Student Advice (Week 7)

This week is the check in point in our first semester of animation and the time we get to use our student’s advice week, to discuss and bring up any questions or issues we have with our lessons and work.

I have been struggling this past October with moving up to Belfast and dealing with our first seamer, of our second year being completely online and having to develop our skills and working environment to suit our situation during these difficult times. I struggled with the balancing of personal problems, university and not having the normal schedule and utilise within my own home for online learning and had given myself October to relax and set some time apart to get all my learning in order, to then really settle down and work hard beginning November. So, the students advice week actually couldn't have come at a better time for me as I have all my affairs in order, have lots of time to sit and work and can use this catch up with my tutor Henry, to maybe explain my situation asking for any advice he may have on how I can catch up within my work. What components will be priority to start working on and maybe some useful tips on time management, to provide me a clear view of what our assignment and include and what is expected of us and just to help me get backing work and to better help any work I have done so far and will continue on with.

I am currently writing this while waiting for my student advice session to begin and have a rough idea of what questions I hope to ask, these include discussing that I have fallen a bit behind with lectures and the upkeep of weekly blogs and how I would go ahead with catching up and what learning materials I should begin with first. I also will discuss that some of the of the tasks and weekly tutorials I have also fallen behind on and will discuss what I most important for me to proceed with working on currently and what I can catch up on in my own time. I’m eager to begin this student advice as I have many questions to ask and it would really help my anxiety of the work backlog, I am currently struggling with.

These are some of the notes that I documented from my time in the student’s advice session and happy to say that having the catch up really relaxed my worries and anything I was stressed in regulars to semester one. I began with telling my tutor how I have struggled over the month of October with moving, travelling up and down from my home and having the stress with first time moving and the lack of time and interest access to begin my work. He began with reassuring me that this year within animation they are always understanding of everyone’s circumstances and they are relaxed and are not being too strict on deadline, so to not worry and musk sure I keep my group and tutors updated on my circumstances.

This was really good news to hear as it allowed me to relax and about my situation and to now just continue in working steadily and keeping up to date on my work.

I showed Henry the first out of four assists I was currently working on for my assignment in fairy realm and explained some of the difficulties I was having with the front house door and the acorn top, I wanted to add onto the bottle of my mushroom/acorn home. I sent the file to Henry for some further feedback and then we continued to discuss this semester other class, Professional Practice.

In the beginning of this semester, I was really eager to begin wish class as I thought it was exactly what us as student going into placement year next year or looking to continue on within a professional animation job could really benefit from. The class was going to help us produce a professional CV, business cards, develop our ability to apply for profession work and the criteria they would require and to overall strengthen our ability to work and be a stable candidate for employers. However, the last couple of classes have been somewhat confusing and our most focusing on how we as an employee will work within the professional environment, work with the and our employer and the different way we can develop our personality and knowledge to suit our environment.

I've enjoyed these lessons and documented what I have learnt within my weekly blog posts, however, worry if we will be discussing our set tasks and assignments and if this will not be the case, as we as a group may find it difficult to clearly understand what is expected of us within these assignments.

My tutor and student advice session were overall educational for the concerns and question I had about my classes and I'm content and happy with the help I was given, the information provided and the security that my tutor understands my queries and circumstances and at this semester will be combative, supportive, educational and overall enjoyable.