Style File - Polish Perfection

Colour 1 - White Indulge Gift Set Woolworth's Australia

Colour 2 - Clear  Indulge Gift Set Woolworth's Australia

Lightly swab your nails with a cotton ball dipped in nail polish. Use colour 1 to highlight your natural nail shape. Repeat when the first coat is dry. When the nail is touch dry, use colour 2 to paint the whole nail and repeat when the first coat is completely dry.

These colours were part of a limited edition Christmas gift set released by Woolworths Australia. 

Miss Tracy xx

My Assignment Folder

Hi!

So my first year has come and gone and so has a very large amount of assignments. One of my tutors gave me some very sound advice during the first semester; hold onto every single assignment you do, no matter how badly you did, no matter how insignificant the task seemed, no matter what KEEP YOUR ASSIGNMENTS!

And to date I have followed her advice, I have keep all my assignments. But shoving them into one big folder was not enough to me, I had to further organise and this was how my assignment folder was born.

Each assignment is placed in a plastic pocket. It the first plastic pocket, I keep spare cover sheets as well as the ones that I have already filled out and a sheet of coloured dots.

The front page has a large table with columns so with a quick glance, I can tell what the assignment was, when I completed it, who my tutor was and what my final grade was. Following my colour system, each title is  highlighted in the corresponding colour and each cover page has a coloured dot.

This year, rather then sort according to due date, I would like to sort according to unit. This would mean that each assignment is sorted by unit than due date and making it easier to find thing on the same topic.I also need to start writing in my assignments in the book earlier so that filing them doesn't become a hassle later in the semester.

Overall, this system works really well for me and I am looking forward to the day when I exclaim., 'THANK GOD I KEPT THIS ASSIGNMENT!' Until such time, I hope that some of you can see some method to my organised madness and drop me a line if you decide this folder could work for you.

Miss Tracy xx

Style File - Polish Perfection

Colour 1 - Me & My Lover by Colour and Go essence 

For full opacity, 2 coats are recommended. Wait until the first is completely dry before applying the second coat. The sand effect gives the final product a three-dimensional finish with a multicolour sparkle. Polishes are available from Priceline Australia and can be purchased at $2.75 each. 

Miss Tracy xx

Style File - Polish Perfection

Colour 1 - Nude by Savvy Designer Brands 

Colour 2 - Ginger Ale by Savvy Designer Brands 

Start by painting 1-2 coats of colour 1. When dry, top with 1 coat of colour 2 for a subtle glitter as shown in the picture, or two coats for maximum coverage. Both polishes are available from Priceline Australia and can be purchased at $1.00 each. 

Miss Tracy xx

Highschool Reunion!

Hey there!

So from what the movies have told me, when people hear 'high-school reunion', they usually scream and run for the hills! Being only a year out from the institution, I was looking forward to my first year reunion so when I received an invitation to help organise the event, I jumped at the opportunity.

While at school, I didn't have much contact with our Alumnae department; there never seems to be the perfect time to meet the people you won't see until after high-school! When I got the email from the wonderful S, a member of our Alumnae department, I didn't really know what I was getting myself into.

Plenty emails back and forth later, we had settled on a date and sent out a mass text message save the date to my year level. Educated in the age of technology, we used a Facebook poll to decide which date could have the most people attend and planned accordingly.

Next step was the invitation; to be simple, aesthetically pleasing and audience appropriate. I originally designed three proofs and had a personal favourite, featuring the official Pantone colours of my school's logo. This mock-up ended up being everyone's favourite and was the invitation sent out. I removed the details, but here's a good look at the final product...

Next was the decorations. With a budget of $50, I managed to score balloons, streamers, napkins, two table runners, balloon clips and pipes and hot glue sticks. The table runners were glued together and I fashioned hot balloon centre-pieces from various recyclable materials. The Alumnae department has a perpetual banner, featured below, and a banner is printed for the associated year level. The food was catered, from a nearby cafe and including hot food, sandwiches, fruit platter, dessert platters, drinks and a gluten free and vegetarian alternative, it came to around $10.50 a head. Have a look at the end result... 

