Where am I?

So this week has been a good one! I am finally feeling better and I am also feeling positive about the time I have ahead of me.

Inquiry
I have really good feedback from Paula about the drafts I sent in last week.  We are planning a Skype discussion and I feel that will really help me get on.  When I was writing out my drafts I felt like was wavering quite a lot and had lost my direction, the feedback from Paula has put me back on task and I hope on the road to our submission deadline!  I can't quite believe that it is the 8th December already!

Artefact
My artefact has been the main focus of the last week and I have got on really well.  I have found where I can get my book printed, however there is a seven to eleven working day turn around! This means that my book has to go in by Friday to ensure that it is back on time to be posted in! AAAAAAHHHHH!!!

My Life (The January Plan!)
I am no further along with the job hunt as it seems everyone is focusing on Christmas! (How dare they) I am not allowing myself to get stressed by this as it is out of my control. January will come around and I may have a period of unemployment or temping but I will be able to deal with this.  Panicking is not the answer.  I have one job application in at the moment and hopefully I will hear from them one way or another in mid December.  I have lots of options work wise at the moment but my main focus has to be on my Bapp work.

Treading Water

I seem to be treading water with my inquiry at the moment and not achieving anything.  I spend time everyday formulating ideas and working on my research but things just seem to take so much longer than I planned! For example my survey, I really want to get 50 respondents and so far have only 38! Getting 38 people to respond however has taken a real effort and lots of time, I guess it was narrow minded to think that everybody would just want to help me!!  Analysing my results has been tricky too and the sample analysis I sent to Paula was quite far off the mark.  I have just a little more reading to do and then I really have to get my literature review written, this will help me so much with my analysis and writing up. 

Yesterday I spent some time starting writing up my inquiry, I know it's a bit soon, but putting something down on the computer was so helpful.  It made me feel like I have achieved something and also made me focus on what I need to get on with.  Hopefully this week will be a bit more productive and I will get some work done!

Where am I now?
I am currently on stage 2, 3 and 4! I need to complete my literature review to move off of stage 2, I need to get those final 12 respondents for my survey and complete my interviews to move off of stage 3 and I need to analyse my findings to move off of stage 4! Then I will finally be able to get on with writing up. my findings.

It is currently week 8 in this 12 week process so I have to get on with these tasks.  NO SLACKING MIMI!

Literature Literature Literature

I have so much literature on my subject now that I really need to dedicate time to completing my reading and writing up a formal review.  I finally believe that I am in a place where I don't need to find anything more than what I have.

My literature varies from informal blogs to books and I feel quite overwhelmed by the amount of information I have. 

Formulating my literature review and getting it written up will be a big step into my inquiry.  It will help me draw conclusions for my analysis and drive my writing forward.

Wish me luck!

What I did for love

Whilst driving last week I was listening to Elaine Paige on Sunday http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006wqwz and 'What I did for love' from the musical 'A chorus line' came on. 

Although I have seen A chorus Line as a child and love all the music I had assumed that 'What I did for love' was simply another love song.  When Elaine Paige played the song she also played introduction, 'but if today were the day that you had to stop dancing how would you feel?'.  This leads into the song which I have to say is a personal favourite and has now brought a new meaning to me.  It represents how I feel at this moment in  my life.  I am in my final two months of my last ever performing contract and as much as I am ready for a career change there is a part of me that is scared.  All I have ever known is dance and performing, all I have ever wanted to do is dance.  Who am I if I am no longer a dancer?  When I fill out forms what will my occupation be? There are some perks, presumably my car insurance will be cheaper and I won't have to live my life in six month stints but will I feel the same if I am not performing?

I believe that these questions and worries are shared by many transitional dancers.  Starting a new part of your life can be scary and worrying.  This drives my inquiry forward.  Hopefully my inquiry will give me clarification and help other transitioning performers and working performers.

Below is the link to a you tube video of 'What I did for love'.  It is not the best quality but contains the lead up scene to the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWGMNJEMZlw

Below is a link to a brief synopsis of the musical

http://www.theatre-musical.com/chorusline/synopsis.html

Looking backwards, moving forwards!

After two weeks of rehearsals I am behind on the schedule I created for myself! I know that the schedule is helpful because at least I know what I have to achieve and have set out clear tasks so I don't waste time, however I when I woke up panicking  at 4am this morning I couldn't get my head around what I should do next.  I have been working in fits and starts over the last two weeks so I have hundreds of pieces of paper that are flying around everywhere.  Today I seized the day and decided before I do anything else these pieces of paper need to be filed organised or destroyed!  My lack of organisation and pieces of paper date right back to module 2, however when I was going through my notes I discovered some great work I had done which will help with my inquiry.  My learning journal is the same, I have re read this and found some really helpful ideas.

In campus session 2 Paula pointed out the importance of re reading the module reader and handbook, I think that the module 2 readers will be helpful to go through as well.

Still delicious!

Hi Guys, just a quick blog to let you know that I am still using and updating my delicious account to gather my literature for my inquiry.  If you want to check it out or follow me the link is below;

https://delicious.com/mimiwhitney1

Campus session 2 - continued

After looking at 'mapping professional domains' (See previous blog http://michellewhitney1.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/mapping-professional-domains-campus.html ) we  separated off into our module groups and Paula lead our session.  I am so grateful that I managed to ask all the questions I had jotted down over the last few weeks of studying and now I feel ready to move forward with my work.  Here are some of the points we covered;

• Enjoy other things - don't get bogged down with work, sometimes walking away and getting some perspective will mean that you work more effectively. 
• Evaluate - Look at the work you have done and evaluate what you have achieved.
• Handbook - It is there for a reason, don't forget to re read it every so often.
• Appendices - These can be used to fill the gaps in your writing.  for example you only get a paragraph or so of your critical review to analyse your literature reviews, use the appendices to add information that you can't cover.
• Drafts - Try to write at least 3 drafts of your work, it should be at least the second draft that gets sent to your adviser.
• Drafts - Try to self analyse your work so any 'frilly' writing becomes more formal
• Literature Reviews - Analyse the writing, try to discover what it means to your inquiry.
• My work - What does it mean? What have I discovered?  How does that meaning inform my thinking?
• Videos/Audio - This can be added to your appendices, do they inform your research?
• Summarise your work
• Scanning - You don't have to read all literature word for word, scan documents to pull out the important pieces.  Highlight these pieces for future reference.
• Criteria - What is the criteria for your selection of research participants?
• Practice - Has your practice changed through what you have learnt?

These are just a write up of my notes, if you would like more clarity on any of these just write a comment and I can add to the detail.

Paula asked us to say out loud the main questions of our inquiry, this was so helpful because it makes you realises what is clear and what isn't.  I would recommend everyone trying this, even if you can't say it to someone on the course it will give you an idea of weather you are articulating what you need to.