i am evil Homer!

Woo Hoo!!!

Well, somewhat earlier than expected, I got my assignment results back today!!!

I am one happy happy bunny!

Basically, I got 78/100 for my Dr Faustus assignment and 82/100 for my Cezanne one - so both grade B passes, so I'm thrilled with that!

I was slightly surprised that I'd got a better mark for Cezanne than Faustus because I really struggled doing that one and I really felt my Faustus answer was better, but now having read through the comments from the tutor I can see where the good and bad points are and why I got what I did.

So the next stage is to go back and re-work parts of the assignment with the tutors comments, and that will be assignment 2 - should be fairly straightforward.

What's good is that I was only 3 points off an A grade for the Cezanne piece, so I think I know what I need to do to get there when I do the stalin/plato assignment.

Happy happy joy joy

Of Stalin and sources

Well, Tuesday saw my next tutorial, and it seems like no time at all since the last one, probably because it was only a couple of weeks ago :-)

Anyhow, it went, I feel, very well indeed! I had had a conversation with Jane, my tutor, after the last tutorial, and had offered to give her some of the Stalin resources I had access to at work. (As I'm sure you all know by now, I work in the education department of the National Archives so historical sources are my "thang")

We used several of these sources in the tutorial (http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/heroesandvillains ) and I got to help a lot of people out with their understanding of how sources work and how they tend to be classified.

The tutor also told us that the assignments should be with us by the weekend - so phew!

Aargh!

This waiting is killing me!  As most of you will realise, I submitted my first TMA a couple of weeks ago.  The closing date for submissions was last Friday (the 20th) and now I'm in that horrible limbo of being unable to do any more about it, but also of not knowing how I've done!

I'd like to think that I did a passable attempt at writing the two essays, but in all honesty I haven't a bloody clue!  It's been so long since I wrote anything resembling a university piece of work that I don't know if I'd recognise one if it jumped up and bit me in the bum!

I was kind of hoping that I would get the results back before tonights tutorial, but I suppose, in fairness, the tutor did have 20 odd assignments to mark, so it's a bit unfair expecting them all to be done before today, and I'd have been mad if she maked my assignment that I submitted early then I'd wanted to change it!

So it's nose to the grindstone in the meantime and hope that all went fine - I'm sure I'm worrying over nothing, but it's just that nasty situation!

Anyway, I've done most of Stalin this week (although I didn't get all of it done as I was a bit poorly sick at the weekend and it went a bit adrift) but it will be nice to be up to speed with the tutorials for a bit... 

I'm off home this weekend for a week to see my folks (my Dad is having his hip replaced as I type!) so hopefully that will give me a good opportunity to get myself a bit further ahead with the old studying - and will give me an excuse to escape from the mother for a while :-)

So the blogs might be a bit light over the next week, but I'll do my best!  I'll be back in time for the day school next Saturday, but I haven't yet decided which one I should go to - my tutor will be in Cambridge, and that's the one they have sent all the bumf for, but Chelmsford is actually nearer, and is probably easier to park at!

I'll see what people think tonight - what is everyone else doing?

Duhn duhn duhn

So my first day school is just around the corner - 4th April in Chelmsford - and I'm pretty well looking forward to it.

Haven't had an agenda - hopefully will get one at some point, but it will be good anyhow!

Anyone else going?

Hurrah!

I've just had word from work that I'll be presenting one of their lunchtime lectures this year!  I'll be talking for about an hour on a subject that I've been researching, and have decided that my talk will be called "Roll Up, Roll Up": The evolution of the Circus Sideshow.

No prizes for guessing what that's all about then!  But it does give me the opportunity to legitimately bore people with my knowledge about circus freaks!

For those who are unable (or just can't be bothered) to make it to the National Archives, then I'm reliably informed that it will also be podcast, and I'm sure I can slap it up here when it is!

Hmmm

Ah well,the futileness of optimisim rears its head again!  I worked my way through the Faraday module in "da book" and unfortunately, I just found it one of the most dismal boring bits of reading I've done in a long time, and that's saying something.

