Tackling the module (thoughts from Module 1 skype session 09/10 @ 12.30pm)

Hello everyone! I would like to share some thoughts (and notes!) from yesterday's session. 

In the beginning of the session we all shared our thoughts of how we feel about the module so far. A common theme seemed to be confusion and worrying about whether we are "doing it right". As for most of us (if not all of us) this is the first time we are doing work-based learning it is not surprising that we've had such thoughts, but fortunately these thoughts are now in the past as yesterday's session clarified everything. 

Unlike other educational environments where we are given information and then have to think about it, memorise it and answer questions, the BAPP course is about discovering things in our practice. So module 1 is extremely simple; for the most part all you have to do is what you already do - your practice - and the extra thing we are asked to do is to step outside of ourselves and question what we do and why. In other words module 1 is about applying critical thinking to our practice in order to learn more about it and about ourselves and in order to develop as professionals. 

Here are the three lenses through which we should be looking at our practice in module 1:

Communication: How do you present yourself/position yourself?

Reflection: What do you do and why? Why does it work? How can you develop?

Networking: How do you see yourself connected to the world? 

*It's useful do the tasks in the handbook a few times, as the module progresses you can discover new things by doing them again. 

Personally I have found it very useful to keep a list of topics I would like to explore during module 1, I will be sharing my findings/experiments and thoughts on those topics in the upcoming weeks here and of course the Tuesday discussions. 

Another important thing to remember is that we are going to write our essays using our notes, blogs and journals - therefore keeping up to date with these will prove very useful. 

When should I start writing the essay? It's only 1,000 words but you first need to gather the material for it, therefore it is advised you start writing about a week before the deadline for the draft or if you are someone who can quickly convert your notes and findings into an essay a few days should be sufficient.