Final Review

This is the final review of my targets and what I have achieved throughout my time at college so far.
My first target is putting more time into each piece of work, I have been making loads of progress with this target because I am still spending just as long doing each piece of work so that I am completing it to the best of my ability. The strategy I used to improve this target was to complete the work and then review and find faults, the correct them and then get my dad to review it and correct any faults he finds, this strategy was very effective and I am doing much better in my assignments, I used this strategy previously and it is still working well so Im not going to change what I am doing. I have made progress with this target because I am getting much better grades in my assignments and I am currently meeting the top level for each assignment in all of my assignments, I have achieved a Distinction in Units 2 and 24 which puts me near the top of the class and on target to achieve top marks. I trialled getting my teacher to review my work more but the practicality is that they don't have enough extra time to do this with every piece of work. Overall I think that I have done very well with this target because I am making very good progress with my work and I am achieving highly. I believe that the strategies that I used were effective and helped me to achieve this target.

My second target is to listening more in class, I have made lots of progress with this target because I am listening more and more to what it being said in class and I am asking more questions too, my tutors have also been commenting on this and saying how I'm contributing more to class time. The strategy I used to improve on this target was to always make sure that no matter what I'm doing I turn around and listen when the teacher is talking, sometimes even if they are talking to someone else about their work I turn around. I have made progress with this target because I am hearing everything the teachers are saying and I'm not missing any important information, I have been trialling a new strategy of noting down key points which has paid off sometimes but other times the key points are already written down for me so I don't need to do anything. Overall I think that my listening skills have improved greatly and I am paying a lot more attention during my lessons to the teacher and what is going on around me in class. My strategies didn't work too well because the key points that I needed were mostly already written down for me so I didn't need to write them down.

My last target is to improve my public speaking, I have made a lot of progress with this target because I am speaking out more in class and the other day due to the fact that I had finished the work I went around the class helping people with their programming because I had finished my work about 3 days previous to that. The strategy I used to improve this target was to say a little more each lesson so that I gradually build up my confidence in my public speaking. I have made progress with this target because I am speaking more in class and am helping people do their work because I have already finished, having to tell people what to do is really forcing me to improve my public speaking skills. My new strategy of putting myself in situations where I have to publically speaking is working because I'm helping out more in class which means I have to speak to people more. Overall I think that I have done well with my target because I have been speaking up more in class and also outside of class, I am also much more talkative with other members of my class and people around college. My strategy of putting myself into talking situations has worked very well as I have been able to talk to a lot more people.

Since I started college in Septemeber I think I have come a long way as a person because this new situation has forced me to be more organised about how I do my work and I have put more effort into all of my work, much more than I did when I was in my old school. I think that I am doing well within my class and on this course, I have made a large number of friends at the college and from what I am hearing from my tutors I am achieving very highly within my course. I think that as long as I continue to put in a high level of effort and try my hardest with each assignment then I believe that I will do well in both the certificate and diploma stages of the course to come.

Thursday 25th February

I am on track with all of my targets and am making steady progress with them. I am improving in myself and college is going well. I am keeping up with all of my assignments and am on track to achieve a distinction.

PDP Review

My first target is putting more time into each piece of work, I have been making loads of progress with this target because I am still spending just as long doing each piece of work so that I am completing it to the best of my ability. The strategy I used to improve this target was to complete the work and then review and find faults, the correct them and then get my dad to review it and correct any faults he finds, this strategy was very effective and I am doing much better in my assignments, I used this strategy previously and it is still working well so Im not going to change what I am doing. I have made progress with this target because I am getting much better grades in my assignments and I am currently meeting the top level for each assignment in all of my assignments, I have achieved a Distinction in Units 2 and 24 which puts me near the top of the class and on target to achieve top marks. I trialled getting my teacher to review my work more but the practicality is that they don't have enough extra time to do this with every piece of work.

