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Christine Selby

The end has come

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I have not posted anything here since before Christmas. Despite trying to keep it updated - Blogs are not my thing, but I gave it a go. 

Since Christmas I have been working more teaching my groups from Primary school online due to that dreaded Covid and another lockdown. Life in general has been full on again. Too much work and too little exercise. And this damn weather is not helping one bit. 

Today is March 10th - My final TMA has gone in and I have one iCMA to complete (even though I don't have to do it due to my decent scores on others) - i will still take the maths practice an day. 

There is still no sporting events happening - but on a good note - School is back for my boys Monday. Yey! Hopefully that will be the end of home schooling now. I cant take it anymore. 

Heard today that I have been tasked to take a group of year 3 boys to complete a Minecraft project for a competition. I can't believe it - I get to go to work and play Minecraft 3 days a week. WHHHHAAAT! 

And so with my final module TMA in and all study weeks complete I bid T192 farewell and prepare myself to move onto T193. 

Its been an experience since I first started out but feeling good about it and hoping for a decent final mark that could potentially give me a decent pass mark for this module. It is going to be a long wait for the final results. 

Until I get my results I'm taking a few weeks off to recharge and let it all sink in. 

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Christine Selby

That feel good feeling!

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Woke up this morning to my TMA02 results.

100%

WHAT! I never thought it possible to achieve this on assignments. It certainly has never happened before. 
Going into Christmas Break has left me with such a good feeling about the first half of this module, making me hungry for more! 

I'm not quitting yet and doesn't look like I will be kicked off any time soon. 

There isn't a negative feeling in my body right now. Just pure shock and that little feeling of being proud of myself. 

In addition, a brief meeting with work this morning and it turns out I will not be returning to work until January either. SO my work Christmas Break has officially stated. A quick Christmas get together over Teams next Friday seeing as we cant go out and it's all done. The abysmal year 2020 is nearing the end! 
Despite the rather odd year - I have managed to make some amazing memories with the kids being home as well. Oh yeah and signed myself up for this degree. Learnt a lot about myself when your life gets thrown into a different situation and you are not just existing in a repeated world of eat, sleep, work, repeat. 



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Christine Selby

The last few weeks

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Hey all, 

Its been a while since I posted and what a whirlwind few weeks it has been. 
Went to work, kids in school, I finally factored in time to get my arse into a training schedule - all normal right? Then suddenly...childcare closed, nursery school closed due to the Covid virus rearing its ugly head within our community. I had to stay home with the youngest so no work and then Covid entered our school - and so close to Christmas too. After much discussion and pondering we decided to take the boys out of school until the New Year. With sports cancelling training until the new year too - there was no way I was going to risk the boys bringing anything home and ruining the one day we are looking forward to after the shitty year we have had. 

Some may say I'm stupid, some may say I'm taking care of our family  - in my mind it is simply daft to risk being put into self isolation if a case comes out in my class. I'm on second week of isolation as it is with youngest and I cannot afford another 14 days again on top of that. The down side to this is that I was advised to get my eldest tested as I have taken him out of school and considering he seems to have developed a cold of some sort I'm starting to think (hoping and praying he doesn't) has a possibility of testing positive. 
However, today saw the beginning of the vaccine roll out. The swiftly made and tested vaccine... hmmm! Do I trust it? 50/50

50% trust the scientists and their ability behind it and I totally believe that is is possible to create a vaccine so quick
50%  I don't trust the companies and government. They are greedy, self obsessed, careless and have no sympathy for anyone. They have spent the whole of this pandemic making rules for others and not even following them themselves. That frustrates me!!!
Anyway, I'm not going down the line of talking politics.

This week marks the 10th week into my degree and the submission of my second TMA. Due the 10th Dec - but submitted 7th Dec. Being off work last week actually was a bit of a godsend in relation to my course work as I got the TMA done, checked and sent in good time. Rest of this week is now to chill. 

Reflection week next week before Christmas break and then the beginning of Part 2.  
Half way through my first year already.  
Lots of revision now to brush up maths before attempting iCMA. 

So my training is stuffed, my work is probably done until the new year, my course work is pretty much done now so all I have left is to kick back and relax and try and entertain the kids for the next few weeks. Roll on Christmas. !


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Christine Selby

Light at the end of the tunnel

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Leading into my final weeks now and I'm collecting and working on my TMA02. Fallen a bit behind these last couple of weeks and could do with xmas break now to just type up some notes and relax a little. But first TMA time. T - 12 days. 

Mathematical problem is making my head spin and thinking and rethinking which formula to use to solve the problem. I know I know it but I just keep doubting myself. 

First, day school today and that helped a lot with getting to grips with algebra. Fingers crossed I'm making a breakthrough. 
I don't know what I'm going to do when I get exams...It is clear I can't seem to prosses and work out the maths quick enough. So slow. I read and re read, answer then doubt the answer, change it, change it back - argh! 
Need more confidence from somewhere. 

This week has been quiet. Covid cases have shot up, school stayed closed for 2 days as a precaution while the LA worked their way through contact tracing. Football and rugby cancelled. However, the eldest managed to get to his first swimming lesson since March. At last he is back in the pool if only for a few weeks. After all the fuss that he didn't want to go - he came away beaming and cant wait to go back. 

Changes are looming in work with unions wanting schools to revert to online learning for the last week of term (welcome to my world kids) to allow for potential positive cases to be identified or those needing to self isolate to do so before Christmas break. Not a bad idea. Last week of school before xmas term is pretty quiet and chilled anyway in schools. BUT, no xmas concert and no xmas party. This is so sad for staff and kids. But what will be will be for the coming months in the hope we can get out of these tough times safely and soon. 



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Christine Selby

The struggle is real!

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Edited by Christine Selby, Thursday, 29 Oct 2020, 20:48

It's LOCKDOWN here in Wales again. Roads quiet, nowhere to go. Perfect time to study - MATHS - Arghhhh! Why?

What on earth made me take a math heavy course. We are only just getting started. 

Stuff I should know, stuff I should have covered in school - GCSE stuff. why am I finding it so difficult to rack around in my brain for those little clues that helped me get through those my exams?

Even looking at GCSE/A level revision books is making me think - there was no way I knew how to do all this to sit an exam. 

Oh yeah - it was over 20 years ago and I have had 2 kids since then. Brain mushed!!

Evenings are getting harder to concentrate and I find I don't have enough time in a day to revise.

Something has to change - revamp of that study plan. 

Although, I do have a maths tutorial on Wednesday - hoping for some lightbulb moments there or it will be 1:1 tutor call for me. 

Despite somehow getting 86% in the iCMA so far - I was too heavily reliant on the books with me. 

TARGET: iCMA51 = minimum 90% with less use of the books. 
I have just over 2 weeks to get myself up to speed
 and I'm a week ahead of schedule. (Hope to get week 6 out of the way this week as well) then that will give me some good groundings before I return to work - if kids will ever leave me to get a few hours peace during the best time of the day to study. 

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