Morgan Price Emoji for UofG Student Newsletter

 

Hi, my name is Morgan Prior and I am currently in week 4 of studying PGDE Primary.

At the beginning of the semester I was really not looking forward to learning online, it really stressed me out as I learn and focus so much better having someone in front of me teaching.

The first week was pretty disastrous, I couldn’t get zoom to work, My Moodle kept freezing on my laptop and I was just feeling pretty bombarded and all I could think was ‘if this is week one, how am I going to feel in week 5?’. 

Well now that we are into week 4, I can say I am fully enjoying online learning, I am more calm and able to focus on my tasks and prioritise my workload a lot easier than I thought I could and possibly more than I would have if I was on campus.

I have been following my own top tips which has helped me so much over the past few weeks. Don’t get me wrong, staring at my laptop screen from 8.30am to 8.30pm does get very draining and I am mentally exhausted by the end of the week but I am really enjoying learning about what my future holds and to me that is worth the hard working I am putting in.  

 

Top Tips 
  • Connect & communicate - Stay in touch with daily catchups and regular chats with tutors and your peers. I can assure you, if you are wondering something, I am pretty sure someone else is wondering it to. It’s such a good way to ask quick questions or to let your peers know if there is something going wrong with your internet or zoom.  
  • Timetable – I highly recommend linking your Moodle timetable to your phone or laptop calendar. You can find out how to do that on the new UofG Life App, this has kept me up to date with what classes are live or online anytime and how long they last and what my tutor is called. I also would say try and stick to your lectures and seminars in their allocated slot, I know some work can take more time than expected but I feel if I don’t stop, move onto my next class and go back to the previous task at a later time, the amount of work just overflows the time I have.   
  • Create your study environment – I am lucky enough to have a spare room where I can go to. I feel this has helped me to stay focused as I am not feeling as sluggish as I feel I would be if I just went to study in my own bedroom or even stay in bed.  
  • Drink up – I don’t think I have ever drunk so much water! I bought myself a new water bottle before starting the semester and I always have it topped up. It keeps me hydrated and healthy, especially with being sat down all day every day and not getting as much exercise.   
  • Have a breather – Although some of my lectures and seminars are back to back, I always go a short 2-5-minute walk and get some fresh air between my classes (just like I would if I was on campus walking to and from lectures or seminars). I feel this just helps my body to stop focusing for a little bit before I start my next subject and helps me to concentrate more.  
  • Take time out – I have set aside a Friday night and Saturday to have ‘me’ time. I try not to think about uni work or the week ahead too much as I feel I need to have time for myself. I think get the laptop back out on a Sunday and catch up on any work I need to do for the following week, which for the past 5 weeks has been working.  
  • Organise – I organise everything! I have separate folders for every subject in my student email, in my documents folder and also in my folders in my house for any print outs. This makes finding lessons or information a lot easier that having to search through hundreds of emails or documents.  

First published: 25 September 2020

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