Learning Journal

I think writing this learning journal every Wednesday evening would be most practical. It is when I'm best able to use the computer, for a variety of reasons, and it means I can reflect on the entire week in one go before the next Reflective Practice session.
My initial evaluations of the course have been favourable. Perhaps out of an insatiable desire to 'network', friendliness is endemic, and it is easy to meet people and enjoy their company. Everyone seems utterly committed to teaching in some form or other, which has made me feel a little black-sheepish, as my interest is not in teaching itself but the study of education. Therefore, my interests being 'post-conventional' and operating as a 'divergent' learner, I'll tend towards starting debates and questioning practice and theory. So the hardest thing to do, for me, will be to stay quiet and let things progress smoothly. The case in point - and it represents both my learning high and my learning low - would have to be the curriculum session, where I held up teaching for ten minutes when I was asked a question about humanism and proceeded to recount a brief essay on the subject. I just feel as if I have an opportunity to question and criticise those areas I know about so that nothing is taken for granted.
My placement was a surprise, as I had expected to be placed in Telford, but apparently the prospective mentors took exception at the lack of reciprocal financial benefit. City of Wolverhampton College is near the University's main campus, where I did my psychology degree, so I'm comfortable with commuting there and eating there and borrowing comedy DVDs from the library. It's also located near where I grew up, so I can feel as if I am 'giving back to the community', although this might require inventing a sense of community for the area first. At a Telford college, I would have been stuck in the middle of the town of infinite roundabouts, with only a local Somerfields to console me with its two-for-one offers on washing up gloves. (Do you see? Gloves come in pairs! It is a clever joke!)
The induction day at the college was rather 'glossy'. Although the buffet was appreciated, no-one seemed to appreciate the financial management language used to describe the 'business' of 'efficiently and effectively' teaching 'consumers' for whom one must make sure there can be a measurable 'attainment of excellence'. As for organisation, the College seemed to have been told nothing about the course itself, asking us for the details; in return, there were no details for us about our timetables. Instead we had to phone up dept. managers who weren't in their offices and leave pleading messages. The level of uncertainty that we are still subject to at this stage in the course is almost unbearable.
As for self-directed learning, I've been poring through Biggs' and Moore's Process of Learning, which is relevant to the studies I'd like to continue after this course. I'm a great reader of textbooks, so I've been reserving 'em jealously. Also I've been reading through the various assessments outlined in the module guides, underlining bits, and noting down the dates. With a short course like this there's precious little slack, so one has to get up to speed quickly.