Uni or bust

University has become a step closer now as I have now sent off my UCAS form.I am proud of what I have achieved in such a short time.
Anyway back to the course. Everything is going well and I am managing all the work that has been set. I have had very positive feed back from my tutors. This goes to show that hard work and perseverance does pay off.
Christmas break is now hear and I must be sad because I am starting to look forward to coming back already.

On my way

Where to start.... it's been a busy couple of weeks for the whole class, but the Christmas break is nearly here so, not that much left to do.

Investigating Europe is done and dusted, just my presentation to do and I'm not to worried about that.

English Lit. is more interesting, Madaline is still as daft as a brush.

Maths is a work in progress. It's as hard now as it was when I was at school but I'm getting there, slowly but surely and with some more study I should be on to out come 4 this Friday.

Communication is going well. Passed my 2 assessments and I'm now working on an essay about the for and against reasons for capital punishment, under the catchy title of "Life or Death".
I will use my next history essay for the second part of the written work in communication.

History is still by far and away the most enjoyable subject, mainly due to Evan. I have an essay to hand in next Friday and I will make sure that I use the lesson I learnt in the last one: plan it, make time for it and do not get bogged down in a different topic.

Spanish can still cause nights of tongue twisting and spitting, but I have past my 2 oral assessments, so it must be sinking in. This is the subject that is most difficult for me and I really have to use my partner more, not for oral although she is Spanish therefore I should have no excuse.

Study skills is where the action is at the moment though. Diaca has been doing great work to help with our personal statements for UCAS. She has berated, harassed and cajoled us along the way in an almost motherly sort of way, more or less like Alecia, must be a Spanish thing.
Without their help though I don't think many of us would have done the UCAS form or be able to say "Tiene una mesa libre para dos, por favor".
All that is left now is for Diaca to write a glowing report and for a University to say "OK then" and of course, I have to pass the rest of coursework.

Jordi will be meeting with us next week and we might be able to get some feed back from him concerning the reports our tutors have given us.

Oh it's all so EXCITING.

Go on my son.

well that was a week an a half.
Handed in my European project,Joe was pleased with it, just need to tweek it a little bit and I'll be happy with it.
I have written out my application for Uni, but that needs to be tweeked.
Finnished of my assesment for English Lit and looking forward to the next topic.
got word from scott that have passed the 2 Written assignments. VVV happy 'bout that.
handed in my history essay, not to happy with it,could have put more detail into it, but ran out of time. Lesson learnt, be more aware of the time and what I have to do. I'll see what sort of feed back I get from Even.
Spanish oral. I done a lot better than I thought I would, but verbs let me down. I will have to spend 1 hour a night with verbs and using them in written sentaces.
This week is the first week I've felt pressureised in handing in my work. Maybe it was my time management or the amount of work was a real strain, but I done it and I'm still having a ball.
I'm starting to see the results of my wrk and I must addmit, I'm proud of myself, but as always there are areas I must work harder in and I have taken on board some of the tips offered in Diacas class .

Hi everyone!

It has been long time when i didn't look into the blog, brr.... but let's start again....
Recently i think that i discover more my way of learning which is very much visul. Making colourfull maps all over my walls at home make my memory works much better. So this technique almost forced me to sit down and write important things and at the same time to revise this.
In terms of my plan how to learn more effectively and reach my targets i made a brief plan:

• this week i started doing my communication assesment and i will find an hour every day to finished it by coming Thursday;
• on Thursday i am going to write a pice of writting (150 words) writting in Spanish about ''mi amiga'';

Getting better

New things to think about and ways to achieve them.
I'm still finding Spanish a problem, as I have said before, not so much the reading but the writing and saying.
I Know a lot of words in Spanish but it's just trying to get them in the right order with the right verb ending.
There are lots of different lessons on line and I have to admit that I have been lazy and that I now understand that I will have to put much more effort into this topic. I enjoy the subject and starting this week I will be doing a lot more online studying. I feel that I'm falling behind and that i should be at a higher level than I am. This is my own fault and I know I will really have to work hard at this if I want to pass the course.

English Lit. has been a good topic because of the energy that Madeline has for it. Work being set is quite challenging for me because I have not done this before, this is the main reason why I like it. I am finding that the skills in this subject crossover into other subjects.
The written assessment I had done before the holidays had some good comments and the few areas that needed my attention were only to expand on my answers. I now know what is expected and I also know where I have to concentrate on my answers. I have to read a short story and be prepared to answer questions on this. I feel that I'm ready for this and I'm looking forward to it.

Communication is another subject I enjoy and I'm finding the assessments quite straightforward eventhough I'm having to come up with my own ideas instead of waiting for Scott to tell me what to write. Scott has also given me feedback and again I know what is expected. I will compleat my second assessment before Thursdays class incorporating the feedback I got on the last one.

I have not been to maths for a few weeks now due to holidays and personal issues. I will go to the maths drop in centre to check what I have missed and if the work I have been doing is ok.

Investigating Europe has taken a twist due to the fact that I changed my project topic from bullfighting to the region of Valencia. Joe was fine about this and I will have the first draft ready for him to read in 2 weeks time. I spend an hour on this each night and I will be this disiplined with Spanish.

