Thursday, 17 July 2014

2013/2014 in summary

This year has been my most busiest and hard worked so far!  But it's nearly that time of year again to summarise my efforts in the last year.  There seems to be more here than last year's, which is a great thing!  So here goes...

My Blog

 I started my blog nearly a year ago, August 2013.  This was my first post!  I have shared and talked about many things which I am proud of.  So I wouldn't be writing this summary if I didn't have my blog as a space to share widely!

First aid

 I did a level 3 first aid course back in November 2013.  I'm still learning about it and dealing with calls.  Not as confident as I'd like to be with it, but I'm sure that will grow.  I wrote a little bit about it here.

Events

 In the last few months I have presented at three events:


I've wrote my experience of the first two.  But I in the last three, I have been promoting this which I feel really passionate about in looking into more.  It may lay some foundations for my masters.

Second cohort of L4TLD

 I have delivered and managed a second cohort of the Level 4 Certificate in Technology in Learning Delivery.  I think this may be the last time I do it.  I'm not going to be proactively promoting it.  There;s changes in my job role and there are some new qualifications that may take it's place.  But it has been a great experience for myself and hopefully for the people who did it with me.  When planning the second one I got really excited and then I got really reflective when I was just finishing off the first one.  I received the NIACE Finalist: Digital Practitioner of the Year 2013 from doing what I did with this.

Carpe Diem

 This was the first proper MOOC I had participated in.  It was a really great experience in many kinds, which I shared here and here about it.

Governor

 I was appointed as an Authority Governor back in April 2014 at Shawlands Primary School in Barnsley. I will be taking care of Special Educational Needs of the school as well as decisons on the general functions of the School.  Quite an exciting role to be doing actually!  Not done any work in this area before.  I talked a little bit about being a Governor in this video.

Managing People

 This was my second proper MOOC I participated in, at the same time with finishing off the two courses below.  This was with FutureLearn.  I squeezed this in because my job role is changing and I needed to know more about this.  I mention this a bit further down.

Completed DTLLS

 After two years of doing the Level 5 Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector, I have now completed it and awaiting hopefully a great result!  To date, this is my most proud and highest qualification I have done.  I have exceeded myself in many ways from doing what I have done and the experience I have made myself with it.  Here's the units I did:

  • Continuing personal and professional development
  • Curriculum development for inclusive practice
  • Wider professional practice
  • Enabling learning through assessment
  • Applying theories and principles for planning and enabling learning

Optional units:

  • Developing, using and organising resources within the lifelong learning sector
  • Evaluating learning programmes
  • Identify the learning needs of organisations
  • Delivering employability skills

I could be attending a graduation ceremony for this. The whole cap and gown thing. If so it would really mean a lot to me to be in that moment. But if I achieve my masters, then I would get another opportunity at this.

Completed AVA

 I started the Level 3 Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement in September 2013 alongside my DTLLS.  It made sense as I was fully assessing on my L4TLD course.

It's been very stressful finishing off two qualifications at the same time.  But I hope it proves to be rewarding!

Developing the Technology Enabled Educator curriculum

 I have recently been involved in developing a new qualification, quite like the L4TLD but hopefully better in that it is more focussed on pedagogy.  I have been sharing my wisdom from my L4TLD experiences and putting forward my use of project based learning which has worked well on the second cohort I did.

Job evolution

 My job is evolving right now.  Exactly what is still uncertain.  But the change in our department direction of having apprentices and running a learning design company, it has been said I would be managing the apprentices.  But I would like to get invovled in the quality assurance of the learning products and the courses as well.  It's all very exciting!

Next...

 I will be starting my masters in Technology Enhanced Learning with the University of Huddersfield.  I signed the acceptance straight away when I got my letter.  This is my biggest challenge yet!  Alongside the masters I will be doing the Leading the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practice too.

Overall, this year I have gained so much more independence than I have ever before.  It's like I have really have proved to myself this with these activities and more.  I should have nothing to prove any more, but I feel like I have.

I'm off on holiday next week to the gorgeous Sidari in Corfu, Greece.  I am so desperate for this holiday.  It's been over two years since my last beach holiday!  Here's looking forward to what the next year brings!  It's going to be exciting!

EDIT:  In September 2014, our current university interns Becky Kenworthy, Scott Tolan and Sophia Kings completed their placement.  They left some lovely comments in my card:


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