Tackling the first assignment

What a superb (and really helpful!) post by Early Childhood (E109) Open University  student Kathleen Davies

Feeling enthusiastic to study and excited at the prospect of learning about a subject I have never studied before I must admit I felt quite confident approaching my first assignment. I had looked at the ‘all weeks’ tab on the study planner and got an idea of the pace expected. I had written all the hand in dates of each assignment in my new study diary and even printed off a very useful combined study schedule and ‘blu tacked’ it to the wall as if to display to my family my new status as ‘Student Who Is Organised and Ready To Study’.

Beginning the course was great, I watched all the useful video clips about getting organised and time management. My plan was to absorb as much as humanly possible in order to have the skills ready in my arsenal before they were required. Like a student ninja – poised, ready. Happily the prep was made easy by all the resources made available to us as OU students. My eyes widened with glee at the numerous databases the OU subscribes to. I joined in a library adobe connect room about how to find information and research a topic. I bought a Totum card (student discount at 37? Yes please). I did a Welsh quiz in our Wales Student Union adobe connect room. I booked onto my course tutorials. For the whole year. Then seemingly out of the blue, yesterday I realised my first assignment is due next week. TMA01.

O.K. we’re here, we can do this, I can do this, just me. I’ve done the prep, this is what I’ve been training for, this is what I signed up for. Wax on, wax off.

The long and short of it is, I approached my neatly arranged desk at various times over 3 days and wrote not a single word of that assignment. I procrastinated like a pro. The laundry had to be done, a phone call must be made, I didn’t have the right study sweets. Eventually I had to challenge myself. What exactly is going on here? I like studying, I’m GOOD at studying, I know how to study. I did the library adobe connect room thing for goodness sake, get on with it!

I did a quick online meditation with someone on Instagram (more procrastination?). I came to understand it was my little not-so-friendly self-esteem beast rearing its ugly head and if I didn’t face it I would be staring dead eyed at a blank computer screen forever more.

I thought I was over this, not gonna lie, feelings of not being good enough, not intelligent enough, not capable enough, not…enough. But this time things are different. This time I have chosen my topics just because I fancied learning about them. This time I’m a bit older, a bit more battle scarred and to be honest, I have more pressing things to be getting on with. Like the uniform wash, which is genuinely more important than an essay about the maturationist viewpoint.

This time I have no-one to prove anything to except myself. This new line of thinking gave me the confidence to not be perfect, and to not worry if I didn’t get everything exactly right first time round. That coupled with the supportive environment I have found at the OU reminded me that I am capable. The way that all the weeks are laid out really helps to break everything down into smaller more manageable chunks, and during the online tutorials and video clips online it has been emphasised that most OU students have busy lives and priorities. That made me feel part of a group of people all taking names in the morning and writing essays in the evening and made me feel less alone and like it was do-able.

I went back to the assessment guide and I wrote some notes. I re-read the study materials this time looking for evidence of what I wanted to say. I wrote the first half of the assignment (I knew I enjoyed this!). The next two days I spent chewing over the video materials I had watched in the online activities while I made a cup of tea, or washed up lunch boxes, and when I returned to the assignment it was on my chrome book on my lap in the living room after the school run one day.

I wrote the TMA and asked a friend who is a social worker to look over it to make sure it made sense. That was today! So I’ve got some time now to sleep on it and return to it with fresh eyes before submitting, however, I am feeling quite happy with my first assignment. Hopefully the wall to climb over for TMA02 is a row or two of bricks lower when I come to it.

Every success with your assignment Kathleen!