I thought it was a shame as it's an area I would really like to learn more about, but because it was so dryly written, I lost any interest in it pretty early on.

But nevermind, onwards and upwards as they say... so here goes.  This week is Stalin and his reputation, and fortunately, that's something I've done quite a bit of reading on in the past, so hopefully I should be able to sail through this section.  I know that quite a lot of you out there are struggling with him, so if you need any help just shout, I'll do my best, but no promises!

I can't believe how quickly the diary is filling up for this year already - I can see I'm going to have to start working to rule on my study planner!  To give you an example, about 50% of my studying is done at the weekend - either a Saturday, or a Sunday, or even both if I feel up to it - so here's my diary for the next few weeks...

Next week : Tutorial on Tuesday night, Sat am I have a nail appointment that runs for about 3 hours then Sunday I'm driving home to Scotland for a week as my dad is going in to get his hip replaced.

Week after : In Scotland all week, so limited options for studying there, then Sat 4th is the first of the day schools - Sunday will probably be spent in bed recovering from Mon - Sat!

Week after that : Night out on the Thursday, then staying with a friend Friday and Saturday of the Easter Weekend, there will probably also be a bbq on the Sunday.

So you see where I'm coming from?  and believe me, the weeks run like that pretty much up until the 2nd week in May!  Really do need to get pro-active about the swotting on the train thing.

Student smiles

I came across this and it made me laugh - enjoy...

There's nobody here but us chickens

My stats came through this morning and I was plesantly chuffed to discover that a few people seem to be reading "da blog" so *waves* hello!!

Don't be shy to post comments, argue with me, chat amongst yourselves in the comments, that's kind of what they're there for in this blog!

And feel free to let me know what you think!

'Tis done

Well, I had my postopned tutorial on Tuesday this week, and I was really quite pleased with myself for it. It was a bit of a shame that only 7 of us were there, but I guess folk weren't able to rearange their schedules with just a weeks notice.

We went through the notes for Faustus and Cezanne and what we should be looking for to write the assignment - and I was plesantly surprised thatI seemed to have got my ones pretty much spot on!

Considering I was having a nightmare the other week trying to get my head around the Cezanne assignment, I don't think that's too shabby - although my marks might say different!

I'm onto Faraday now, and I was quite looking forward to doing that bit, however it's proving a bit boring at the moment (although sneeking a look forward in my book it does look like it might get a bit more interesting further on) and then it's on to Stalin which I'm really looking forward to. That's the only reall problem I have with the AA100 course. I know it's designed to give you a flavour of all the arts courses so you can decide what you want to study next as well as giving you the grounding in getting into studying, but I already know what I want to study next! I'm a died in the wool history fan, so looking at all these other sections, as interesting as they may be, is just slightly annoying.

But nonetheless, I'm plodding on and growing in conficence every day, so here's hoping my first set of results is a goodie (submission date is the 20th March, so hopefully I will get the results shortly after that!

hmmmm

Well...

I've been conspiuous by my absence for a couple of weeks, mainly cos I haven't had much to say! Last weekend however, I reached breaking point!

I've been gearing myself up to write my first assignment, and I know it's not due in for another couple of weeks, but I wanted to get it done and dusted and out of the way...

Famous last words!

First off, Dr Faustus, not a lot of problem there, once -kd got my head round writing a short assignment (500 words) and actually just round the writing an assignment bit, no problem! Few re-drafts and Ikve got a more than presentable assignment to hand in, and it's exactly 500 words - result!

So on, with a great deal of optimism, to Cezanne...shouldn't be too much of a problem, my lovely mum, who's an art teacher, wrote me up some notes to help me (I'm a historian, not an art critic!). Wrote up what I thought was the answer, then say back and re-read the question...

HANG ON!!!

It didn't say "use a description" like I thought it did, it said "explain how a description" bugger.

Reading and re-reading the question it's getting less and less clear...

"No problem" thinks I, I've got a tutorial on tuesday I'll ask about it then, but aargh, tutor sick, tutorial postponed!

So I'm sat here waiting for her to get better and answer my questions I've sent her...

Harrumph