Weeknote 33/2023
This week has been a busy one. We returned from our break in York on Monday and - wow - that felt like a longer drive than on the way down. I think the torrential rain had a lot to do with that feeling but I fell into bed as soon as we arrived home. Never too old to nap.
I've been sticking close to home since our return from York. Walking around Stonehaven or along Aberdeen Beach has been the norm. There is a cheesecake van I need to check out next time we are in Aberdeen (it was closed on Wednesday). We've also caught up with friends for coffee or to eat homemade pizza, drink a lot of prosecco and chat nonsense. Essential escape.
I had begun to work through some LinkedIn Learning online courses prior to our trip and set myself a target of completing at least one relevant course a day this week. I quite like the format of LinkedIn Learning, especially the audio-only option, which allows me to take in sections of the course while on the move (or, as was the case this week, while pottering around in holiday mode). I've absorbed so much useful information this week from the courses listed below and, if you are lucky enough to have a company that provides LinkedIn Learning access for free (thanks NESCol) some of these might be interesting to you too:
I also took the opportunity to update my CV and LinkedIn page. It had been nearly 18 months since I last updated it (where did that time go?!) so I thought carefully about how I had developed through my work at NESCol and Replit. I received some advice from Katie Warren at TopCV in 2021 which I think really helped trim down the content (I'm embarrassed to admit it was 5/6 pages before I took Katie's advice) and focus the CV on the role I wanted to apply for. It might sound obvious to you dear reader but it hurt to cull the experience section of any job over 10 years previous. Now the last entry in this section is my work with Robert Gordon's College training staff, designing and then rolling out their 1:1 iPad programme. Is it time to say goodbye to this too? For now, I've let my CV slide to a third page.
I've also been analysing my students' SQA exam results or rather the ones I've been able to gather. Delivering Advanced Higher across four schools means that I am relying on information from four different contacts who are probably enjoying their holidays. I'm nearly there but based on messages from my former students I was able to work out and am delighted that they had all achieved at least a C grade and the majority had achieved A grades. Congratulations to them all and I hope they go on to boss their uni courses in the same manner (they won't be reading this though will they?). Next week I'll get to analyse my college N5 and Higher results and plan necessary improvements for my classes this session.
Recommended by LinkedIn
I built some Lego too, exploring the micro:bit Wonder Building Kit (link) for integration into college units. Was this really work though?
I haven't been so good at keeping up with my target of a book a week during the summer break. The current book I'm reading is "If Only They Could Talk" by James Herriot, because of the Yorkshire connection. Still, I'm happy to have surpassed my aim for the year so far and successfully trying to break away from my comfort zone of crime novels... most of the time.
Viewing-wise I survived Heart of Stone (link to Guardian review which is more generous) and began to get hooked by Manifest (on the second attempt).
What have you been up to this week personally or professionally? I'd love to hear!
Reposted from the Caffeine Tangent substack https://csteach.substack.com/p/weeknote-33-2023