First Group Discussion

On Wednesday 25th September I participated in my first big group discussion over Skype which Helen opened for us. From the start it was made clear that the conversation would be handed to us, that the floor was open to us to decide where the discussion led, we were also encouraged not to give question-answer responses. Which I found difficult as I like clear cut answers, but took inspiration from others who spoke on how I could word my idea. This reinforced that this course was about our personal development and practice and that our supervisors we're there to help and assist us, not give us the answers. The main points of Wednesday's discussion that I found most helpful was; understanding the mapping practice, advice on how to ask yourself the bigger questions, and trusting the process.

Mapping our practice 
The first point brought up was how to start mapping our practice, which us module one students agreed we weren't sure on how to start the process and what it actually meant. One tip I found useful was to ask ourselves questions about our practice, who we were, what do we do, and take these answers and brainstorm them. Breaking down the lenses and going through each lens with your brainstormed ideas. The key thing is to see you mapping as a way to effectively communicate what your practice is to someone who might not necessarily know about your industry.

Another point a module three student put forward was to imagine your mapping as a constellation of stars. Ideas all being related to each other in some shape or form, instead of one idea and several thoughts and feelings sprouting out of the one idea with no connection with each other. I found this extremely helpful as it gave me a clearer picture of my mapping layout.

Asking myself the bigger questions

One thing I struggle with is how to ask myself the right question to move my process forward. I put my query to the group asking if anyone else had the same problem and what was their advice on combatting the issue. The replies were invaluable with important recommendations on keeping a diary so whenever a thought or question popped in my head to jot it down and getting myself to question everything. It was also recommended that we try using a snowballing technique. Start with a simple question, a snowball, and keep asking myself questions until the snowball gets bigger. I find this a useful thinking tool which I have already started to utilise.

Trusting the process

This leads to the last point that I feel I might struggle with. Trusting the process. There is a plethora of information that we have been given and already I feel like I'm drowning a little in all of it. This course is all about our journey as professionals and our practice, it can be easy to forget the necessary journey we have to do and focus on the end result, but as Helen reminds us there is no end, that there's no ”there” to get to. In this industry we are constantly learning and developing and that is reflected in this course. I need to trust the now I'm in and not get caught up in what I perceive as the finish line.

I look forward to more discussions with this community as I find it expands my small but ever growing pool of knowledge.

The Start

After a few days of avoiding the inevitable, I’ve finally pulled my finger out and wrote my first blog. I’ve never written a blog before, I haven't even read a blog either so this is a new experience for me, which I hope doesn't turn out to be too hard.

I had my welcome Skype run by Helen on Saturday 14th September, and boy let me tell you I was stressing. I was teaching for the day and had managed to get the hour off for the Skype call. I don't know what I was expecting but I was panicking that I wouldn't understand anything that was being discussed. I had skimmed through the module one handbook and was halfway through reading it carefully by the time we had the welcome call, luckily for me, the Saturday group had module two and three students who gave much appreciated advice, they gave their opinions on what helped them stay focused, what they found helpful and how the community and communication was key. I was a lot more confident due to their comments and I'm looking forward to reading their blogs to see their understanding of their practice.

I’m excited about what happens next as I know it will push me. A little note about me, I’m dyslexic so I've been trying to avoid theory work forever, but since the initial welcome I feel more ready to tackle module one. My number one task at the moment though is learning how to put my thoughts into a coherent sentence. Wish me luck.