Study skills has given me some very good advice on learning skills and I'm going to start reading aloud and listening to myself as I do Spanish excersises.

I have always been interested in history. Evan has the same energy as Madaline and I found writting an essay about Chartism very interesting because of the research I had to do. I am waiting for his feedback and where I need to improve.

I will be sitting down with my girlfriend later on today to sort out a timetable. This will include time for; study, gym, shopping, housework, eating, socialising and sex.

getting there sexies!!!

Good morning guys!!
Well i am not too good in this kind of things, writings in blogs and things like that,but here i am Dieca wants us to write and i am just doing it...lol
Well since i've come back things are changing for me, i got my strenght to carry on with the course and i am knowing better my classmates, it is so important to me. i do not want to be transcendental and sentimental but guys all of you are amazing,hehehehe. honest you have been helping me.
I am a little busy with esseys etc but i really feel much better.
Well have a nice day and see you all later alligator.
Leticia
P.S. i am still do not know what degree i want to do, life hards

Learning styles questionnaire

This week, do the questionnaire in this link, download/print the pages that help you with your learning style and reply to Jordi's email about preferred learning styles.

http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire

Then write an entry in your blog about what you have found out about your learning style, which suggestions have you found most helpful and are going to adopt and a plan to put this into practice

byki.com language tool

Just thought I would mention that there is a fantastic site you can use for revising your Spanish,French & German ....www.byki.com, you can download the player and import lists from your chosen language! HOPE IT HELPS CLASS

Reflective Journal

Gosia
12th October 09
Communication 4 Oral presentation skills: Last Thursday we did Assesment with the reading part. The article was about Digital Books and Electronic Media. I found the article very interesting but the language was full of tecnical, colloquial and descriptive language which was quite hard for non-native speakers to decode. Therefore most of the time I needed to use the online Thsauruss Dictionary not to get myself lost. I don't think I can remember all the descriptive, tecnical and collocquial language but at least i can say it was a brilliant practise to polish my English. The accessment questions investigated really deeplly your understanding of the text and the purpose, target and type of reader.
It's also make you to reflect on your own point of view, opinion and attitude towards the subject.

Intercambio

The Spanish/English language exchange group meets every Wednesday. It is free. Anyone who wants to exchange Spanish and English is welcome. Just turn up on Wednesday after 9.30pm and join in.Meetings in October : 14th, 21st and 28that the Greenmantle pub at 133 Nicolson StreetAdditional meeting:St Vincent bar 12 October from about 9.30pmThis is in St Vincent Street (the continuation of Frederick Street/ Howe Street) in Edinburgh's new town.Reúnete con hispano y anglo parlantes en un grupo informal todos los miércoles. De 21:30 a 23:30 en Greenmantle Pub, 133 Nicolson Street

Reflective Thoughts

Over the past week I have had time to look back not only at the past week but also since I have started this course.
Although there are different subjects they are now starting to crossover into each other and I'm now able to use the transferable skills learnt in those subjects, eg. learning how to pick out what is important in texts, how to be subjective and critical when writing essays, being able to find out information from different sources and how to implement these findings on my own with little or no direction from tutors.
A lot of the skills I'm using now, I used in my past life as a butchery manager, eg. Time
management and problem solving.
Skills I thought I had lost are now being refreshed, such as, writing reports, giving detailed accounts and retrieving important information from different agency's. All this was done when I was a member of the children's panel.
When I'm given homework or I have to undertake an essay or project, I'm now able to set targets on when I complete them.
Short term, I have to set targets for Spanish verbs, therefor I'm starting to practice a set amount every night and also gain confidence speaking Spanish, so I have started talking to my Spanish girlfriend in Spanish for an hour every night.
Maths is a different kettle of fish. There is no easy fix with this. Best way is to ask, ask,ask and ask again.

Link to Access to Languages website

Your brand new website is now online. Click here to see it!

http://sites.google.com/site/accesstolanguages20092010/home

Reflecting on reflection

Here we are, week five and everybody still here!

I have been reading your blogs and have been very impressed by your first attempts. There are some very good examples of reflection already.

The purpose of these reflective blogs however is to keep improving, so this week, before you write your entries I would like you to pause a little and read what everybody has written.

In other words, I want you to reflect on the previous reflections!

Remember, the blog is not just a diary that describes what you do. There will be some element of description, but this has to be followed by evaluation of the actitivy and then, most importantly, by some plan for improvement.

I would therefore like you to look for good examples of this in your fellow students' blogs and then write a comment here about what you found and why you think it was good, useful etc.

I have also found a good video that will remind you of what a good reflective journal is, so you may want to have a look at this before you start.

Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWk80rjgFNA

Welcome to the Access to Languages Study Skills blog.

Here we will keep a record of what happens in the class. You can all read the postings and contribute to it.

I hope you enjoy blogging!

For the first task, I would like to ask you respond to the comment made by Rita in the film:

"There must be a better song to sing"

What does it mean to you? Do you agree?

Write a paragraph to give your opinion of the film and how it relates to your own situation