LITWS01 get through the module

This is weird. Some of the predictions in the playscript are starting to come true already.

1) I heard the first wind yesterday of the possibility of NDC funding being transferred away from the schools TA scheme sooner than expected. That scene is set in 2006 but it’s a real possibility for 2007. They might spend it all on a community centre instead of funding jobs.

2) Staff meeting next week is going to be addressed by….

A Woman from Sainsbury’s

3) PPA time next year will be partly covered by bringing in music and sports people.

I’d better check what’s happening in Venezuela. Oh look..

After a pleasantly productive weekend now I just need to avoid accumulating too many distractions for the next 15 hours and make sure there is enough time left to finish off the last few short tasks in order to polish off my submission for the deadline tonight.

• careful proofreading and spellchecking of the main piece. 1 hr
• Harvardising short bibliography therein. 1/2 hr
• Re-furling items for the wider bibliography and exporting 1hr

If there’s any time left I can then flesh out some of the PDP comments a little further and work on the discography. Then it’s all over, 2/3rds of year 2 completed – through the pain barrier and out the other side.

The plan to get through the module by doing a little bit every day is yeilding alarmingly slow progress. It’s not a good time for it, and frankly it’s a dreadfully designed module in the first place. It’s like having to undergo a personal OFSTED inspection by the man in a suit from Tesco. My peers are already finished or well near it and I don’t feel there’s anywhere I can get relevent help with it. So I’m going to have to spend the entire Bank Holiday working on it by myself.

The best thing would be if it rains solidly for all three days.

I’ve just submitted my first full draft for peer review and unless there is anything bad enough wrong with it to prevent me getting a pass I’m done with it! It was hideous. I loathed every minute of doing this module. Now usually I hate them at the start and warm to them once I get into it but this one was torture all the way through.

So do I write something I know will be useless or do I try to defend the position that writing pdps in my situation is a total waste of time?

Andy pointed out that I might have to consider a third option. He suggested I could focus on the broad areas I know I will need whatever my duties next year. I am still not sure how that helps. I know what the broad areas are, they haven’t changed since report 1. I’m just not sure I see the point of formalising them into a pdp when most of my learning is informal/incidental anyway. What’s more it tends to be needs driven as well – which is another reason why the pdp didn’t work for me.

My new pdp has to cover both my own needs and those of my job role. However this is the wrong time of year for me to be making detailed changes to my job role based pdp. I will not know until the end of July or even the start of September exactly what classes I will be working in next year. The time to change those aspects of my pdp to suit the needs of my context is then but the module says do it now.
I cannot really plan in detail (see above) what my training needs will be over the next 12 months. I can only identify broad areas and this will just be re-itterating what I wrote last year.
There’s an assumption of one’s control over one’s workplace situation that simply doesn’t mesh up with my context.
All the detailed things on my current pdp quickly became irrelevant when I knew what my duties this academic year would be.
So do I write something I know will be useless or do I try to defend the position that writting pdps in my situation is a total waste of time?

Ok so my thoughts on this echo Andy’s quite closely, especially the bit about hiding under the duvet for the next month! The weird thing is I’ve already done most of the work for this awful module weeks ago and now I’m stuck. So what do I still need to do?
Write 500 words about organisational learning.
Conclusions
Action plan
New pdp
Andy’s trick of writing a little bit each day doesn’t quite do it for me. I think I need a different approach. But what?
Maybe I need to spend a couple of days noting down all the problems I’m having and reflecting on them.
Time to blog?

I’ve thought of a way I may be able to get through this dreadful “Learning In The Workplace 2” module without wanting to hide under the duvet for a month or dive under the Ipswich Express as it hurtles through Manor Park station at 07.55a.m.

It’s a very simple plan, I’m going to do a little bit towards it every day – even if it’s just to write a short paragraph or set up a template, and then whatever I’ve acheived by the time the deadline comes around, that’s what I’ll hand in. If it’s nothing like what the module inventor imagined when dreaming it up then tough. If I fail to sound convincingly enthusiastic about the latest management fad then that’s because I’m not.