A month into the MA

So, I haven't really been posting recently but i've now done about a month of the MA course.

I've learnt so much in such a short space of time. My course is very full on, we're in uni four days a week - in total about 16 hours a week, with everyone living in the library between lectures. I've just handed in my practice social policy essay and just been given the first of my two 4000 word assignments in for after Xmas, and also working on my reflective diary. Having heard about other courses, it seems that they're not all consistent and this one may be a higher workload than some - shame i didn't know that before, haha!

One of the things i am enjoying about the course is the reflective element - not just the explicit stuff i.e write a reflective diary but a lot of the other modules, particularly the psychology aspects of our critical theories model often lead me to think of ways i have behaved, or certain ways i have communicated and how i might have done it better. We've also had debates about our culture and ethnicity and how it affects the way we are today, where our values come from and a range of broad questions that you tend to take for granted but I've found very interesting to probe into a bit.

The breadth of the course is mad, covering social policy, psychology, life span development, research methods (possibly my least favourite),the more practical side of social work, and in two weeks time, my 4 hour law lectures begin! But I'm loving learning so much and for me, pretty much every single class is totally new information. The majority of the class have studied psychology or sociology which means they seem to know a lot - so i do feel i'm working hard to play catch up but it also means i find everything new and interesting.

One of the things i really enjoy is that we get set two totally random articles to read for one of our modules each week and then discuss in class. This week the theme is human rights, so one article is about human rights and whether the social work code of ethics in different countries overlap enough with the human rights act, and the other was specifically about the gypsy traveller communities and the application of human rights. Last week it was about systems of management within the workplace and another on ecological theory and how you can apply lessons from the environment to groups around us...very broad!

I also enjoy how topical it is, and the fact it's helped me interpret the news a bit better - i.e today's class was on globalisation - something that pervades most news stories.

Next month i'll also be doing 3 days shadowing a social worker, and start my child observation - 6 x one hour sessions observing a child under 5, which should be really interesting.

It's certainly exhausting, but as i know i'm lame at working in evenings, i'm making sure i still go out and have fun then - i find it great way to switch off from the essays in hand/ my form of self - care (!) and i'm at my most productive in the days anyway, even if it means weekend working!

Anyway...basic summary of a boring post is that it's all going well so far! Just slightly scared about essay writing!