Social Research & Resourcing the Curriculum

Dear Diary,

I am in a fairly excited, albeit, relieved mood. I got my marks back for the first assignments for EER500 and ETL503 and hurrah- I passed with colours- not quite flying- but with colours.

EER500's theme is social research. The assignment involved posing a draft question for research, after gathering and reading research articles, concerning a chosen topic. I chose boys and their overall underperformance in literacy. After the draft question it was time to analyse our choices and another students- I found it quite easy to be critical on myself, the other students work was more sophisticated than mine and her question stemmed from the research and was not simply reinventing someone else's research like mine. I found my approach to the work I do was not fit for social research. I need to be more specific, more analytical, more well-read and more thorough. The next assessment continues on from the first part and so more work on posing a research question and how to research it!

In ETL503 our first assessment task was an assignment on resourcing the curriculum. I quite enjoyed this work. I chose an area of the curriculum I am familiar with and the assignment was very practical and useful to my teaching. The assignment involved analysing the current resources available and the learning needs of the students and proposing ten new resources to aid the unit of study and student learning.

I have just finished the second assignment in ETL503 and it involved rewriting a collection policy for a school library. It took me a while to get into it, but I actually quite enjoyed it once I understood it and now the modules I have been working on all make more sense. I have learnt about Selection, Acquisition, Budgeting, Contested Materials, Collection management, Policy and Deselection. Some really great terms to know and use.

I am off to the cricket- I need a break from study.

Its Summer holidays and the rain just wont stop. At least it's easier to sit inside and work all day when it's raining outside.

Toodleoo