Tales from a Teacher's life

 Here I am reflecting on differences between coaching and what we understand as tutoring in universities. 

As dancer, I was coached. I was guided and supported to achieve a certain goal, to do a certain step or trick. It was of course a learning experience, but it was very confined as I had to match expectations. Well, ballet for sure has them. And then again, yes there was spaces for interpretation opening up. 

Coaching is very much an approach where there is a goal and I work with someone to achieve the goal. I repeat steps or sequences endlessly. I get more feedback and improve. I like learning this way as I am used to it from my entire childhood and teenage years. Anything to do with movement or requiring rote learning, this is where I go back to that style. 

 And yet, tutoring at university was amazing and eye opening. It did not repeatedly give me feedback on the same bit of work. It did not let me repeatedly go round and round with the same thing. I got what I needed - actually far more than that, but I will talk about that later. What I want to focus on is that I was not spoon fed. I could find my own solution to something. I felt free. 

Tutoring - especially with dissertations and the thesis - was a conversation with an experienced person who gave me riddles to solve. In the moment, I could not, but I loved running off and finding MY way to solve them, having MY ideas expressed and not having to fit a mould. 

 When I think back at situations of learning, I have to also admit that yes, I did the proper student thing too.  I wanted the tutor to give me the solution without me doing the work. Whenever that happened, it was frustrating. I was grumpy. When I finally took initiative of my own learning of my own approaches to it, then it all got interesting. 

So, when you now embark on this journey, bear in mind that we tutor you. We will not give you the answer, we will let you find yours. 

We hope you will enjoy the freedom and fascination of exploring knowledge fascinating.

LIbrary Advice - Logging into Koretext

 Message from our Librarian to support you into getting access to Koretext 

Students will not see their Kortexts until 24-48 hours after they have successfully enrolled.

 

Once enrolled, students should be able to access Kortext in 2 ways:

 

• Through My Learning – on their module page, on the right hand side of the screen (they may have to click a little arrow at the top) there is the ‘Personal etextbooks’ box. They should be able to ‘click here for your books’ and access the Kortext dashboard that way.

 

 

 

• Through the Kortext login page: https://app.kortext.com/identity/signin for this they will need their university email address and the password sent to their email address from Kortext (this will be different to their university password). The process is as follows:
• go to the login page https://app.kortext.com/identity/signin (and best to do this in a different browser or incognito window)
• sign in with their university email address
• click next 
• DO NOT sign in through your institution, rather, ‘sign in with a different account’
• sign in with email
• enter university email address and your Kortext password – this will have been sent to their university email address (if they don’t know this click forgot password and go through that process)

 

Welcome to the New BAPAP Cohort 2024/25

 Welcome to the new cohort.

I am so excited for you all to start on the programme and what a lovely diverse group you are. In the coming weeks, we will delve into reflections about our practice and how we can connect it to academic discourses. 

For now, start to explore the virtual learning environment. 

Try to find the Programme Handbook and the ACI3001 Module Handbook (colloquially Module 1) 

Another thing to look at it trying to find materials in the library through Library search. 

We embark soon on a journey of discovery and I hope you will thoroughly enjoy it.

Graduation ceremonies

 

Dear BAPP / BAPAP Community,

We are getting more emails regarding graduation ceremonies and so I wanted to quickly email with the information I have so far.

Graduation ceremonies take place at Hendon campus in the week beginning of 24th June.

Unfortunately, I cannot give the precise date as we have not been given it yet. I normally receive it late spring. I will tell you the moment I know for sure.

The event comprises:

- arrival on campus and collection of your gowns

- photo opportunity in your gown (either before or after graduation)

- graduation ceremony with you walking across stage to everyone's cheers

- reception with drinks after graduation (more photos and exited tutors)

I cannot give you any times for the above or precise itinerary as this will depend what time of the day our ceremony will be.

I hope it will give you at least some information. The moment, I know more I will be in touch to let you know. If you need anything or have more questions, please email me.

Best wishes,

Astrid

Start of Module 3

 

Dear BAPAP Community,

I hope this finds you well and that you had some breathing space with our tiny break.

Next Monday 18.00 GMT we start our lectures again and delve into Module 3. Zoom link is the same as always.

I am looking forward to seeing you all.

Best wishes,

Astrid

Urgent submission notice

 

Dear BAPAP Community,

Liam and I experimented to submit a Powerpoint slide show with embedded videos and sounds as Module 2 assessment yesterday. Big thank you to Liam for helping me with it.

It turns out that I only receive slides, but no audio or video on one portal. The other one does not accept powerpoint slides at all.

Please submit video files only and record the presentation as Mp4 files.

If anyone has a slideshow with embedded videos, then use zoom to record the screen whilst running it. You are not required to redo anything you already have. Just record the slide show.

I am aware you all want super flashy presentations, but bear in mind that we do not mark you on your filming, editing etc. We need to be able to see and hear you and any slides or visual materials.

If anyone has problems submitting, please immediately drop me an email so that I can help and advise.

Best wishes,

Astrid

Presentation of Research proposal Module 2

 Module 2 and the focus on your research proposal are a good point to reflect on what you consider important to your practice. 

 

The Ethics applications will be reviewed by us tutors and then by the Ethics Committee. So for now, give us some time and we get in touch should be we need anything, clarification or changes. 

 

Your presentation assessment is due on 29 Jan 2024 Kaltura video upload by 23.59 GMT

 

 Presentation format:

- 15 mins recorded oral presentation 

- ensure that you are visible for the duration of the presentation 

- upload to Kaltura media Dropbox on Myunihub

 

Presentation contents: 

 - introduce yourself and your topic

- outline why you wish to explore this topic / why it is important to explore

- Literature review: outline who researched this topic already? What main points of their work do you take for your research? How will this helps you? 

[we know you are still continuing to research, but you can already refer to some materials that are important and let us know why and how you intend to use them] 

- data collection and ethical considerations: outline what data you will collect, who are your participants and what can they contribute to your research. Consider what you do with this data (ie how do you think you will use it?) and talk about any other ethical considerations in relation to your data collection, participants or research

- Summarise your presentation (very briefly = 1 sentencce) and talk about what you hope to find 

Do not forget to add a slide with your bibliography

I am allowed to share a draft presentation with you. It is uploaded to Myunihub in the folder containing samples of student work  https://mdx.mrooms.net/mod/url/view.php?id=2835506&forceview=1 

Please note this is a draft. It is good, but too long and will still be worked on to finalise. Think yourself of what you might to differently or how you think it can be made just a notch better. And think a big thank you to your peer for allowing me to make it available. 

Final point. I reposted the talk on how to give presentations. It gives the above plus a little bit on how to present. Have a look in the Zoom recordings folder.