Getting Down To Business

This morning, despite being unbelievably tired, it was time for the first class in one of our core subjects, History.

This was a chance for us to see how the class was going to work together in the year ahead. With group work and some lively discussion I think we'll enjoy our Wednesday mornings. We're going to be covering 'The Russian Revolution(s)', 'The rise of the Nazis in Germany' and 'Britain, France and de-colonisation'. Interesting topics and ones which I haven't studied before so I doubt I'll be getting bored.

Before getting stuck into the first unit we were given a list of common terms we'll be encountering in the months ahead. Whilst familiar, some of them were surprisingly hard to put definitions to.

See what you think:

• monarchy
• constitutional monarchy
• democracy
• emperor / empress
• communism
• socialism
• nationalism
• industrialisation
• conservatism
• liberalism

We get a longer lunch on a Wednesday, giving us a chance to gather our energies for a session of Psychology in the afternoon.

It got off to a shaky start. We switched classrooms to avoid a half time room change and it took a while for the lesson to pick up a smooth rhythm. Considering how big a part it'll be playing in our course I was surprised by the relatively scant knowledge the group had on the subject (admittedly mine is no better).

We won't get to the good stuff until the end of the course in our 'Abnormal and Clinical Psychology' unit but there's plenty to keep us busy in the preceding three. I'm a little daunted by the complexity and range of the subject, trying to figure out the depth of study that'll be required might take some time.

The group seems to be bonding, mixing well and helping each other out. We gained a new member today in Adam, but Robbie was a no show and we're still waiting for Sarah to join us. Hopefully we'll be up to full strength soon.

It's just a few hours tomorrow, an hour in tutor group and a second on IT Skills before we're done for the week.