Development Diary

Well this is part 2 of my life story! I hope you’re still awake when you read this!

I have also been to Wembley this season to watch Luton Town win the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy beating Scunthorpe United 3-2 after extra time. Wembley stadium is huge place and I had a great view from where I was sitting on to the pitch. You may now think that I am a Luton Town fan. My brother is a die hard Luton fan and I support Luton as my local team but I support Manchester United as my first team.
It’s been a good season, and now its finished, I have pre season starting on 9th July so a long time to wait again but it will all be worth it as hopefully I have another good season waiting ahead of me!

Another topic in my life that is important to me is music. I love music, I have over 3000 tunes on my i-pod, and they are all different types of genre from hip-hop to rock and alternative music. The band that I am listening to at the moment is called You Me At Six. I’ve recently been to see Fall Out Boy at the O2 arena, I went with my older brother and it was amazing. The 02 arena as a whole is a great venue to see live music and I would recommend everyone to go there once at least. I like music that has a good beat to it, and slow music just annoys me!

I also like gaming, I have an Xbox 360 and a PC, and it can get very addictive at times, if I’m bored! I like action and sport game and a bit of strategy game I don’t mind. I’ve been playing Fifa 09 as I have for the last year! Hopefully I’m buying a game soon with my two days wages from work this week, because I get bored easily and like to have a bit of a change now and again.

In this blog I have decided not to write about my college work, because that gets tedious after a while! So I will talk about the everyday goings on in the life of Thomas Jupp. Most people just get up early and get ready to go to college and have breakfast, they have that get up and go attitude. I just simply don’t. I get up 10 minutes before I have to go to the bus stop, I have no breakfast and I’m half asleep by the time I get to college. My parents don’t think that’s how it should be, but it is my way of life and that’s how I survive in the world. Dad says I’m so laid back I’m almost horizontal, but I’m usually a chilled out, out going and talkative guy who likes to have a giggle or two! I love being at home, just having that right to do absolutely nothing whatsoever really makes me happy. This may sound like I am quite lazy, I’m not lazy all the time, and sometimes I’m just a busy chap. I work 2 days a week at my local garden centre. This has many benefits for me as I have work experience and I’m earning decent money at the same time. It’s a win-win situation!!

I also love my football. I eat, drink, sleep, and breathe football, and sometimes I wonder what I would do without it! I love it so much I play for 2 football teams; one in cranfield and one in kempston. I think this is a good way of keeping fit and to meet new people and to understand more about the art of football and team play. I would like to think I’m reasonably good at football, scoring three goals this season by playing in defence. I think that is good enough for me and I am reliable at turning up to every training session. I don’t think I missed a game for kempston but I missed some for cranfield as I only joined them in the middle of the season. I also like my choice of football boots. I have used 3 different pairs this season, totalling to a sum of £100! But I am now down to one pair as the first pair got torn, and the other pair was too tight around my ankles. I have had my fair share of injuries this season, mostly my ankles! I was born with weak ankles so after every game they get bruised and I go over on them and twist them. But I get up and carry on, because I never want to miss a minute of football!

There are also many other topics I would like to talk about, but if you tune in for the next blog, then you will find out! Hope you enjoyed it so far.

In my third blog I will write about how I have improved or coped with the units in this course so far.

Advanced Database Skills:
I have really started to understand databases, because I have now completed tasks 1, 2 and 3 in review week last week. Last week helped because the teacher had more time to sit down and look at my work and to tell me what’s wrong with it. Relationship diagrams and the tables that go with it have helped me realise what role they play in this unit of work. I am not so confused anymore.

Key Skills:
Recently in key skills I have had a test on databases and spreadsheets. I struggled a bit and I may need more help with that and to possibly re-take it. In review week, I failed to complete the work necessary to have me signed off for key skills in that week. I was disappointed with myself but the problem was that I had too much work to do in other units, and it fell down the line of less importance just because I only have a little bit of work to do. But soon I hope to get it completed, so I can be signed off for this unit of work so far and so I can be stress free!

Networking:
I have had to complete the pass criteria of unit 27 in order for me to be signed off. I did do it, but I haven’t had it signed off by the teacher as I sent it to him via email and I don’t think he received it. But overall, so far I have understood the methods of connection, and I am willing to learn more as this is one of the units that I favour more than others. I want to aim for at least a merit in this unit, but more preferably a distinction would be better, as this is the type of work I want to be employed for when I leave college and apply for work.

Communication and Employability:
I am up to date with this unit of work. I find it relatively easy and it is good to have this type of knowledge of employability skills and how to communicate with different people from different backgrounds. At the moment, I am working on a presentation of my topic of choice and I have to present it to a group of people and my teacher. It would be good experience for me as sometimes I may come across to people as being quiet and shy, but I hope to prove them wrong in the future!

Website Production and Management:
I am up to date in this unit, but it can be quite hard to understand with all the legislations and laws involved and how to include them into the tasks that the teachers set you. The teacher helps me a lot and gives me good feedback on my work. I would like to achieve a merit in this unit, as it would be good to learn and I could possibly set up my own website.

Visual Basic:
I am starting to get to grips with VB. The teacher helps me more and I got signed off this unit last week in review week. But I know there is still more work to be done. I would like to achieve a pass in this unit, even though I don’t like this unit very much as I find it boring sometimes.

