Okay, so it was a little extraordinary but even so you may
be amazed.
I had five meetings in a row.
Good news
Recently I’ve been promoted to senior lecturer. Today my first
meeting was at 8.30 with the head of school and his deputy. It was largely
congratulatory. We also confirmed what it is that I’m doing that made me
deserve the promotion. Now, I’m going to have to build on that. Get better NSS (National
Student Survey) results. Improve retention, continuation and progression. Forge
bigger links between our directorate and the rest of the school. None of this is really anything new. We always
try to build on what we’re doing right and improve further as well as troubleshoot
and problem-solve. I’m currently working on all of that anyway. It’s what we
do.
Training that helped
I had my PMEP training today. I know quite a bit about it as
I am on the board. It’s a new way of creating action plans. We must use SMART –
specific, measurable, attainable, realistic (resourced), time bound actions.
Some we have to supply at specific times. Others we do as they occur.
We need to react to what the NSS tells us and what our own
figures tell us – on such subjects as employability, continuation / retention
and recruitment.
I know quite a bit about the process we’re expected to
engage with as I’m on the board that investigates this. Even so, it was good to
work in a room with colleagues and with the trainer who knows about how this
works. Part of the session involved getting
some of the work completed and in fact I’m pretty much two thirds of the way
there. So, quite a satisfying session.
Observation of
teaching
I joined a debate about this. It’s actually something I’m
very much in favour of. It needs to be handled sensitively, however, and the people
involved must be in agreement with it. I
did a lot of this as a secondary school teacher and it really benefitted all
concerned. However, we’re all really busy and a few of us are a little worried about
the extra work involved. Look at my day today for instance ….
Meeting a publisher
A representative visited three of us today. Our Associate Director of English, the Programme
Leader for the other suite of programmes, English Literature and English Literature
with English Language were able to learn about some specific editions of books.
These editions contain some very useful critical material. We’re going to
receive some sample copies. This was an hour well spent.
Meeting a student
Students often come to us with problems. Sometimes we can
solve them and sometimes we can’t. So, it’s refreshing when a student comes with
a problem so tiny that we solve it in seconds and can spend some time chatting
on how much he’s enjoying his course and how well he’s doing with his writing.
I’m also able to give him some more specific information on
writing for young adults. I’m able, too, to offer him my as yet unpublished
text book to review.
But the day’s not over
There are other things yet to do. I have to deal with two
problem students. I’m doing this little bit of writing now. And I’m hoping to
proof read a few short stories.
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