January Academic Goals 2021

YAY! Happy New Year guys! This is my first post of the year and I am super excited for the posts that are to come. Today we are kick starting with January academic goals. I'm lucky to have no exams this year but that obviously means that all my marks come from written assignments. I have a couple goals I want to meet before semester B starts, so if you want to know what they are, just keep reading.

CRITIQUE ESSAY 

This is the one assignment mentioned in this post that I should have already finished by the time this is published. YAY! I haven't submitted it yet but I probably will have, by the time this goes up too. This assignment is 1 out of 2 for my English language and literature in education module. We had to select one topic of choice in relation to English teaching in British education and write a critique. The topic I chose was the Standard English debate and I had to choose a case study of a school which implemented policies to police language and encourage Standard English in the school environment. It has been a really interesting topic to study and write about. So far I'm actually very happy with how the essay is coming along.

TEACHING ENGLISH LESSON AND RATIONALE 

The second assignment of the two for English language and literature in education, involves me creating my own lesson plan and explaining my reasons for those activities. The aim is to explain why my lessons would be beneficial to the students and justify how it would be effective. I haven't started writing this one yet, however I have designed my lesson already and have a rough bullet point of ideas I want to mention in the rationale. This one won't be too much stress to finish. As long as I keep checking the mark scheme and making sure I meet the brief, it will be fine.

LANGUAGE CONTACT AND GLOBALISATION ESSAY 

I have a 4000 word essay due next week, which has barely been started but...yeah. I have faith it will get done but the thought of writing in just over a week is pretty scary. I haven't left it last minute on purpose, it has just involved A LOT of prep and research. The research portion has taken ages and I can finally get around to writing it. If I'm being honest, I don't feel all that confident about this one but I am going to try my best regardless. The topic I have chosen for this study is an investigation of the influence that Jamaican creole has had on British youth slang. It has involved several transcriptions of conversations (a very tedious task) and researching the work of scholars who have touched on this topic. The topic itself is really fascinating and hopefully it will come across in the final piece. 

SUBMIT PGCE APPLICATION 

If you read my December goals post, you would know that I applied for the teacher training programme Teach First but unfortunately didn't get the offer. As disappointing as it was to not receive a place, I am still so proud of myself for making it as far as I did, into the application process. As an alternative route into a teaching career, I am applying to do a PGCE. I don't have much left to do and I am aiming to get the application submitted before the end of the month. Fingers crossed it is successful! 

DISSERTATION ANALYSIS 

Every time I think about my dissertation, I feel ever so slightly nervous. Being a university student in a pandemic has been one of the toughest experiences and everything just feels like a gamble at the minute. I've been praying about this degree for the last few weeks because it is only with God's help that I will get the degree I want. I haven't even started my dissertation yet but I definitely aim to. By the end of this month, hopefully my data analysis will be done and perhaps I can get the introduction written or something. I'm trying to be patient with myself as this is obviously a very difficult time. As long as it gets submitted on time, that is what matters, but I will continue to set myself mini goals even if I unfortunately don't reach them all. 

If you don't already, follow my Instagram @chelle._babes because I often share my progress of meeting these goals, in real time. I like to share my daily to-do lists and give updates on how I'm getting on. 

Thanks for reading,

Have a great day x