking about the housework and laundry, or whether I have enough food in the house for the hungry hoardes! (Answer - probably not!)
I am trying to revise 'properly' with lots of sticky notes, highlighters, writing things down, trying to construct mindmaps and so on, which is a far cry from the days of 'O' levels when I just had a read through of the books and miraculously the information stuck. My brain and memory have clearly suffered over the years.
The other thing that is suffering is my time spent with the children - studying and revision seems to be taking precedent over everything else and the children are fending for themselves rather a lot! I keep trying to convince myself that it will all be worth it when I have finished, although the thought of packing it all in and applying for a job at the local supermarket has its appeal as well at times.
Ah well, back to the books and a session on 'Accent as a social status' - can't wait!
I am trying to revise 'properly' with lots of sticky notes, highlighters, writing things down, trying to construct mindmaps and so on, which is a far cry from the days of 'O' levels when I just had a read through of the books and miraculously the information stuck. My brain and memory have clearly suffered over the years.
The other thing that is suffering is my time spent with the children - studying and revision seems to be taking precedent over everything else and the children are fending for themselves rather a lot! I keep trying to convince myself that it will all be worth it when I have finished, although the thought of packing it all in and applying for a job at the local supermarket has its appeal as well at times.
Ah well, back to the books and a session on 'Accent as a social status' - can't wait!
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