Sophie Douglas MA Professional Practice

After chatting with a family member this morning, I've identified that I'm allowing myself to feel a little overwhelmed with the scale and depth of MA study, and noticing some self doubt creeping in. I seem to be going over a series of distracting thoughts at the moment; have I got the study skills for university-level work based learning? Can I manage dedicated study time alongside my work commitments? Where do I start with the recommended reading? Why am I doubting my ability to tackle this new challenge? I was grateful to have these questions repeated back to me over the phone, and hear and identify that ultimately I'm lacking in confidence and I'm experiencing this having a knock on effect to the way in which I'm approaching this learning journey. I think we all can identify that having a lack of confidence can impact our sense of well being, and it's encouraged me to think more deeply about how I perceive the impact of confidence (or lack of in this case)...

Hello, and welcome to my blog! The new academic term has kicked off in a very full and busy way for me and September seems to have flown by. As a freelancer, having a variety of interesting pieces of work lined up is as absolutely something to celebrate, but I've also been feeling the pinch. In the same way, I am out of the habit of blogging and despite this feeling a little stilted to write, I'm looking forward to finding my flow and engaging with others on the programme. I've enjoyed reading the thoughts and ideas others have shared already and am understanding how our ideas can develop through the web based interaction.  I found the Skype discussion around AOL's at the beginning of the week has really informed how I have looked at the tasks suggested in the module handbooks. Additionally, I'm looking forward to some of the core texts arriving in the post after making contact with the Distance Learning support team and contextualizing my learning from the re...