Sally Brown

Continuing my work with the School of Health at Manchester University, I will this week be running a session on internationalisation for them, the slides for which are here.  Manchester-Midwives-Internationalisation-1-march-w.pptx (494 downloads)
As they have large numbers of Chinese students, I’ve been looking particularly in preparation at the research on this area, and would particularly recommend Jeanette Ryan’s 2011 edited collection ‘China’s higher education reform and internationalisation’. I’ve learned a lot!

We had a wonderful week’s holiday down in Devon and Cornwall last week catching up with friends and going to a wedding where I met cousins and friends I hadn’t seen for 30 years! The Sun shone on us pretty much all the time we were away adding to the overall mood of relaxation!
Sadly towards the end of our time in Falmouth I persuaded Phil that the hydrotherapy pool in the hotel would be good for his  joints. Sadly he slipped on the wet floor and fell hurting his back, so I am off to Sunderland University today to do his workshop on assessment! I hope they will tolerate my substitution for him! The slides I am using are here:  Sunderland-Assess-27-Feb-w.pptx (458 downloads)
You will be pleased to know he is on the mend, and that it is getting easier day by day.

After a foul chest infection, this week sees me on my travels to QMU in support of their ambition to advance HEA Fellowships and then on to Manchester School of Health to work on Curriculum Refreshment with their School of Midwives. Phil’s and my ‘colourful diagram’ in support of HEA Fellowship at the different levels is here as a Word document, ukpsf-details-on-one-sheet-w.docx (643 downloads) as is a link to the useful AdvanceHE tool, https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/news-and-views/introducing-the-fellowship-category-tool    to help people decide which level to aim for. My Manchester slides are here too.  Manchester-Midwives-w.pptx (407 downloads)

But the week after that, don’t even think of asking me or Phil to do any tasks: we are off on our holidays to Devon and Cornwall with no work at all, seeing old friends and family, going to a wedding and lazing around in a spa by the sea!

After that, it’s full speed ahead again helping to finalize details for the NTF-led, open to everyone symposium in Birmingham:

“Supported by AdvanceHE, the event is very competitively-priced due to the generosity of BCU’s Vice-Chancellor, NTF Philip Plowden who is not charging NTF for the use of rooms on their campus. There is a full programme of workshops, plenaries and panels, including keynotes by Theo Gilbert, the Times Higher Innovative Teacher of 2018 on ‘Making a Difference though Compassionate Teaching’ and NTFs Haleh Morajev and Viv Rolfe in tandem on ‘Making a difference to students’ and staff wellbeing’.  A full day strand on day one led By Pauline Kneale, Jenny Winter and Ruth Pilkington is based on their HEA-funded project on Evaluating Teaching Impact, and the Friday morning offers an option for those aiming to achieve personal chairs led by the Professors in Preparation network.  The whole two-day event is £250, with reductions for day delegates and NTF/CATE winners.
The event is bookable via the AdvanceHE website   https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/node/813

After the excitement of our Burns night supper (none of us are Scottish but I like the grandchildren to enjoy all kinds of heritage and we never miss out on a party)  I’m busy this week again with two information sessions about the National Teaching Fellowships  scheme in 2019 for aspirants (for this year and future years) as well as those who support them. On Wednesday I’m at Sunderland 11-1pm then hotfooting down to Brighton for one at Brighton University 10-12. The slides about these sessions are here  ANTF-presentation-2019-slides-ww.pptx (794 downloads)  and all events are bookable via AdvanceHE. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/events?field_focus_target_id=All&field_event_type_target_id=All&field_position_on_the_pathway_target_id=All&keys=NTF&field_event_date_value%5Bmin%5D=today&field_event_date_value%5Bmax%5D=%2B10+years&field_county_or_region_target_id=All&field_fellowship_category_target_id=All&field_instit_target_id=All

You can also find information at this link about booking for the NTF-led annual open symposium at Birmingham City University 28th-29th March on the theme of ‘Making a Difference’. This must be the most cost effective learning and teaching conference this year due to the generosity of the VC Philip Plowden who is himself an NTF and is allowing us to use BCU rooms without charge!

