Finally finished all that marking

urgh... Finally managed to finish the dissertation marking today, and sent off my draft modules for the new degree programme:

Level 3: Clinical and Counselling Psychology

The aim of this module is to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the fields of clinical and counselling psychology, and the settings and client groups with whom clinical and counselling psychologists work. 

Level 2: Professional Skills for Psychology Graduates

The aim of this module is to provide students with opportunities to develop, reflect on and refine the core subject-specific and generic transferable skills they will need to pursue graduate opportunities relevant to psychology. 

Keen colleagues are off to a writing retreat tomorrow but I have to confess that I will be on the allotment ...

No longer LIW - sort of

Having taken part in a pilot of location independent working (LIW) I have decided it is not for me.  I miss the structure and stimulation of coming into the office each day - didn't think I would but I do.

So I have been allowed back into my old individual office, and will have to hand back the various bits of kit I had use of (multifunction printer, smart-phone, laptop).  This may not be such a wrench as I had anticipated as:

• I've been waiting for ink cartridges for the printer since Christmas 2010 (they arrived at the end of last week!)
• The smart-phone has refused do do the 'smart' bit since we were migrated onto a new mobile network last week (it will take calls but not synchronise my outlook emails, calendar, etc.)

It has been rather spooky being back in my old room as it's very dusty and the wall calendar is still open at the page for June 2010. But at least I don't have to jump out of my skin every few minutes as someone in the sports lab upstairs drops a set of dumbbells on their floor, causing everything to shudder in the LIW 'touchdown space'.

I will really miss the laptop though as it's nice to have a clear (and clean) desk surface to work on when marking, etc. I gather some staff have swapped their bulky desktop PCs for laptops so I might see if I can do this too.

The hills are alive...

...with the sound of marking.

OK it's the end of term and it would be tempting to run for the hills (or at the very least the allotment) in search of recreation, but I have just received twelve dissertations to mark, which come to 11.3 MB of text.   No Easter holidays for me just yet...