May Who?

As May comes to an end, which we can only hope she does, I look at my calendar and notice it still hanging with April not yet fully crossed out and done with. Again, I have been busy. Too busy to cross out days with my sharpie and turn the page, soon to be pages following the new month. I haven't looked at the image for May once, which is a shame as I know it's a good one (I have The Piano Guys calendar and, I know it's an multiple mirrored image trickery of Steven Sharp Nelson playing his cello from the Adelle cover).

The Clockwise Man - Justin Richards.

All, that besides I don't have much left to do now. Just three things which are predominantly creative. My track, music video and eportfolio/website thing. I pretty much finished my track earlier, now I've just got to focus on my music video as my eportfolio is very nearly done with just a few things left to add and upload. The layout is sorted. The main challenge this week is going to be the music video, even though I know I can make a music video in a day if I get desperate. I've done that twice before, once shooting the footage the same day. I don't have much footage to use at the moment, but I plan on recording some paint nonsense soon. Experimental stuff, pouring it into speakers (knackered ones, obviously. That or I'll protect them with something). I plan on doing some "On-location" shoots too on Thursday, with a little help from a friend we could probably get some good usable frames.

On the plus side, I finally managed to complete a book I started reading in November. It just goes to show how busy I've been, but then again I'm quite the slow reader anyway which is probably why I'm still shit at sight reading; that and I don't practice enough.

Scholarship & Research Conference

Today I attended my very first conference, organised by The Association of Colleges; The Scholarship project. A coach had been booked by my college to take all delegates, some presenters. It was an odd journey there. The coach was near-half full of lecturers and then two students; myself and Hailey, who I briefly conversed with whilst we were both waiting by the reception area. The conference was in Leicester and whether was dull. There wasn't much chatter on the coach, I had packed my iPod and Gameboy so I was all set to be antisocial.

When we arrived it started to rain lightly, but that didn't matter too much as we were going to be in doors all day. Once we had registered and been given a booklet each, we helped our selves to free refreshments. I went for the hot chocolate which was a little too hot and burnt my tongue. I spent most of the day following NR. He invited me so it made sense. This also included being a bit of a personal assistant/carer for the day, having to hold his handbag several times, wait. He decided to come with us for the coach ride from Nottingham for some reason even though it would have been much easier for him to drive. Having sat down and been creatively photographed whilst reading booklets and sipping our drinks, a familiar face appeared; Liam Maloy. I remember him vaguely. He used to lecture at NCN although, he never taught me, I just saw him about. He seemed to remember me somehow despite never having a conversation with him previously. That was nice.

Announcements were made and we were all scooted into the main Conference Hall for a welcome talk, highlighting the reason for and opportunities of the day. It rung true to me when collaboration was mentioned. So far this year, that has what it has been about for me; not only working with the performance students, but campus society and some efforts of my course as well. This lead nicely into a talk from Dr Johnathan Eaton on "Scholarship for an Uncertain Future" where he pointed out the technological advantages students have and how even he cannot predict where the future of higher education is going because more often than not, the students are more clued up with the technology available than the lectures; he used his son as an example. His son loves his bike. One day his son took his bike apart and he thought, as a dad that this was going to cost him. His son said, "No, dad I will fix it." and so he did. Dad comes back, the bike is back in one piece; he asks him how he did it. He says he watched DIY help videos on Youtube. Dad, Dr J Eaton was blown away by this yet,  for me, this is something I would probably do, having instant, almost constant access to the internet. Maybe not to fix a bike, but to improve my understanding of something I'm interested in or to learn a new song. If I'm honest, its not very often that I read although I do try.

This lead nicely into the first research breakout sessions, which were divided into three lots of three where you could only see one set of three per three. Sound confusing? I stayed in the main conference room whist NR rushed to get his second hot coco. We wasn't really sure what we wanted to see but the options for this room sounded interesting and it seemed easier than moving about and trying to navigate a building we were both unfamiliar with. The first presentation was lead by students from Derby College called "Business and management graduate employability" and about what employers look for and how often they ask for degrees over core skills. The next talk was lead by Michelle Keegan from Central College about "Challenging behaviour among College HE students and its implications". The increase of violent behaviour and how students feel like they are owed an education and their qualification because they are paying for it. I don't see this that much within my class focus, but I do notice the different behavioural habits across the levels that I work with. Lastly, there was a talk from Matt Bunn, also from Central College about his industry; sports photography and whether or not you need a degree over experience. This of course is arguable with all creative industries with the advancements in technology, the ease of access and ability to teach oneself. He show us professional photos, some taken by himself to show the sort of quality he would expect to see printed in a news column against more armature shots that had been released online, some that had the football photo shopped making for "fake news".

Lunch was an new experience and was free. I panicked at the lack of usual foods I would normally consume; pizza, pasta, chips and so had to settle with lasagne as I had experienced some of its contents before. Four wedges on the side. Choosing my dessert was much easier.

The first talk after lunch was in the main conference hall again. Everyone seemed a little more spread out, away from the front of the stage opposed to what was advised earlier for the better view of the camera. Gobinder Gil lead a presentation of the theory of emotional intelligence which I found rather compelling and made me question my self management. I don't do well with managing my emotions. I notice them and how I feel but, I don't seem to always control them very well, especially more recently. I do well by not punching certain people, as I found the other week. Considering I used to be quite violent towards some of my friends at school, that is progress. I'm a long way from then. The days of kicking everyone in the shins, running away, to be kicked up the arse in return. Oh, I cried when I got my first detention. Reflections aside, this was very interesting. Throughout, he reminded us that he could also read further into his research and studies by buying his books which became quite comedic, but the repetition works for good advertising; he did try hard.

