Welcome back

The mentors are back and looking forward to new challenges.

I have been catching on a mountain of emails and giving some thought and planning to our calendar of events for next year. It looks promising with some great ideas so far including the offer of FREE workshops/events and more opportunities for collaboration. We also need new members for the advisory group in Business & Administration so if you are interested in participating and being at the forefront of new developments and initiatives in our subject area please contact me.

Last week I delivered a presentation on the Subject Networks to the Business and Computing Faculty away day held at the Novotel in Edinburgh. A captive audience of around 60 practitioners got news of the latest developments as well as a tour of our page on Practitioners Plus. Feedback was positive so hopefully some new converts. Watch this space.

Happy holidays

Thanks to everyone who attended the Business and Administration day at College People Week last Thursday. Great representation from our discipline with some good interaction and sharing of thoughts. Good to see and meet up with faces old and new and make new contacts - the informal networking is always a bonus.

The past few weeks have been spent preparing for the event and liaising with others involved. Many thanks to Jackie Graham from Coleg and Lisa from SFEU for their help and support.

This academic year is nearly over and we are all looking forward to our holidays. Thank you for your continued support and enjoy the Summer. See you all again in August.

Busy, busy

End of term beckons and the now mandatory chaos prevails. Is it really like this every June?

The subject mentors had a very productive and enjoyable meeting at SFEU last week when our main theme was evaluation and planning for next year. Much discussion on issues of employability and the way forward.

Keeping everyone up-to-date and communication continues to feature highly in the life of a subject mentor. Additionally this week I compiled and submitted my contribution for the latest e-zine edition and am preparing for College People Week. Looking forward to seeing you at the Business & Administration day at SFEU on Thursday 5 June.

Sorry to hear that Annamarie is leaving us for sunnier climes - so very best wishes - and thanks for all your support and encouragement.

Sunny Inverness

Business was a real pleasure last Friday as I spent a lovely sunny day in Inverness which, if you believe the press, was the hottest place in Britain. Fiona Williams, Curriculum Manager for Business at UHI Midmills Campus, kindly fitted me into her busy schedule when I did my bit to promote the subject networks and demonstrated the BlendEd resources.

Other issues within the Business & Administration framework discussed included the need for a bank of alternative assessments as Business Studies assessments do not necessarily fit with Administration or Marketing etc. Good point as the assessment scenario/case study should fit the discipline and hopefully our swop shop may provide this platform.

It was well worth the drive and I hope to go back sometime soon to a staff development event to speak with more of the staff - and hope it is equally as sunny.

Also did the usual round of information gathering, reading and disseminating as well as catching up and responding to a mountain of emails.

Looking forward

Most of this week was spent on our mind map evaluation task which required much time and consideration. Sent my thoughts and ideas to Colin but am also keen to hear the other mentors' perceptions.

Checking and corresponding to emails takes up much time each week. Although not so much time as trying to keep up-to-date with what's new in our sector and disseminating that information to practitioners in the most appropriate way. Added several new links and some latest news to Practitioners Plus - thanks Murray - and sent reminder to my contacts about College People Week.

Unfortunately not enjoying the same success as some of my colleagues in the advisory group stakes. Think I need to offer another incentive as the Sametime trial was not lucrative enough. Will need to give this some thought- suggestions welcome.

Back again

Hope you all had a nice holiday and some well deserved R & R.

I have been busy catching up with my many emails and responding to requests which have come in during the holidays.

We submitted our article for the SFEU e-zine to be sent out to our subject network contacts. The idea of the e-zine is to keep everyone up-to-date with what is happening within the network. Also submitted our article for the Broadcast 79 magazine which is to be published in time for College People Week. The Business and Administration day is Thursday 05 June so please register and come along.

Also spent time updating web links and resources on our subject web page – thanks again Murray. Please check this out and let me know what you think.
Wrote to my advisory group to gauge interest in a Sametime trial and hope we can arrange this sometime soon. Other than that I've been doing the usual contacts stuff and the different College holidays made that a challenge.

Information and stats

Got Colin's urgent request for stats and information for the funding council on Sunday so spent the afternoon working on my submission. Hope I made it in time.

Having difficulty getting my advisory group together so had dinner with one of my group (the sacrifices we mentors have to make) and utilised some (well I can't be too boring) of the pre and post dinner chat to further our cause. Interesting discussions about the universal time and workload difficulties and in particular how staff development operates differently from College to College.

Drafted some editorial for our Broadcast 79 article, caught up with blogs and emails and updated the web page with some new resource. Murray and I are working on how best to sub-divide the page for ease of accessibility for Practitioners as Business and Administration covers a wide variety of subject areas. This is Work in Progress so log on to see the latest changes and let me know if it makes it easier to find what you need.

Off to sunny (or snowy as the forecast predicts) Loch Lomond. Have good Easter breaks - next update in three weeks.