Cpd23 - Thing 8,9 and 10 - Google Calendar, Evernote and Chartership

Well, this week I am amalgamating a few Things as I'm off work for a little while and am trying to just think about things like growing veg, exercise and pondering the meaning of life rather than anything library or work-related - this is to prevent me from having a meltdown come the time of enrolling and inducting new students.


Trying to do more of this...



Firstly, I use Google Calendar sparingly. I have it on my iGoogle page but don't really have much on it. This doesn't mean I lead a carefree existence and can pick things up and drop them as I please, far from it, it just means I currently use other facilities.

 My workplace uses Outlook so this means I tend to as well. I have a page which no-one else can see which I use for work and personal commitments, for example, workshops I am delivering and dentist appointments. I even put meet ups with friends as otherwise I'd end up not seeing people for ages! I have this side by side with the work one and transfer any relevant appointments across.

I started using the Google one as I thought I could also download other useful calendars, like the CILIP one, however, it won't let me at the moment. I like Outlook but can only use the webmail version at home and I really don't like it due to its lack of functionality, so perhaps Google Calendar may still have a chance. I don't seem to use my work diary more for keeping track of events anymore - just my day to day work. I wonder if the sale of work diaries has reduced...

Secondly, I quite like the idea of Evernote as I have often made comments on people's ages and promptly forgotten about them until I did the Google yourself task for Thing 3 and there they were! I don't want to download it just yet as I borrowing someone else's laptop but will as soon as my new one arrives (or I return to work). I had never heard of Evernote or Springpad, which was mentioned in the comments box, so am definitely going to have a look at them. I wish I had known about the Web Clipper before I started my my Chartership as this would have been very useful when trying to compile my bibliography.


Which leads us nicely into thirdly - Thing 10. In whatever job I've had in the past I've wanted to be very good at it! I had all my stars when I worked for McDonalds, for example! So when I landed a job as a Learning Centre Assistant based on my customer service skills rather than any library knowledge, although obviously I'd been an avid library user in the past, I looked at the next step up the ladder. I already had an English degree so investigated studying for a Masters. Due to financial constraints and personal circumstances I decided to continue working full time and did a part time course at UCL. Very difficult but I managed it and have used this as an example of being incredibly organised ever since!

As soon as I qualified, I was given the opportunity to work at Kingston College and set up a Higher Education Centre. I have really enjoyed this job and like delivering workshops to the students and liaising (aka having a good chat) with the staff. Having a job which sits across two sectors is interesting but requires a lot of catching up on what's happening in each one! I didn't start Chartership straight away as I had other training needs which I wanted to sort out. After completing the CMI Diploma in Line Management, to improve my line management skills I decided to take on both Chartership to develop professionally and PTTLS to develop my teaching. 

I have now finished my PTTLS and am close to Chartership completion, so I am now looking round at the next big thing to do. I am contemplating doing something unwork related, like learning Spanish, but have yet to come to any conclusions, as this will be of use both personally and professionally. I would really like to try writing articles, or just the one, but still haven't got round to it - I think I'd feel a bit embarrassed handing something over which no-one has asked for.

 I am also in the process of trying to find some kittens to buy :).

Learning Spanish will be useful if I go back here!

Plans/ideas for future:

Buy kittens

Learn Spanish

Write articles

Continue involvement with other library peeps

Cpd23 - Thing 5 - Reflective Practice



Reflective Practice:

So it's Thing 5 time already (although everyone else seems to be on Thing 7 already!).

 bamagirl - Morguefile

Generally, I don't think I'm too bad at reflecting on my work. In the last two years I have completed the Level 3 Diploma in Line Management for the Chartered Institute of Management, completed a Preparing to Teach (PTTLS) course and have embarked upon Chartership - these have all involved reflective writing to some degree.

My problem with reflective writing is that there isn't time to write everything up so I have to make a choice about which events are important enough to get the time.

Another problem I find myself having is rarely going back to my reflections. When I have done, I've realised that I had noticed an issue which could have been dealt with but then wasn't. I perhaps need to remind myself on occasion to look back over what I have written but how often and how far back? When does reflection become living in the past?

When I started my Chartership I made a conscious effort to write up absolutely everything I did - just in case it was needed as evidence. I think in future, as this is just not sustainable time wise, I may just write up events, training and projects I have been involved in. The good thing is that I have now got into the habit of writing up events, such as the Library and Information Knowledge Exchange (LIKE), that I can report back much more easily to my colleagues and pass on my notes to those that may benefit from them, even months later.

To keep me on track when I am reflecting on an event, I use the following process:

• what happened?
• what's my response to it?
• what am I going to do with what I've learned?

If I'm feeling particularly brave I will also set a deadline.

I think reflective writing is very useful - it helps get the most out of every event, it really helps when writing up annual reports and most of all it helps when you get to the end of the year and wonder 'where did it all go so fast?!'