Computer Systems:
I understand this unit of work clearly, but I find it tedious sometimes. I would prefer it if we did more practical’s and spend more time on the computers trying to make our tasks better from his feedback. I eventually got my work signed off last week, even though some of it may be wrong, but I will correct that and move on and hopefully achieve a pass or merit. I do find it interesting sometimes, because I would like to know how each device inside of the computer works and how they co-operate with each other. I have high hopes for this unit.

System Security:
I was signed off last week by my teacher, but I find myself behind a bit as a couple more tasks need to be corrected and finished off, but that shouldn’t take me too long. I would like to achieve a pass or merit, and I feel I can achieve a merit because I have a good teacher, and he will help me improve on my work and make it better.

In this second blog, I am going to write about how much I have learnt in these other units and all the strengths and weaknesses and if I improved on them or not.

Key Skills.

We have started the additional task which is basically researching the internet for sports equipment, which I find quite easy. I have gained a bit more knowledge over the formulas and functions. Overall, I haven’t really gained much knowledge since the last blog.

Communication and Employability.

The tasks that I have been doing I found very easy and no real trouble. I have gained knowledge on different types of communications and how to cope with them, and skills involved to make a good impression on an employer.

Networking.

I was absent last lesson and unfortunately I missed out on 2 information – filled lessons, so I will need to catch up. We have been learning different types of cable and their functions and how important they are to a particular system. I feel that I have a reasonable understanding of networking, even though I am still missing some work because of my absence.

Visual Basic.

I think I have learnt a little bit more about VB, but only slightly. At the moment, I am trying to understand the different data types and what they are used for. I hope to gain more knowledge in the future, but only if the teachers co-operates with me. For example, if I asked for help, it would take the teacher half an hour to come over, which doesn’t help me at all in trying to learn something.

Website Design.

I have learnt about Javascript and the purpose of it, we also used the program called Dreamweaver, which is much easier to create web pages than in Notepad. I have learnt more since the last time I wrote about it, and the first task I had to do, I found simple with no worries.

Security Systems.

I have learnt about the countermeasures for an organisation to consider when protecting against viruses and other harmful malware. In the recent task, we designed a presentation to present to the class, and that is the method I learn best from, and hopefully it benefitted to everyone else! I am gradually getting to grips with the knowledge needed to pass or gain a merit in this area.

Database.

I still find Databases hard, and I think so does the class as nobody has handed in task 1 from two weeks ago! I struggle as I still don’t understand the terminology for these data tables. At least I have attempted the first task and hopefully the teacher will help me if I’m wrong. I still get lots of handouts every lesson and there needs to be an alternative because it is filling up my folder with unnecessary paper, where I would rather have it accessed via the internet.

Since I have started the course, I have gained some knowledge through most of the units.

Networking Fundamentals – I have learnt how routers and connections can be formed and the layers of the main model which is the OSI model. I have also done some practical work on finding IP addresses on different computers. I quite enjoy this unit as I never knew anything about it until I started this course, and it’s new and challenging. I could improve my learning by taking more detailed notes whilst viewing Powerpoint presentations.

Website Design – I have learnt the basic components of how to create a web page, such as opening and closing headers and making tables for information. I like website design because it is easy once you get used to it, and you can make pages look good in all kinds of different ways. I think I do quite well on this unit because I feel prepared and motivated to learn new things. I could improve my learning by concentrating a bit more and to stop yawning.

Database –I find the lessons to be very boring and confusing; because I struggle with databases because there is so much terminology that we have to learn but it all means the same. We also get too much work given out at one time. I also I think I could improve by learning if we spent more time on the computer and getting used to the application. I could also improve my learning from being given less handouts.

Computer Systems – I like this lesson because I’ve got to know the main components in a computer system and how it runs and things like the hardware and software in a computer. The information we get given is good and to the point and there is only a fair amount of work distributed. I don’t struggle with this unit; I am fairly comfortable with this.

Visual Basic – I don’t like this lesson because I don’t think it bears any relevance to the course itself and I don’t think it will help in my later life. I don’t understand most of the features in visual basic. But maybe I could improve my learning if we spent more time doing our work than the teacher stopping us during our work and talking to us for 20 minutes. I also believe that we don’t get enough help on the tasks set.

System Security – I have learnt a lot in this lesson, such as all the different types of threat that can damage organisation, systems or data. I have also learnt more about viruses and how are they made and caused and how effective they can be. I get good information and helpful notes for me to succeed in this area, it is also another unit I have never come across and I enjoy it and its challenging.

Communication and Employability – I have learnt many things in this lesson such as different techniques of how to communicate with someone and how much better my chances would be of getting employed and working. The work we get is good, its challenging and quite fun. I am comfortable of this unit and I hope to get a high mark.

Key Skills – This unit is helpful to me as it has helped me understand how to write formulas and functions on spreadsheets, which is something I haven’t touch on in a couple of years while I was at school. I could improve my learning by concentrating a bit more and to get all the work done in the lesson.

I think I have improved on some of my personal qualities and most of my weaknesses. I am not as disruptive and chatty here unlike when I was at school, and by not being so disruptive, I have learnt more than I ever did at school in the few months I have been at college.