For the last two research breakouts we decided to see, we had to move upstairs to the Travis Perkins Room. We missed the first the first part of Liam Maloy's talk as I needed the loo, although it felt good to get NR back by dumping my bag on him beforehand and then coming out to see him sat down, waiting patiently. Anyway, Liam's talk was about "The comparative educational philosophies of the music/songsof Sesame Street and Muppet Show." It's surprising just what they got away with placing in children's educational songs and what political references and unsuitabilities they have. There was a second talk lead by Steve Spence, representing Derby College. I felt like his was the most vague of all talks, the title being, "Thinking: a complex thing"; the main idea being to given insightful approach to how we think and the implications of this in the classroom. He paced about often, moving allover the room. He brought attention to everybody's attention and how difficult it is to measure. The irony of myself staring out of the window adjacent to where I was sat while he spoke about was too much. I was listening. He shown us a few illusions which played tricks on the mind, some that I had seen before, some that I could second guess but still were tricky. He shown us the apparently famous selective attention test where you have to count each time the ball is pass. I counted the passes, but failed to notice the obvious.



Can you count the passes?

As everyone started to filter out from the last conference, Nick hoovered the remaining sweets from the tables and placed them in my bag. As we were about to leave the building and depart for the coach, Liam wished me all the best with my studies which was nice considering I still feel like I hardly knew him. The journey home was rather nice. Nick sat with me on the coach back and we had a bit of a natter. I tried to reflect on the day in conversation, but I think my head was too busy still taking in all of the information, I did manage to relate to some of the talks and gossip. It went quiet for a moment, enough to notice the smaller environment sounds of the rain hitting the windows and then the wipers smearing it away. The sound of the wipers was something that could not be unheard and was a comedic noise that was highly amusing. I pointed it out several times, simply because I could not not listen. When we arrived back, it was still raining and was just as damp in Nottingham. Climbing down the steps on the coach, Nick started to whistle the anthem of the windscreen wipers, of course.

This certainly was an experience and I'm so glad I was invited. I imagine this will be the first of many. The booklet for this conference has advertised the AoC College HE Research and Scholarship Conference in Birmingham on 27th June later this year, which I hope to go too. It has been a rather intense day, but highly rewarding with the amount of knowledge shared and received. The odd thing about today was, not that I felt out of place in any way, but that I felt almost level with teaching professionals across the East Midlands. This probably came from how open the event was, not that I made the most of that this time around, I was playing it safe and getting used to a new environment; a new experience. I have fully enjoyed all of this and can't wait for the next one! (Just hopefully my head can sustain it).

Break The Silence: Updates

These last few weeks have been a struggle in regards to meeting deadlines, both starting and finishing off assignments that I had completely forgotten. Simply slipped of my list! So, I've been hard at it meaning I've been quiet here. I have a lot of updates to announce, in terms of progress and new things. I already mentioned one in my previous post, but it worth mentioning it again due to it's success; The Nottingham Improvisation Club. We have had three sessions so far and a decent turn out each time, with two performance opportunities coming up on behalf of the college. We are at the stage where we have had suggestions and valuable feedback to make improvements to make the club even more enjoyable which have been considered and plans for the next session are already in place. All being well, we will be improvising to visuals, specifically an sci-fi silent movie. I have been trying to keep a journal of the clubs happening to track our high and low points and the success. I've have produced a short report for all the members to read regarding their feedback as we hit our first month together this Wednesday.

Tis be practice gig season again! Last Thursday I played a short practice gig at college with the almighty level 3, year 2s. They have been coming up with some mega original material that often challenges my drumming abilities, but the ideas and musicality is fantastic. I did mess up a little, but I'll let my self off due to the complexity and the fact that I've still only been playing drums for less than a year. I think even my rapid progress was enough to leave the Scoffmeister shocked, he was full of praise. Also, I played another practice gig today with the level 1s. We only played one song as our second original wasn't quite ready and my even be completely scrapped. I really hope not, for the amount of work we've all put into it.

This week I'll be finishing off my presentation ready for Tuesday next week. The presentation is generally about barriers artists can face once they make it into the music industry. I've focused mostly on Linking Park with the way their sound changes frequently and how their fans react to this. I'm a little apprehensive about this one, as I now have to do it a day earlier than everyone else so that I can attend a conference. I am looking forward to the conference mind, even if it is a bit of a mystery currently. The East Midlands Scholarship Conference 2017. The description is a bit vague, but I feel like it will be a valuable day and it's certainly something to look forward to.

It's quite hard to believe that my first year is almost over now and the final few deadlines are fast approaching. Once my presentation is out of the way, all that remains is to finish my final track, produce a music video for it and then a website as an online portfolio of what I have done throughout the academic year. A lot of it feels like a bit of a blur now as it all starts to come to an end, especially with all of the the other little things on the side with working in various college bands, but I know I have learned and gained so much. It's nice to have the respect of the FE students as I work with them so much and even those that I don't work with have seen me perform and shown their admiration, one even said I'm a great role model. Equally, it's an honour to have the opportunity to work with them. Most of them are so talented and it's a nice reminder of what I had to do for my previous courses and how I can achieve that so easily now.