It's all over in a flash..reflection on my module.

Well it really feels like only yesterday that i was lining up in registration in a nervous panic;didnt know anyone and found it very hard all together to get used to the college.But in what was really only a matter of weeks i have gone from feeling very much that i wasn't the college type to really enjoying my education for once.In secondary school you learn because you have to but in college you learn,maybe not necessarily because you want to,but because you you have a longing to;a longing to understand,and to ultimitly enjoy the course you have chosen.
I think i have achieved this in the last few months as ive really got stuck in to the course.I have made some very close firends already and really find that i have been blessed with an incredible class of people.As for my c.i.t. module i really did have a stroke of good luck to get put with the group i am with,they really are a great punch of people who i found it very easy to get along with.Sarah was of course a fantastic leader.With her we were able to do the work needed without feeling to much pressure or feel restrained by time.The whole group i found worked well together and i only hope others in my class had as good a time as i did with my group and i wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

reflection of CIT module

Its been a great first term, this module was a learning experience, first IT module without a computer class but it has given food for thought, a tough task given without any help along the way has helped forge some of us and dishearten others. On the whole though the "herbals" have all come out the other side with new skills that will stand to us in the future. finding time in the day for BLOG entrys, seting up mahara, researching for news letters, holding interviews and putting together group projects out of college hours wasn't easy especially with all the study time needed for our other "heavy" subjects. with all this heavy work load the snow was a nice sight last wednesday in clone (bit mad having a class that day wit the roads like ice), ended up havin snow ball fights, laughin and playing around, it was a welcome break in between exams which are finnishing this week (have to cut it short for an exam in 5 mins, goodbye BLOGGERS) 

Having a look to see whats inside

These weeks and months rolled by without being marred by angered confrontation or even a trace of ill-will, with any random assortment of students, such an outcome must be noted and appreciated. It took a part time project to get one step into the minds of  of 3 other people, to see what drives them and what, if left to their own devices, they would think and write about a shared experience. clonakilty every wednesday for a few hours, shared anxiety before and after exams. I found that the blog was an excellent outlet to stay in contact with the goings on in college day to day, having missed some time in college during this first semester. It was also very helpful to see what may be the future of education, with the use of online resources furthering my views on what may and may not be integral to tendering for employment and experience.

It will be great disappointment that this will see the end of this particular grouping, with excessive help from Jess Peter and of course team leader extraodinare Miss Sarah Fox. Without each of these folks i surely would have shaken and toppled under the strain, to see others excell encourages you to do all you can.

Through the looking glass....a reflection on the last 12 weeks....

So it began all those weeks ago...strangers with one thing in common..a long road of herbal science ahead. For the CIT module we got randomly assigned to groups of class mates to work with toward the common goal of blogging, researching and presenting and all together figuring out some "new fangled" technological advances in the form of blogspot, prezi, mahara and wallwisher.

To reflect on the CIT module as a whole I have to say that I learned a lot about different media resources available that I think will be beneficial to me in the future and I also learned a lot about team work.

The point, I suppose, of being assigned the group was to initially to get us to mingle and get to know each other and learn team work, and taking responsibility within the team. I definitely think that these aspects were achieved as I now feel like the people in my group are friends, people I can count on and people who I look up to for there vast range of skills and assets.
I could not be happier with the group I was assigned as they each brought very important qualities to each part of the module, the course itself and to my progression in the entire semester.
Peter, a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the sciences and always an interesting mind to pick when confusion arose in any subject, is a good guy to have nearby especially when scientific calculators are in danger of being smashed to pieces in anger. His blog entries were a great compilation of what we were learning and how to apply it to daily life and were a great read which I always looked forward to.
Tom, a quick witted genius, was a pleasure to work with and to blog with, as he absolutely cracks me up with wondering just what he'll come up with next. Toms approach to the presentation took a turn that I wouldn't have thought of when he took the topic of memory to it's futuristic outcome and it was both interesting and informative. His newsletter contributions were again informative and light-hearted at the same time, bringing in aspects of his great knowledge of science and his sense of humour.
Jess, all I can say is thank god for her computer skills when it came to the presentation..as prezi seemed to disappear every time I touched it she calmly and collectedly fixed and compiled everything and made, what, I think, was a pretty good presentation and her genius idea of the interactive audience participation with prizes went down really well with the rest of the class. Any time I needed some help with Botany I only had to look at her collection of blogs which showed fantastic study resources.
As for myself, as I got voted in as Team Leader I was initially scared as I didn't think my delegation skills were very good (I know Peter will laugh at this bit as it turned out that I was a master delegate, maybe one might say that the power went to my head! haha) and what I fell I learned about myself is that I think I am pretty much a control freak so I was delighted to have last editing preferences over the newsletters and prezi. As I said to the team in our last CIT module..."what'll I do now that you don't 'have' to do what I say anymore??!" hahaha. I'll miss the power! Wikipedia describes leadership as the "process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task." Yep..I think I nailed that one ;)


Teamwork is defined in Webster's New World Dictionary as "a joint action by a group of people, in which each person subordinates his or her individual interests and opinions to the unity and efficiency of the group." This does not mean that the individual is no longer important; however, it does mean that effective and efficient teamwork goes beyond individual accomplishments. The most effective teamwork is produced when all the individuals involved harmonise their contributions and work towards a common goal. I think that my group are the epitome of this concept. As a whole I think that we reached every goal we set for ourselves in the module and worked really well as a team each instilling a different je ne sais quoi and produced some great work (in my opinion anyhow) and I think the whole module was really good fun, it definitely beats studying Inorganic Chemistry (which is what I'm off to do now.)

So to finish I want to really thank the rest of the team for being productive, interesting, and utterly brilliant and I hope that we get put together for projects in the future because I couldn't think of better folk to work with.

Team Leader Sarah, over and out!

Snow Balls and Ilex aquifolium

Well our last wednesday in Clonakilty came and went in a flash of plants names and snow.After a very nerve wrecking trip on the icy Bandon roads we made it to the college which was covered in an extra thick layer of blinding snow,the best thing to help calm the masses on a very stressful day.After a quick nip round the greenhouse(religiously naming the plants,Teraxicum officinalis,Phormium tenax,Lavendula,Mentha x spicata...)we got stuck in to the written part of the exam.Two years of learning that carbon dioxide and water under light/chlorophyll makes glucose and oxygen definately came in handy and made for a pretty good test.The flowers on the other hand were shall we say somewhat tongue tieing,even after a good study of the plants i found that under the pressure of a moving line of people and the exam situation it was difficult to recall the many flower names sprinting through my mind.Nevertheless the test could have gone a whole lot worse and i was happy to end the day with a snow ball fight and saying goodbye to the cows at the college:-)