It’s the end of week 1 and I’ve got this incredible feeling of being behind in blog posts already! In the past, such a feeling would cause me to write off the blog as a bad job, chastise myself for my lack of follow through and that would be the end of that. I’m going to try and keep at it for a while longer this time!
I had a mini-supervision on Monday and had my first proper, scheduled supervision today. It was good fun, but I hadn’t achieved much in the 4 days between the two meetings.
My Monday meeting left me with a stack of notes to work through. One of the most helpful things I got out of the meeting is that a PhD (mine at least, your supervisor my vary) will consist of roughly:
- one third idea,
- one third implementation and testing and
- one third evaluation.
I quite like having that vague road map in my mind. It doesn’t directly relate to the time I’m going to spend on each (though a three year PhD would divide nicely into those!)
I got a few other pointers and had some questions answered. Reading (i.e. around the subject) has the potential to be a big issue for me. My third year project literature review was weak, weak, weak and it caused me a lot of stress. I’m determined to minimise any issues with it this time round. That said, I haven’t got very far! 😀 I’ve made the decision so far that I consider a paper “read” when it has been logged in JabRef and I have written a little review. So far, I have started reading two papers…. hmm
When it came down to what I should be doing for this first week, I was delighted that my tentative suggestion that I might be allowed to try making a competence structure (the topic of my PhD) was enthusiastically embraced, rather than shot down as I had been expecting. I’m also heading off to a workshop in Telford about competence structures and ePortfolios, so I sorted that out.
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent on PhD admin (more forms!) and working on my competence structure. I got kind of ill this week, coughing and sneezing and speaking with a silly voice. Damn Freshers. It mostly affected my Thursday and Friday; it’s slowing me down and clouding my thinking, so I haven’t been doing stuff that requires much brain power!
I’m looking forward to beating this cold over the weekend, going to a wedding of one of Russell’s family friends and bringing our beautiful new kitten home with us on Sunday!
Our new kitten