End Of term Reflection

What I wanted from this course at the start is difficult to say! For a number of years I was restless going from job to job and always flirted with the idea with going to university. Going to do highers was my original choice but I was very sceptical about my ability to jump back into education at that level. Luckily my mother found out about this access course. Result! So I came along to the interview hoping to study German. Uh oh found my self in a Spanish course, oh well not to worry off to camp America I went. When I returned two weeks late I was very nervous and only knew how to say ola in Spanish (that’s how I thought it was spelled before the course haha). I persevered and went in to see Dieca tired as hell because I’d had a heavy weekend after my reunion with my friends. So after the first few days of nervousness and wondering what I was doing in the course I settled down. My expectations now: To get to uni; never miss a history class again after I was told I’d missed so much in the first few weeks!!; speak Spanish in a year (I’ve since changed the timescale in that goal); and try not to get anyone hating me in the class (I expected a little too much of myself). All in all the introduction to the course was different than everyone else’s but good all the same I think the fear of being two weeks late made me more determined to work harder.

The positive experiences in this class have been massive. Firstly the friends I have made have been great. I have met people from all over the world and had many friends in different countries before this class but none as close as these. I couldn’t imagine going to a party in Toledo to meet our Spanish friends with a Bulgarian, a Pole, and two other Scots. Classic! What else? I can now communicate in Spanish, not well but I’m on my way. One day I’ll be fluent no matter how many books Edinburgh uni throws at me (if I pass this course first). Now on to the educational side of things since I imagine that is why we are writing this. I’m trying to make this interesting though, if not for the reader at least for myself. I found out I can write an essay, due to my laziness and my ‘anything will do’ attitude I believe the teachers have only seem glimpses of my best work. But you don’t stop being an underachiever over night. Which brings me to my next point; I now know the importance of trying your best at everything you do. I feel that I am well prepared for university with regards to knowing that I have to actually work hard to produce good results. The old high school motto of doing it 5 mins before class has been eradicated from my system. Well done teachers, if you guys have achieved anything this year (you’ve done loads for us really) it’s getting that out my system. Finally and this is going to sound like the class got together and planned to all write this; the importance of deadlines! We are lucky that no-one complained when we handed in stuff late. I know this will not work in uni, not that I would want to get to the end of another course and find out I got so many essays due in so little time.

How the course could be improved eh? Well let me begin. More maths! No word of a lie I loved that class. I planned to do more but I also planned on having a social life too, so maths went! (that seems a stupid thing to say about education). I believe stricter deadlines would help. I know we have been told for months about what we have to do! But any work that is ‘for the end of term at the latest’ is going to be put of by the majority of the class every year. And then we have the build up of work problem again. Imagine the madness if investigating Europe was this term as well, someone would have jumped out of Carlos’s window! What else could we improve? I dunno. In Spanish Alicia was fantastic (shoulda put that in the positives right?). but seriously more classes like hers would have been great, a mix between her and Dieca for the whole year would have people talking a lot better than I can. I don’t have much else on the improvement side of things. I don’t know if this already happens but giving people language exchanges every year would be good – ours were brilliant.

Now were on my performance!! Haha this should be fun and if I have learned anything from study skills I think this is expected to be the longest part. Well I feel my performance has been mixed! History and maths I feel have been my strongest subjects I enjoyed these and tried hardest in these subjects. Spanish has been ok, I feel I have done well but I believe that it took me too long to get a successful studying technique for it. But that’s part of the learning progress. I think that my speaking needs a lot of improvement I still hear Spanish and panic for a few seconds. My reading is my strongest and my listening is no bad. Investigating Europe was interesting, I think I did ok in this. I wish we coulda had classes with Joe cause he’s brilliant. But I enjoyed the class and felt that if I had chosen a subject I enjoyed a little more than something ‘arty’ (I’m just not that guy, give me football or a book any day, but Picasso? Who’s he?) I would have done better. Communication I think I did ok I missed waay too many classes though. I found it difficult to write about some things like the speaking skills! I enjoyed doing the talks for all the classes and feel, other than my attempt at a talk in Spanish, that my skills have improved. Finally literature I haven’t finished all my work for this yet so I’ll find out soon about this. I enjoyed reading all the stuff for this class but comparing one thing to another is difficult and I definitely need work to improve this.
In conclusion (I feel that’s a great opener for this final part of the story) I have learned a lot of important things. Like never break into a hotel in Düsseldorf if you plan on walking normally afterwards! 300 euros is not enough spending money to take to Madrid if you plan on getting drunk every night. Never miss a £1 a drink opportunity, you never know how long its gonna last for. Don’t waste a sunny day in Scotland inside!! And finally my biggest lesson I have learned is if you want to use the language centre; switch off your phone! Don’t eat or drink! Keep quiet! Write your name in the book! AND NEVER print more than 5 pages! Your life depends on it.