ASSIGNMENTS!

More hand-ins and frazzled minds!

I honestly cannot keep up with the amount of assignments that have been handed in this month!

Salon Management, Health and Safety and Personal Professional Development to name a few!

As I stated in the previous post, as a class we are required to organise a Health Promotion Event for the final element for Working with and Leading People.

Claire and I teamed up to organise the fundraising element for the Health Promotion Event happening next month which I am really glad about, as I feel we are both like-minded and driven to get the job done so all runs smoothly on the day! 

I was able to get organised from the day we started the branded advertising for Marie Curie which was just as well as my Uncle had taken very ill in hospital!

Looking back on the year so far and reading my previous posts I really feel I have come a long way from the Sophie that entered Year 1 HND Beauty Management in Septemeber! I am currently sitting on distinctions for many of my assignments which I am ecstatic about, as I didn't think I would even be passing never mind hitting merits and distinctions. 

Firstly, my research skills have greatly improved and I find myself being able to access the relevant information for assignments virtually instantaneously and that I am taking control of my own learning in the research of additional training and potential job opportunities on completion of the course. 

I also feel I am able to critically reflect upon practical tasks I have completed both for assignments and in work to find areas of improvement as I am the type of person who wants to constantly do better. 

Secondly, I feel that through undertaking tasks that put me way out of my comfort zone, for example, being interviewed, delivering a presentation in front of the whole class and being a team leader in organizing the Health Promotion Event - has greatly improved my interpersonal skills and the way I lead and communicate to a team and other people. 

Overall I feel that I am constantly improving how I do things and I am now able to adapt things to suit my personal learning style to increase the amount of information I will actually retain!

It will also be interesting to see if I can keep up this journal writing and how I improve next year. 

Guest Speakers and Presentations

What an interesting month!
It started off with a talk from Una Brennan the renowned facialist based in Notting Hill, who previously attended BMC. 
It was really interesting to hear a journey from someone who had completed the same course as we are doing and it also sparked a few thoughts about what I could achieve after course completion! 
I have a keen interest in massage and holistic therapies, and I was really surprised to hear how much manual draining and massage there is in delivering a facial. So I am now looking into doing a part-time facial course next academic year if the timetable allows it!

There was also a talk from Tracey McAloney in regards to the OCN course provided by Macmillan Cancer to train in adaptive treatments for cancer patients. I really have a keen interest in that area as I fundraise for Marie Curie Cancer Care through various treks and zipline challenges and have currently raised over £7000 in 2 years. 
Again  it is something I would really like to look into further upon course completion as I used to volunteer on the wards up in the local Hospice and it would be amazing to be able to provide treatments to patients to alleviate symptoms and induce a sense of relaxation and wellbeing. I just hope I gain a place on the course at the end of the year!!

Additionally I had to produce a presentation on Self Directed Learning for my second Personal Professional Development assignment. Again I have a real fear of speaking in front of people in a formal setting, it was rather stressful but I was so glad to get it out of the way - and its a skill I can definitely improve on for next year. 

I still cannot get over how fast this course is flying in and next month again is going to be pretty busy with a Health Promotion event to organise!

Nutritional Panic and Christmas Dinner

A shorter entry this time!
How we are this close to Christmas is beyond me, I still have to start shopping and I don't think my printer at home will ever recover from the amount of use over the past couple of months!

Yet another Working with and Leading people hand-in, I am glad in a way we are blasting through these assignments, but the pace of work is quite frightening at times!
I feel my research skills have finally been honed (hooray!!) and I have just learnt to deal with my most focused state being at 3am in the morning! As long as it gets the work done, I am no longer worried!

Panic again has settled in the class with the hand in of Human Health and Nutrition before the end of term! 
I have to say, my previous learning in this area was discovered and with that waves of help pleas flooded in. 
I was only too happy to help after struggling with a few of the previous assignments myself. 
I think it is great as a class we can work together towards the completion of this course as it definitely feels like you're not in it alone and you always get a laugh!! 

It was also great to let our air down before we departed for the Christmas Holidays in the Linen Lounge for lunch with the whole class! Although after the Holidays there is a presentation for Personal Professional Development to look forward to... 

