Notice Board:

 

Please ensure that you follow my Blog where I can post messages if other systems fail. https://bapap.blogspot.com/

Do ensure that I am able to follow your blogs. At the moment, it does not seem possible for me to do so with everyone. I have a blog post with step by step guides on to activate the function should you need support.

Monday 6 Nov

I will leave after the end of the session so that you can chat as a group to feed back for our Programme Voice group meeting. You can also elect your Student Voice Leader then or use the link by MDXSU to self nominate for election. Should the link not work anymore, let me know who your Student Voice leader is and I will pass it on to the Student Union. https://www.surveyhero.com/c/studentvoiceleader2023 

Tuesday 14 Nov 18.00 - 19.30 Session with Peter Thomas on structuring essays.

As agreed, Peter will return for a session specific on structuring essays. We will record it should anyone need to miss it.

I am working on getting you examples for reflective essays, but as students hold the copyright need their permission to use them. At the moment, I have not heard back and I am contacting them again to see if they agree for you to have anonymized work as samples.

Submission of Drafts:

Email your drafts to your supervisor directly. Please label files according to the guidance in your ACI3001 Module Handbook. It will help us identify which is yours and keep track.

Drafts are not yet full essays. Do not worry about having to submit the full essay and having it perfectly written. A section that shows us how you go about writing and where you already try to reference is good. We will look at it and discuss it in a tutorial. This means identifying where you can improve, correcting references and seeing how you will continue with the rest.

If there are problems in contacting supervisors, please let me know and I see how I can help. If there are other problems, again let me know.

IT joys

 IT joys are the most joyful joys.

So, whilst giving a tutorial to one of my students, I got locked out of my email, Unihub and other portals. Please bear with me whilst I sort it, but feel free to use my social media to contact me. 

instagram

@dr_astrid_bernkopf_mdx

@bapap_mdx

I will pick up direct messages for the time being and let you know once I am back in the regular MDX channels. Please pass this to others on your course and accept my apologies for delays in posting lectures.

Tales from a teacher's life: the fear of tutorials

Before I tell the story from a teacher's perspective, let me reassure you, I felt equally nervous and even scared. 

What is it with first tutorials and students being able and encouraged to voice their own views and opinions? It is so hard and why are we scared? 

It has a lot to do with how we have been raised and us not realising that we are in a different environment. 

Schools and the systems that give us grades instill fear in us of getting it wrong. We might fail, if we don't know the right answer. Add this to us being performers and artists who cannot get it wrong on stage or live on television, then this makes for the perfect perfectionist. 

It has been drilled into us and we live up to it for years. 

Universities and degree study, however, values our own opinions and views. Yes, we need to back it up, but it is our views. And even more yes, we can contradict eminent scholars. 

What I learned as student was that my tutors loved it:

when I jumped over the fear and did my own thing. 

When I had my own ideas and backed them up. 

When I somehow knew that eminent scholar's view was 'wrong' and did not rest to learn and work until I could prove it. 

They loved it and I trembled when it was feedback time only to discover my fear was unfounded.

What I learned as teacher is to make sure tutorials are save places. We bounce ideas back and forth and can contradict each other. No problem - it is just a debate. It is not about how I would do the research or project, but it is about me facilitating someone else have their vision come to life. Yes, I will give you brain teasers to ponder over, but these help to advance your thinking. 

So, when you have your tutorials, bear in mind that universities foster creativity, independent thinking and breaking new grounds - apart from our discipline most often not having a right or wrong, but simply different points of views that can stand next to each other.