Oops

Well, so much for my starting to blog again.

I was a bit rubbish at that, wasn't I!

Well, it's time for me to start up again I think.

A lot has happened since I started up this blog. I passed my original module (AA100), had a baby, because of the said baby, dropped out of my second module (A200), then sat and passed my third (A310, Film and TV History)). That happened back in October 2011.

It had been my plan to take a bit of time out after this last module, as it's quite hard work studying with a little one (the starting to study at 8pm gets a bit wearing after a while!), however the new fee rules for the Open University meant that I needed to pick up another course starting before April 2012.

Here I hit a snag. Originally I'd been signed on to study for a BA in History, however, one of the conditions of the continuing fee agreement was that I had to be studying a module that led directly to my chosen degree path. All the history modules start in Feb, and by the time I had decided/realised I needed to pick up another module, I'd missed the registration dates.

So I had to make a decision, do I bale out completely, just ignore the money I've put in so far and go back and start again at the expensive rate when I can afford it, or do I bite the bullet, change my degree to an Open qualification and pick up a different course.

So I decided. In February of this year (2012), I start A174, a short course on writing fiction.

Now I'm no longer constrained to history modules, I've discovered a raft of other areas I'm interested in reading, and with the benefits of the open degree I can do this.

It was a bit of a decision to chew over, but in the end I decided that as I'm only doing the degree because I don't have one, that it really didn't matter what "flavour" of degree I had, so long as I had one.

So I'll probably go quiet for now, but the course website opens up on the 25th, and apparently the resource pack was posted out on the 10th, so I'm sure I'll be back once they have appeared, using this space as a bit of a sandpit to test out ideas, and maybe even publish some!

Nothing to do with the course

but I found this and it says exactly what I often find myself struggling to tell people

OmgOmgOmg

Well, I got TMA003 back...

I got a B!!!!!! How the F*£% did I manage that :-)

Not that I'm complaning!

TMA002

Well...

I'm a bit gobsmacked really...

I got TMA002 back last night (which is the reflective one about how I did on assignment 001) and I got 84% for it!  This is proving to be more than slightly surprising!

I wasn't confident about it at all as I'd had such a hard job fitting what I wanted to say into those 200 words (and the way the assignment booklet spelled it out, it seemed that I should actually be using less than that!) 

But I'm happy with 84% - that's (I think) another B!

I'm not so convinced I'm going to do too well on assignment 003 tho - something in my gut tells me!

I spent too long dithering about it and not getting it written properly, so when I did finally get my finger our and write it, it was a bit rushed.  I also wasn't quite sure of what the questions were asking for, and because I missed my last tutorial, I was a bit more in the dark than usual!

But I'm looking on the bright side.  I'm figuring that I can have a duff mark in there, so long as I do allright in the others...

I hope

Oh Dear

I'm terribly sorry, I'm being very lax with this blog at the moment - it's not my fault, honestly, it's just that there's not enough hours in the day/days in the week.

I've been having one of those times when I haven't been able to stop for about the last 6 weeks with visitors, weddings, financial people, legal stuff, you know the things, not to mention working like a banshee at the National Archives to try and get cracking on with my project!

Anyhow, update wise, I missed my last tutorial (boo hiss).  I hate doing that, but come the tuesday I was just so cream crackered that I knew I'd be no use to man nor beast!

I've written up assignment 2 - and boy that was horrid - 200 words was nowhere near the amount I needed to critically reflect on what I'd changed from assignment 1 - I only managed 2 paragraps initally - so with a lot of re-writing and vagary I've managed to get within the word limit.

I'm cleaning up the stalin and plato assignments now- there's 2 people I never thought would be sharing an assignment page - and surprisingly I've found it quite easy to get my head round Plato - but that might all change once I get my assignments back!

Well, I'm planning on getting them finished up and sent off on Thursday - then it's back to the grindstone for me, I've got a couple of clear weekends before I head off on my road trip...

Hmm

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?