And breath ......

Exactly a week ago today, I was sat right where I am now, in my office sifting through emails after having taught the 07:45 ballet class after a delayed train and not getting home till nearly 1am. As you can probably imagine, coffee was my best friend that day.

It's only after such a busy week, that I have had time to reflect upon the past 18 months and it is starting to sink in that it's all finished!! There have been times over the period where I have seriously asked myself what on earth am I doing? Did I seriously think that I would have time to do all this work? but do you know what it's all been worth it.

Finally thoughts on the oral presentation ..... after thinking that we were going to be sat in the corridor to do our presentation with no room to go too. It was all okay in the end! and also wasn't half as scary as I had built it up to be in my mind, but I was so glad that I was there in person. For me it did symbolise the end!

So from me - Congratulations!!!!! to all my fellow module 3 (I'll see you all at graduation) To the other modules, you may feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel, but there is!!! keep going and it will be so worth it!!! :)

Coming to the end .....

As we enter the final week of study time ( for the final submission on Friday eeek!!! ) I thought it would be an appropriate time to reflect on the past 18 months.

I am feeling a sense of achievement, not only for the fact that I have (hopefully) completed a degree, but that fact that I have also managed to juggle a full teaching timetable alongside boarding duties and fitting in trying to do work as and when. It has not been easy at times, and sometimes all I have wanted to do is curl up into a ball and forget about the whole thing. However, I have stuck with it through many tears and tantrums and the support from fellow BAPP students and people at home.

To all the module 3's I hope that you are enjoying this final week, and not feeling too stressed. I am looking forward to seeing what you have all been up to at the oral presentations next week.

To all other modules - good luck with the rest of your journey. Keep going there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it will all be worth it in the end :)

Something I think we will all appreciate

I've seen this floating around the past couple of days. Feel free to have a gander :)


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/30/science-classes-future-children-dance-schools?CMP=share_btn_fb

Remembering how far we have come .....

So as well as going through the re drafting process this week, I have also started to plan my oral presentation.

Presenting and speaking in public is something that I feel fairly confident about doing, however (again, ever the drama queen!) I have had another slight meltdown about this. (Anyone who is a regular to my blog, are you starting to see a pattern!)

Anyway as always I have had to take a step back and remember that yes, of course the oral part is so important, but it is a celebration of how far we havd come over that past year and what we have achieved, and from this what new adventures we will have.

I have taken some time this week to go over reader 7 yet again to double check that I have everything prepared and to ensure that I will be using the presentation in the the appropriate way.

I have to remember that although I may not always get my direct point across in my academic writing, this oral presentation is my chance to verbally explain what I have been doing and how I have been going about it.

I have to say I am really looking forward to the presentation day to be able to see and have an insight into what everyone else has been working on.

And the roller coaster begins again!!

Having received feedback from my draft, I have am now again going through that motion of OH MY GOODNESS....

Now if you hadn't already gathered, I am a bit of a drama queen and always think the worst and that what I have done isn't good enough, however I do think that is something to do with the industry I am in, and being creative. I do find that a lot of my friends who are involved in the Arts are also perfectionists and tend to get overly anxious when things are not just so...

However upon reflection (which I now seems to have fully got the hang of) things really are not as bad as they seem. A draft is a draft for a reason, so you can then go away and improve on it to make it better, and I do have to keep constantly keep reminding myself of this.

Another thing that I have found difficult (and I am hoping that I am not alone on this) is getting my point across directly in my writing. It is all there in my head, and then when I come to write it down in an academic writing style, I go to pieces. Very much like in an exam situation. Don't get me wrong what I write down makes sense, but I just seem to go all round the houses to get to the point, which can be and quite rightly. Very disjointed for the reader. I would be interested to know if anyone has a similar struggle and has a way of coping with this??

For now it's presentation prep! Hoping everyone is getting on okay!

Analysing, Reviewing, Reflecting, Drafting, (bringing it all together .... just about!)

So as I am nearing the end of my first draft, I just though I would do a quick little blog. :)

For me, the drafting process has been someone of a challenge, not because I didn't know what to write or how to write it. I just feel like I have so much information going on in my small little brain that I was struggling to get it all out and down in some kind of literate English! Anyone else felt like this? I am also feeling rather sorry for my poor boyfriend who has had to endlessly listen to me rant at him to help me re draft my writing. Now despite the obvious eye rolling and moaning from him, it's actually been a massive help being able to speak it out loud to someone first before writing it down.

The part which I have found the hardest (which I am sure I am not alone on this on!) is the literature review!! Now I have had a good bash at it, and I keep being really hard on my self as I know that it won't be perfect, but I have had to have strong words with myself and keep telling myself that this is what the drafting process is for! it's not going to be perfect right now!

Anyway that's just a quick little check in from me, would love to hear how others are getting on. Module 3's we are on the home straight!!!

x

When the pieces finally begin to fit ....

Luckily for me, this week is that start of my much anticipated month long break away from work! (however other work will be taking place during this time! "The home straight!) For now I am feeling relatively calm about the whole thing which is what I am going explain below, along side where I currently am in this whole process.

On Wednesday this week, myself, Lauren and Megan had a really good Module 3 lunch time session with Paula. Firstly we discussed where we were up to in the whole process and again going back to the image of the arrow, and what stages we were up too. We were all up too around stage 4 having completed research and onto bringing it all together and analysing our findings. However Megan made a really good point that she keeps going back to stage 2 and is still looking through literature, I am also still doing this, and that's okay. I am quite a logical person, and sometimes I find it really hard to go back to places as I feel that once I have ticked it off the list it is complete. This is a skill that I have definitely developed through these modules - it IS okay to go back and re - visit and look it to things further.

During this session, we also spent quite a bit of time looking into the word that I have been dreading up until now ....... the artifact!! I do believe that Paula has put the slides of her presentation up on her blog, but she gave us some really good examples and explained that the artifact MUST be to our audience, and we must be clear on what we were presenting and who we were aiming it at. e.g. fellow practitioners etc. We each had a turn at "rehearsing" what we potentially may like to do for our artifact and how we may present it. Only a very very rough idea, but again it highlighted the importance of drafting and re- drafting work.

A really good point that Paula made that when you think about it is so simple but so easy to forget! - put EVERYTHING in your bibliography, even if you haven't necessarily used it in your academic writing. It maybe a documentary that you have watched or a newspaper article you have read that may have given you some thoughts and ideas along the way.

So where am I up too. As I have mentioned in a previous blog, due to term dates and holidays etc my main focus up until now has been research! getting it carried out and sorted. I can now carry on and work my way through analysing this and getting it written up (Saturday afternoon job with a cup of tea!) but this week I have had what you may call an epiphany! (maybe a strong word, but I am going to go with the flow!) My analogy for this whole process is a jigsaw puzzle. You sit for hours and hours with a 500 piece jigsaw of the world and get frustrated as you don't know what goes where and you are all over the place. Then suddenly, after sometime it clicks and the pieces begin to finally come together!

Now I am not saying at all by any means that I have completed my jigsaw however, I do feel that I am well under way and under control with completing the puzzle. As many of you will know especially module 2/3 this feeling could change at ANY given moment, but for now I am going to enjoy it, embrace it and as we say in Yorkshire - "Grab a brew and crack on!"

Would love to hear how others are getting on what ever module you may be.