On Friday I’m raring to go again on assessment and feedback at the Business School at Sussex University and the slides I’m using are  here.  Sussex-Assess-1-Feb19-w.pptx (412 downloads)

Next week I’m running a virtual NTF2019 seminar on Wednesday 2pm-3.30 but the rest of the week is moderately quiet so I’m aiming to continue with the New Year’s Resolution to do more of what I enjoy, so Fridays from now on are all about Family, fiends, film, fiction, food and mainly fun!

Another busy week! After reading in school with Year One in the morning on Monday I will get the train with Phil to London , Queen Mary University, where Phil and I will be based for 2 days supporting Fellowship and assessment activities.
On Wednesday 16th, I am running the first of the Association of National Teaching Fellows support workshops to help people thinking about applying for NTSs as well as those working with them. There are a dozen of these plus webinars, so that wherever you live in the UK there should be one you can attend. Full details and booking arrangements are on AdvanceHE’s website. Thanks very much to Mark Allinson at Regent’s University for hosting this first event, from 2.00-4.00 pm. The slides that we will all be using are here:  ANTF-presentation-2019-slides-ww.pptx (794 downloads)

Then we’re off to Cumberland Lodge for two days to run the NTF-led writing residential (pro bono) which will be great fun. It’s a fabulous venue and participants make great progress. Some are coming just to get peace and quiet and others will be joining in with facilitated sessions on topics we will negotiate at the start of the two days. The slides which Phil and I used are here (we only used some of these, but we hope you’ll find the rest of interest):  Cumberland-lodge-writing-residential-17-18-janauary-2019-W.pptx (486 downloads)
But I made a big decision while we were in Ireland last week. As I head towards my 69th birthday shortly I’ve decided I am not going to take any work bookings on Fridays any more (while fulfilling those already in the diary). Instead I’m making Friday’s into my Friendship and Fitness days from now on.

Happy New Year to everyone: let’s hope we all survive the political uncertainties of the coming months relatively unscathed!

My New Years Resolutions included ‘Being More Puffin’ (i.e. giving myself a break sometimes) and a commitment to read more fiction, and I certainly succeeded in making a good start between Christmas and New Year.

What a joyful start to the year’s work in 2019 however to be presenting alongside the fabulous Michelle Morgan of Bournemouth University, Kay Sambell of Edinburgh Napier University and Phil, during  Cork IT’s ‘Conversations on Teaching and Learning’ programme next week. My session will be on applying for HEA Fellowship, taking into account developments within the emergent Irish framework for enabling HEI staff to track their professional development within the sector (see the ‘Aligning Teaching and Learning across the Technological Sector’ (ATLAS) mapping consultation). My slides are here as is Phil’s and my colourful diagram setting out the UKPSF on a single (A3) page.  Cork-January-2019-FHEA-w.pptx (463 downloads)   ukpsf-details-on-one-sheet-w.docx (643 downloads)

This week my pre-Christmas peregrinations take me to Leeds Business School to support colleagues working (mainly) with Masters Students before setting off to take a suitcase full of presents down to Molly and Chloe, our  twin granddaughters in Wales (expect an outbreak of sleighbells and glitter).

I’m particularly concentrating at the Leeds session on thinking about how assessment can be made fit-for-purpose  and productive of learning while aligning with professional body requirements in a highly internationalized context. My slides are here:  Leeds-AssessFeedbackDec12-w.pptx (403 downloads)

Today I’ve been working with Phil at the University of Manchester helping the School of Social Sciences and later in the day the Economics Department think about Assessment for Learning, particularly formative feedback and feed-forward. I am then travelling tomorrow via Preston to the South to examine a PhD on a related topic, which has really made me think. The slides we used today are here: AssessFeedbackManchester-w.pptx (537 downloads)
This weekend, more festivities, when we take the grandchildren and other assorted relatives to see Northern Stage’s Christmas production on ‘A Christmas Carol’, and on Sunday we’re hosting drinks and mince pies for our neighbours.
Then there are two more assessment and feedback related workshops before Christmas, one at Leeds University Business School and the other at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester, slides for which will appear here in due course.
After that, it’s jingle all the way ….!