Joe Cotton's EMA speech at NUT conference gets ovation

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13187600 - well worth a look.

Mark

Reminder for discussion assessment - Tuesday May 3rd.

Hi all,

Just a wee reminder about the discussion assessment for next week (Tuesday 3rd May). Remember, you only need to come to the timeslot where you are giving your discussion, so please don't be late for your slot! The information is noted in the previous blog posting.

You should bring any notes, website print outs etc. that you have used for your research.

The assessment doesn't follow any conventions as such, other than somebody in the group will start the discussion off and we will see how the session transpires. With subjects such as citizenship and bigotry, there will be plenty to talk about, so please be prepared and enjoy the task, it shouldn't pose any problems at all. I will be there to assess and facilitate as well, so if you need a helping hand at any point I will be able to do so!

See you on Tuesday then (remember, we are on holiday next Monday too).

All the best, Mark

Groups for discussion, listening and earthquakes!

Just a quick overview of today's session. Well done to Aaron who successfully completed his talk on earthquakes this morning.

We also watched the second and final talk for the Oral Presentation Skills unit which was by Dan Ariely - http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_ariely_on_our_buggy_moral_code.html

This is an assessment and you should get that to me when you are able - handwritten or typed. The questions are the same as the ones used for the Jamie Oliver talk.

All assessments must be completed by early June and I will give you a definitive (final) date for assessment submissions after the Easter break.

Discussion assessment - thank you to Carlos who helped arrange the 'World Cup' draw for the groups!

The following was decided:

Group 1 - Luigi, Alma, Christian, Jon, Gary who will discuss the issue of citizenship on Tuesday 3rd May at 9.15 in room 409.

Group 2 - Dave, Sean, Vesela, Ania, Ellen who will discuss the issue of bigotry on Tuesday 3rd May at 9.45 in room 409.

Group 3 - Christie, Hanni, Gavin, Michal, Aaron who will discuss the issue of citizenship on Tuesday 3rd May at 10.15 in room 409.

I enjoyed picking the groups and the areas for discussion, so well done all!

For the discussion assessment, you should have some notes, any info from the web etc and we'll just see how the sessions go.

Many thanks, and have a lovely break, we've all earned one!

Take it easy, Mark

Penultimate round of talks and plan for tomorrow and beyond...

Well done to Ania and Ellen who gave very good presentations on 'the banning of the burka' and 'stereotyping in the media' this morning. They both generated great discussion afterwards, so thank you both for that.

Tomorrow I will show the second presentation to be analysed, which is by an academic called Dan Ariely.

I have also put together a rather neat document that tells you (individually) what you have passed so far and what you have to do to pass the units.

So far, you can have a maximum of 9 assessments in the bag, and many of you have achieved this so far, so well done to you if you are in this category. If not, you should ensure you catch up immediately!

We are still waiting for two candidates to deliver their talks and hopefully that will happen tomorrow too.

See you all tomorrow, Mark

Presentation II, round three!

Thank you to Jon, Vesela and Gavin who gave excellent presentations on Tuesday on global warming, binge drinking and drugs respectively. Well done everybody. Monday will see Anna, Ellen and Aaron deliver talks in the final session. Anybody who hasn't presented can do so on Tuesday.

I would like everybody (apart from Alma and Luigi who are in Berlin) in on Tuesday as we will be doing our final assessment for Oral Presentation Skills which is the second analysis of a talk (we looked at Jamie Oliver for the first one a while back). I also want to introduce the discussion assessment that we will be doing after the Easter break.

Please inform everybody that you need to be in on Tuesday. Originally I had planned that to be a remediation session but we can press on as the talks have been very good and I suspect all bar one will be delivered by then.

I will see some of you tomorrow.

All the best, Mark