4 Hand-ins and Interview Nerves

Salon Management, Health and Safety, Working with and Leading People and Personal Professional Development.... assignments in virtually one after another!

The phrase 'it's crunch time!' springs to mind!! 
As part of the Working with and Leading People assignment I had to both conduct an interview and be an interviewee. The nerves, the panic and stressing out were definitely not worth it! After vigorous preparations and several panic episodes, it definitely was no where near as bad as I had predicted!
In fact it really helped me in preparing for a real job interview I had for a Travel Money Advisor during Half Term - which I ended up being offered! 
Again the schedule has had to be reconfigured to best manage my time for work training and fitting in time to do the ever increasing assignments!! 

I never knew such a weight could be lifted off my shoulders in handing in 4 assignments - which also could not have been done with out the help and support of some of the girls in the class! Even just a chat about what the assignment entails helped me get started more times than enough. 

In completing the Working with and Leading People assignment I definitely learnt how to assess myself critically and how to conduct an interview in real life. These are skills that I think will really help me develop as a person as they can be transferred in any area of work or personal life. 

This year is really flying in, soon it will be Christmas! 
AH! Actually really glad we have to complete one of these reflective diary/blog things as it is really helping me keep a track of what has happened! (its the first diary I have ever maintained past one entry...)

Tasks, tasks and more tasks!

There has been a serious amount of pre-assignment tasks and hand-ins this month!

I honestly have under estimated the amount of work involved in putting together an assignment and the amount of background reading and research that needs to be carried out!

I never knew how much legislation is involved in regards to Health and Safety, Job descriptions and employment!

Hours and hours of trawling the internet, going to different governing bodies including councils only to be given conflicting information or information that is completely unrelated is rather soul destroying!

However, I hope my proficiency of this research malarkey improves quickly so I don't have to sit and sift through information right into the wee hours! 

There seems to be a general sense of confusion with the whole class as to what is needed for these assignments - although I suppose we won't really know where we are going wrong (or right?!) until we get a fully graded assignment back! So much so a few of us have set up a group chat on Facebook to see if anyone can shed light on a difficult topic and give each other a bit of motivation and encouragement to get the work done!

I have learnt some really interesting things about myself in exploring my own personal learning style for Personal Professional Development; I am a Kinesthetic Learner!
I always had my suspicions that I learn more by 'doing' rather than listening, although my semi-photographic memory has been most useful in memorizing the re-configured timetable to reduce the amount of aimless wandering between each class!!

I have also had to rejig my personal schedule to be able to fit in the extra work required to understand most of what is being taught in class and also to try and have a clear understanding of what exactly is required to pass these assignments! Time management definitely needs improving, although it is even more of a challenge to re-direct an overactive mind to more sociable hours between 4pm and 12am... 

However two areas I am really keen to push myself in is Physical Activity and Wellbeing and Human Health and Nutrition; as I previously studied both Biology and Human Biology for A-Level. I just seem to possess and innate drive to better myself in subjects I really enjoy! So let's hope all the extra 'Self-Directed Learning' (learning new phrases as well!!) pays off in the grades!  

Again another very busy month! Much looking forward to having a break at half-term! *wishful thinking*

First Month Over...

This month has flew in! If this flight of time is anything to go by, this course will be over in the blink of an eye!
I started my HND course on the 9th of September after completing a Level 3 Body Massage course and an Advanced Massage and Acupressure course with Amanda Brady at BMC Titanic Quarter in 2012. 
I didn't know what to expect but the first week I received my first assignment and met the 15 people I would no doubt be going through every emotion with over the next 2 years!! 

The past couple of weeks have been pretty intense; getting to grips with the grading system (which I don't think I will ever understand), learning what an assignment is supposed to look like (terrible worried I will never achieve that perfection) actually remembering what floor/room the next class is in and battling gale force winds from the dock just to get into the building, the next few months are probably going to be the toughest of my life! 
Just the names of some of the modules I will be studying have left me baffled - who knew customer service would involve quality control?! 

Thankfully there have been no tears as of yet, even though there have been many many talks on Harvard Referencing and the importance of getting it right...(HELP!!) I don't quite know what I have let myself in for! 

Here's to getting through next month!