NINE months, 26,700 words – give or take – and a similar number of cups of tea, and I’ve made it over the finishing line of the postgraduate diploma I was embarking on when I wrote my very first Sunday National column.
I am now a qualified further education lecturer and am delighted and gobsmacked in equal measure. I’ve packed away my books and recycled a mountain of academic papers. Was it really me who read all that material and wrote all the subsequent essays? It must have been, but it’s a bit of a blur.
Back in September, I wrote about how scared and apprehensive I was. There were some car-crash moments (a particularly nervy mini lesson presentation to my new classmates was a particular low point) and there were times during dark morning drives to campus, with the wind and rain buffeting my steadfast Peugeot 107, that I doubted my sanity and ability to stay the course.
At times I didn’t know if I was juggling plates or spinning balls.
As well as my student and work hats, I had to wear a teacher hat on placement at City of Glasgow College.
This was a fantastic experience and the support of my mentor there, the departmental team – not to mention the students – has been second to none. To say that it’s been a steep learning curve is something of an understatement. Suffice to say its arc is equal to the dizzying height of that amazing new college building on Cathedral Street.
Start with the end in mind. This was the advice of the course co-ordinator at the very start of this rollercoaster journey. It’s been one of highs and lows with the odd bump along the way. But here it is – the end has been successfully reached.
This is down, in no small part, to the help, support and guidance of family, friends, colleagues and tutors.
In that first column, I wrote about how the educational landscape had changed dramatically in the 30 years since I’d first been at university. Back in the day, it was sink or swim. If you missed lectures or tutorials, there were no digital resources for back-up. You just had to hope that a mate would be good enough to lend you their notes.
Fast forward, and the support of tutors could not be more attentive. The ethos of collaboration and the generous provision of formative feedback has been such a confidence-builder.
The blended learning approach has also been a revelation, with on-campus workshops and lectures mixed with online discussion forums to provide a rounded environment to benefit all types of learners.
And then there’s Facebook. The group our student cohort set up has been an invaluable source of help. The class of 2019, I will miss you very much!
But the main reason I got through it was the support of my husband. He nearly fell over the other day when he came home from work and I was actually washing the dishes!
This is a chore – along with all the others – that I haven’t undertaken for a while, but I promise to embrace domestic duties with newfound enthusiasm. Honest …
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