July has been one of the most relaxed months I've had during my time at Hibernia. It might have culminated with an Irish exam, but that probably speaks volumes about how 'relaxing' the PME is!
There was next to no college this past month. No webinars, face-to-face days, session releases, assignments...I could get used to this! Once the Gaeltacht finished up in the first week, we were essentially free to do what we liked with our time - albeit with the Irish exam looming on the horizon.
I slipped away on a spa weekend for my sister's hen party and am just back from her wedding, where I spent a wonderful week celebrating with my immediate family. Nothing says 'Irish Summer' like a wedding dinner amidst a torrential downpour, with guests sheltering under a small gazebo in the garden!
The Irish exam coincided with the day I was set to drive to Kerry, so as soon as I closed over the laptop I was straight into the car. It was a nice way to put all thoughts of the exam out of my mind, though I conked out quite early that night once the exam fatigue had caught up with me!
The exam itself went fine. I had attended a very comprehensive, 5-hour grind back in June which definitely helped and I had chipped away at practice grammar questions in my Gramadach Gan Stró agebook during July. It's worth a very small percent of the course and I've learnt that you need to bear this in mind when working on exams/assignments - it's a long course and not worth the extra 1% that you might get for burning yourself out. It consisted of writing a letter or email, writing a 400-word essay and identifying the grammar mistakes in twenty sentences. I found it very strange doing an exam on my own at home, it's harder to get into the exam mindset but we were up against the clock so I only took one very quick snack break!
In other news, we've been given the names of our thesis supervisors. So I've been psyching myself up to get cracking and start chipping away at it. Mine is on reluctant writers and how to engage them through developing a culture of literacy in the classroom. It's an area that I'm interested in and feel strongly about, so that helps when it comes to working on the thesis.
We've also just been given the details of our next Irish essay which is due next month. I'm conscious that once September starts we're going to be flat out until we finish in April, so the more work I can get done now the more my future self will thank me! I've one week at home until I head off again for a two-week holiday up North...so we'll see how much work does actually gets done this month...
Until then!
コメント