Saturday 20 August 2011

Has this blog been useful?

I first started writing this blog after my January skills exam and seeing as we only just got our AS results the other day (I hope everyone got the grade they wanted/needed!) and this is offically my 100th post, I thought I would write a little bit of feedback about my experience and whether or not I think this helped me with my exam.

Well, I was rather relieved on Thursday to find out that I did well enough in my Geography exam and honestly I think that part of the reason is because of this blog. It has really helped me with my writing (especailly writing essays faster!) and it was an invaluable revision tool, something different to the other revision methods I use. Due to writing it, I found it so much easier to link what we got taught in lessons to the geography that was currently happening around world and to recall facts/statistics from the case studies. I even think it helped slightly in some of my other subjects as I have had to learn (and am still learning) to structure what I write, get straight to the point so as to write more succintly (as evident from some rather long posts I am still trying to master this!) and to stay as focused as possible on what I am supposed to be writing about. I am really hoping that it has been beneficial to atleast some of you too, especially during the revision period leading up to the exam.  Whilst on the topic of my exam results, I would like to say a huge thank you to the Geography department as they helped me so much over the course of the year! Nikki and Nick  marked loads and loads of my essays/work over the past year and probably got a bit fed up with seeing me in workshops with a pile of essays in my hand, accompanied by a long list of questions! Millie, well what can I say, all year she has put up with my endless question asking (I think my curosity may have been bordering on annoyance at times - I do apologise! ), she has taught me so much about the world of geograhpy, helped me start to improve my writing style, encouraged me to always further my knowledge outside of the classroom, ignited an enthusiasm/passion for the subject (although she may regret/be regretting this!), made me realise that I can actually be quite good a geography when I want to be and so perhaps should be pursuing it in the future and finally got me to start blogging!!! So, thank you, all three of you, as there is no way that I would have progressed as far, in terms of my geography skills, or done as well in my exam without you and I look forward to the year ahead!

As I have found writing this blog so useful, and it keeps me out of trouble, I am planning on continuing to write it. I have been looking back at some of my posts and I realise that I need to try and reduce the amount I write and include some more pictures so that they look at bit more interesting at first glance. I have a tendency to get a bit carried away and write a lot, sometimes in too much detail, but I am going to try my best to stop doing this - no promises though! I thought I might try and do a few of those video posts that Millie has done in the past as, firstly, I personally found that really beneficial and, secondly,  it may be a welcomed break from lots of text. I am also going to try and maintain a bit more consistency in my blogging as I realise that sometimes I may not write anything for a week or so and then the next minute I write like 5 posts in a day and most importantly I am going to make sure that I actually write about what my title suggests - what I learn in lessons not just all the stuff I learn outside (although that will still greatly feature!).

What would be really good to know is whether or not any of you have found this blog useful? Do you think you would benefit if I carry on writing it? Is there anything you think I should do more or less of? Basically any feedback would be great and not just on my blog. I know Millie would probably really appreciate some feedback on all this social media in education stuff she it doing. There is a discussion group set up on the FB where you can leave comments, or on her blog. I personally think what she is trying to do is really amazing and that it makes the learning, consoldiation and revision processes for us students so much easier as there is always somewhere for us to go to find out what has been taught, something to read, somewhere to discuss and debate and somwhere to ask questions or ask for help. So, let us know what you think!

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