The night went really well! Something around 35 people turned up, not including staff from the school. The girls all loved it and could not stop talking to each other. Some girls who left before year 12 were even in attendance. We all laughed over slideshows and photo videos and highly out of the ordinary for our year level...there was no drama!

This experience has been one in a million. It reminded me how much I enjoy event planning and budgeting and how much the little details matter.I even had a chance to let my creative juices flow. I managed to do all this during the peak of the semester so my time planning skills were out of this world!

Working collaboratively with S has been such a learning opportunity and I cannot thank here enough for allowing me this opportunity; I can't wait for the next big event I am part of. The following is a copy of the reunion report written (by me)  for the Class of 2012's first year reunion to be featured in the school newsletter and /or yearbook...

Looking ahead, I can't wait for the next reunion and hopefully, I will be able to assist again!

Have you helped organise an old school event? 

What's your experience with reunions?

What did you think of our handiwork?

Fill me in!

Miss Tracy xx

My Planner

Hello again,

So I'm sure everyone is part of a rewards club, maybe it's Flybuys, Myer One, Everyday Rewards, coffee shop or some company that I am not aware of, but most likely, everyone as a stack of cards in their wallet that entitles them to discounts or builds up their points. 

Well, I shop at Woolworths so I have an Everyday Rewards card which is linked to my Frequent Flyers Account. I realised if we are spending money every week, the points shouldn't go to waste.

Now a couple of weeks ago, I bought the hot roller set I was saving my points for (massive sale at Myer) so I shopped around for what I could spend them on instead.

And what do I see when I open the browser? A lovely spread of Kikki K stationery. Usually, I cannot afford their stationery; while it is so pretty, of excellent quality and extremely functional, I cannot afford their products. I cannot justify spending $80 on a planner.

But points are different story. So I splashed out 8,500 QANTAS Frequent Flyer points on the Leather Personal Planner in Fuchsia.

My favourite features include:

• 6 ring binder
• 18 month calendar, refills availble
• 7 customisable tabs
• 3 sheets of stickers
• elastic pen loop
• card slips
• 'today' note pad
• a5 notepad
• zipped compartment 
• button closure
• genuine leather  

And it looks super cute!

Since it arrived in the mail, I have written down EVERYTHING! And I have found it so much easier to stay on top of things. While I don't take the planner everywhere, I have it perpetually open in the same spot on my desk. This way I don't have to worry about opening and closing it it and it's always in the same place if I want to write something down.

The only thing missing was a hole punch but I managed to buy one online for a couple of bucks. I am now set to live an organised life!

Do you use a planner?

Why, why not?

Fill me in!

If you do want to buy the planner, you can from here!

Miss Tracy xx 

In Review - Notability

My Colour Coding System

Guess who's back? Back again.

I was reading back over some of my posts regarding my notes and university and realised I haven't explained my colour coding system, which is basically the cornerstone of my sanity.

This system is the best. I would be completely lost without it. It makes study, filing and locating information and paperwork so much easier and faster.

So this is how it works.

I have four units a semester. Each has a unit code. For example, this semester I have:

1. EDFD 136

2. EDFD 227
3. EDAR 366
4. EDLA 167

My system assigns one of four colours (pink, yellow, green or blue) for each unit, so they would look like this:

1. EDFD 136
2. EDFD 227
3. EDAR 366

4. EDLA 167

So I have unit outlines, assignments, notes and handout from each unit, which all get filed under the relevant coloured tab in my semester folder. I take my lecture and tutorial notes on pastel coloured notebooks which are same colour as the unit. My assignment cover sheets have a corresponding coloured dot in the corner. I use only the unit colour when highlighting anything. Even my reminder sticky notes are in the unit's colour!

In short, one colour = one unit. The final colour coded product of a semester' work looks like...

I often find myself asking people, 'Do we have blue next?' when talking about our next tutorial/lecture!

