RLJ 17/10/12

Because I was feeling worried about a lot of things this morning, and I was feeling nervous about today at college, first thing this morning seemed a nightmare. We were told we had to do another student debate, which I really didn't enjoy last time we had to do a student debate, so the surprise of this really got me upset, along with the other things that I was upset about before this morning and last night. I also thought we were just continuing with our penguin enclosures and stuff today as well, which was already stressing me out enough, because of all I have to do for it. I had to leave the room for a while, as it did take me a while to calm down, but when I got back into the classroom I actually found the research for this debate quite easy to find, which was about "Outsourcing," which is basically when a major company hires a smaller company to do a job for them for cheaper prices. Our argument was for why Outsourcing is a good idea, so I researched into the countries involved with Outsourcing.

Websites I used to research outsourcing include:

Pros & Cons of Global Outsourcing of Jobs | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_6586144_pros-cons-global-outsourcing-jobs.html#ixzz29Y1rwgiC

http://www.3drenderingindia.net/

I felt the actual debate went much better than last time. Even though I'm not the best at speaking clearly, I felt I spoke a lot more clearly and confidently, and had a lot more to talk about than in the previous student debates. Neil said that he was very pleased as well with how I got the social contexts of Outsourcing across in my argument, and my other classmates and Linda even said I had done well, and managed to cope with everything eventually.

After lunch I started to continue with my penguin enclosure in Maya for a bit, but 10 minutes later Neil wanted to talk to me outside the classroom because he could tell that I've found this half term quite difficult, in terms of work, socialising, and even things at home. I really appreciated this chat with Neil, and I feel I got a lot out of it, and I felt it gave me the chance to tell Neil how I've been feeling about a lot of things too.

Neil reassured me that I am doing well with my work and my RLJ, and also gave me constructive advice about my work, saying that it would be good if I started looking in books that could inspire me with my work (Neil knew I like Disney stuff, which I was surprised about, so he recommended some books, including Infinity and Beyond, which I have seen in the college library). He also mentioned referencing in my RLJ, such as inserting Youtube videos and website links into my RLJ too. Neil also mentioned that I will need to accept that I will need to respect other student's opinions as well, which I feel I do already, but maybe some people might think I don't. We talked about what I'd be doing after half term at college, which is making an interactive museum display, and mentioning that it would be good if, over half term, I visited a museum to see what kinds of things are there.

He also said, to help me, that it is important that I looked at the module handbooks, just so I know what to expect in the lessons, and that it is quite a huge difference in the intensity of the course from BTEC courses to Degree courses.

Another issue I've been having is that I sometimes struggle to know where to go or who to hang out with in my college breaks, and Neil did surprisingly give me some advice about this, his advice being to see what the people I knew from the Rome trip were doing at lunch, because the majority of them have their classes on the top floor of the Broad Eye Building, just one floor above us, and said that he's sure they wouldn't mind me just turning up outside their classroom on lunch breaks, something I was worried about doing, if I chose to go up there and see what my friends from the Rome trip were doing. This did make me feel a lot better about seeing the people from the Rome trip at college breaks, and I might go up there just to see what's happening tomorrow. One of the students, Alex, did say that if I did want to meet him or any of my other friends from the Rome Trip, that I'd be more than welcome to join them up there.

After the chat there wasn't really much time to do much more work, so I just typed everything up on my journal. Tough day, but turned out to go very well in the end.