Starting Module 1?

Starting Module 1? Totally lost? Yes, I was too. I thought that the first Skype session was going to be one big answer to all of my questions, however I felt like I left the session with even more questions than I started. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing as it gave me a good starting point for my blogs. I am currently starting Module 2 and after the first Skype, the mist descended and the feel of nostalgia crept up. The feeling of not knowing where to start and the thought of "what am I doing?". To avoid the panic, I thought back to what I did to ease my self into Module 1. Once I read, reread and double checked the handbook and started blogging, I knew I was on a journey of exploration but I didn't know if what I was doing was right. My advice to you would be to start with blogging as soon as possible. Your ideas flourish and it also gives you an opportunity to share with the BA PP community on blogger.com. It provides the chance for you to write your ideas down and read them back to yourself to see how you sound on paper. This is good practice for when it comes to starting your essay that you submit your essay for module 1. You learn so much about what sparks your inner passions and topics will crop up that you know you have to get down on paper and research further into. You learn how you feel about your current practice and how you describe it yourself. There will be phases of confusion and feeling like you don't know what to write about, so why not write about feeling lost? This is a good way of starting a discussion with the blogger community for BAPP. Getting ideas out always brings up a new topic.

What I found difficult was to write down how I have explored an idea to improve, instead of just sounding like I am writing to prove that I was there and what I did. I did this by... I think I have improved because of... I helped my students improve because of... It felt like I was writing a self critical report for my work place on a lesson plan. One thing that helped me divulge on topics that sparked my interest was to write down notes straight after teaching a class. These notes included anything that I thought went well, could have gone better, ideas for next week, new songs or topics that came up in class. This helped me understand the fuel to my passions and I also learnt a lot about my dislikes and needed improvements. Looking into these points gave me writing topics to share my ideas and thoughts with the BA PP community, but also gave me improvement starters that I had never thought of before. What ever stage anyone is at in life we should never stop wanting to improve, why should we? When we reach the end of a road, like university, we don't stop and think "my work here is done", we look for the next venture and onward path. The first path you choose is not always the one that you stick with but it is definitely a starting point and a lesson into ever evolving interconnection of ideas. Try and develop a way of jotting down topics that crop up through out your day and write about one of them. Maybe you already have a million ideas running through your head but don't know how to contextualise it? Try asking a colleague about a topic and get their view. There are lots of ways to think of topics but the key is to get them down on paper before they escape your head and into the busy world. TED Talks is a great way to see others views on any topics that you are interested in.

Motivation is key. I came up with a study plan to get my self into a routine. I work full time at a SEND school teaching dance and yoga and also work at nights in a dance school teaching ISTD graded examinations. oh, and I just moved house. Life is busy. Be rigid and block out time for your studies.

The journey of BA PP is quick, time flies and the end will be here before we know it. I look forward to reading your blogs and ideas.