My second target is to listening more in class, I have made lots of progress with this target because I am listening more and more to what it being said in class and I am asking more questions too, my tutors have also been commenting on this and saying how I'm contributing more to class time. The strategy I used to improve on this target was to always make sure that no matter what I'm doing I turn around and listen when the teacher is talking, sometimes even if they are talking to someone else about their work I turn around. I have made progress with this target because I am hearing everything the teachers are saying and I'm not missing any important information, I have been trialling a new strategy of noting down key points which has paid off sometimes but other times the key points are already written down for me so I don't need to do anything.

My last target is to improve my public speaking, I have made a lot of progress with this target because I am speaking out more in class and the other day due to the fact that I had finished the work I went around the class helping people with their programming because I had finished my work about 3 days previous to that. The strategy I used to improve this target was to say a little more each lesson so that I gradually build up my confidence in my public speaking. I have made progress with this target because I am speaking more in class and am helping people do their work because I have already finished, having to tell people what to do is really forcing me to improve my public speaking skills. My new strategy of putting myself in situations where I have to publically speaking is working because I'm helping out more in class which means I have to speak to people more.

I have been working on my target of using my free college time to do work and I have made loads of progress with that as I currently don't have any assignments left to do and have worked through some of my lunch breaks to get work done.

PDP Review

My first target is putting more time into each piece of work, I have been making loads of progress with this target because I am spending at least twice as long doing each piece of work so that I am completing it to the best of my ability. The strategy I used to improve this target was to complete the work and then review and find faults, the correct them and then get my dad to review it and correct any faults he finds, this strategy was very effective and I am doing much better in my assignments. I have made progress with this target because I am getting much better grades in my assignments and I am currently meeting the top level for each assignment in all of my assignments. A new strategy that I might use is to get my teacher to review my work too.

My second target is to listening more in class, I have made lots of progress with this target because I am listening more and more to what it being said in class and I am asking more questions too. The strategy I used to improve on this target was to always make sure that no matter what I'm doing I turn around and listen when the teacher is talking, sometimes even if they are talking to someone else about their work I turn around. I have made progress with this target because I am hearing everything the teachers are saying and I'm not missing any important information, I also got a raffle ticket for paying excellent attention during presentations. A new strategy I might use is to note down the key things that the teachers say in class.

My last target is to improve my public speaking, I have made a lot of progress with this target because I am speaking out more in class and the other day due to the fact that I had finished the work I went around the class helping people do their work. The strategy I used to improve this target was to say a little more each lesson so that I gradually build up my confidence in my public speaking. I have made progress with this target because I am speaking more in class and I got recognision from Terrence about how good my communication skills are. A new strategy I might use is to purposely put myself in situations where I have to do public speaking.

A new target that I'm going to set myself is to make sure that I use my free time at college to do or improve on my work as this may benifit me in the long run.

Review of Progress

My PDP targets were to: spend more time on each piece of work, listen more in class and to improve my public speaking skills.

It was important that I improved my skills related to spending more time on each piece of work because I was rushing through each piece of work and not putting enough effort into each piece of work and therefore the work was not up to the full standard that I could have achieved if I put my full effort into my work. I have made a lot of progress in improving this skill because I am spending more time doing my work and I spend 2 and a half hours on one piece of work the other day and I did a really good piece of work.

My PDP achievements for the week

This week I worked more on putting more time on each piece of work and I spent 2.5 hours on Lucy's work that is due in today and I did a really good piece of work in the end :). I haven't made any more headway to improving my public speaking inside or outside college. I have been paying more attention in class though, I have started to take notes in my classes and now I am starting to have a written record of everything I'm doing as well as one on moodle.

My PDP achievements for the week

This week was the first time I actually had my targets for my PDP therefore I can only start blogging about my achievements now. This week I feel that I have achieved some way to my first target of putting more time into each piece of work because I didn't rush the leaflets I made for Terrence's assignment and put a lot of effort into them :). I'm on the way to listening more in class, I'm still getting a bit distracted sometimes but it's getting better :P.
I haven't made any headway with improving my public speaking at college but I talked to my boss at my job and I'm going to be representing them at quarterly meetings with the MP for Gravesham which will help me to improve my public speaking.