Now, where was I...

Time seems to fly, really. After a year, I'm now back at my studies and the plan is to get them finished by the end of the year. I still have my optional studies and training left (more on these in PSP), so there is plenty to do, but it is not an impossible mission. I'll now start by finally finalising my blog for the VOC part.

VOC II

VOC II is now done, I have just returned my individual task to the return box. During our final VOC II session it was discussed that a similar kind of task about teaching environments and activities would have been nice also on VOC I. Firstly, we could have tried different types of learning environments, and secondly, maybe we could have already done some corrective actions based on the feedback or on how the other groups handled their themes.

New year with a new VOC group!

We are now starting the second part of VOC and our groups have been rearranged. The new group division is based on the order we are listed in our tutor's excel sheet (almost alphabetically), in other words, very scientific and heavily jugded decisions have been made when forming the new groups :o) Well, no matter what the grounds were, I think it is important for us to learn to work with different people also now when we are learning, because in the real working life we constantly face new and different people and have to be able to be team players.

However, I must admit that at first I was disappointed to find out that our wonderful group Cognitivism no longer exists, but I'm very interested in the subject we will be dealing with in the new group. The subject is special needs education, and we will be finding out and teaching the others about what requirements law puts on special needs education and how special needs education is carried out especially in vocational education.

I have finally been updating my blog. I have added here some material on the individual tasks we have had:

• Inquiry-based learning
• Flipped Classroom 
• where to find relevant and reliable legal information
• copyright in Finnish education

I also wrote down some thoughts and main points of the VOC sessions our group has had. Although I have been slow in starting to write the blog, I noticed today when looking at my notes on different tasks that it was a rather reflective experience to briefly go through what we have done so far.
The pieces are beginning to fall on their places and I can more clearly see the connections between different topics, and even the big picture of iVET program. I quess it can be harder to maintain one's focus when not working with students or teaching but doing something totally different during those 8 working hours a day.

But more blog polishing on the way...