I also managed to implement this system with my OneNote notebooks, which is the way to go with taking notes (I think so).

I swear by this. I started using a simplified system in high school but I have definitely kicked it up a notch since starting university. With a little time to set it up and get use it, it really helps to organise things and keep things moving smoothly.

In short, one colour = one unit. The final colour coded product of a semester' work looks like...

Semester Folder

Notepads

(available in assorted colours)

Binding

Assignment Coversheet

Highlighters

  

Do you have your own organisational system for notes, handouts etc.?

Drop a line via any of the LMST sites, I would love to hear from you all!

Miss Tracy xx

My Semester Planner

So I have unit outlines, I have colour coded notes, I have reflective journals. I have a part time job that  I love, a casual job which pays well, I study full time, I have weekly placement plus my time with my family. But with all this and university, there are a lot of tasks, assignments and deadlines to keep track of.

But I have some help to take care of the university side of things.

THE SEMESTER PLANNER 

I am very lucky to go to a university where there is a special department for helping students perform academically. At ACU, the Office of Student Success (OSS) is committed to providing students with services to help them adjust to university work and provide a number of services which help alleviate some of the stress and pressure throughout the semester .

This semester planner is one of the organisational tools they provide to help students time plan and strategise how they going to work during the semester.

This little beauty keeps track of everything uni based for me. Using the unit outline, I look at each subject, written down the left side (in its associated colour), and then write when each assignment/task in the week it is due.

This document tells me:

• When the documents to due -  the capital letters "DUE" shaded in the colour code 
• How much time I have sectioned to plan/produce the assignment  - the straight coloured line preceding the DUE

• What else is due at the same time - the vertical column which corresponds to a learning week.

Under the 'Assessment Tasks', I used to just write what number assessment task was. But this semester, I decided to write 'what' it actually was. For example, instead of writing  assessment task 1 for EDLA, this semester I wrote 'presentation'. This way I actually know what task is due and don't have to uselessly look at my unit outline.

Writing the grade % is also handy dandy. I'm not going to say that it lets me know how much effort to  put in, because I do try my best with every assignment, but it does help to prioritise. Especially when a whole heap of things are due at once (see week 12!)  

When the week is over, I draw a black slash through each box in the vertical column, like so:

While I prefer the handwrite on mine, the OSS has thought of everyone and on their website, provide a PDF version, which I use, or a MS Word version, which can be edited and then printed.

I know I cannot be the only person at ACU who uses this  planner, but my course mates have left me wondering. Many have never seen this document before. Many are surprised when I pull it out. Some even ask where I got it from, or if I made it.

While the OSS is doing a great job, I think that there needs to be little more advertising about the great seminars and resources they provide so amazing tools, like the general semester planner, don’t go unnoticed be majority of the student body.

Does your uni have a similar service to the OSS?

Do you use an organiser like the semester planner for study?

Do you use something similar in the workplace?

I would love to hear how you keep an eye on your many and upcoming deadlines!

Comment, Tweet or Tumblr! The LMST blog is always listening!

Miss Tracy xx

My Unit Outline

So it's that time again, my semester is starting up and there is such an influx of paperwork, forms and handbooks for each and every unit that it's getting hard to keep my head about the paper pile.

One document that's towards the top of this pile is the unit outline. This document is 30+ pages of information solely on the unit you are taking and what the unit will entail; from study schedules to set readings. My university's policy is that every lecturer  must compile this document for their unit and include the following sections:

• Policies

• Resources

• Student support
• Attendance
• Unit description
• Learning outcomes
• Graduate attributes

• Student feedback

• Referencing
• Texts and resources

One of the most important sections included in the  unit outline is the assessment section. This section details our assignments for the semester, whether we have exams and what is expected of us for each assessment. This section also has detailed rubrics, grade weightings for each assignment, due dates and what attributes and outcomes are being assessed. 

This section of the document is literally the student's bible.  I have never done an assignment  without looking at this part of the outline. When discussing the task in class, I have the relevant  page open. If I ever have questions, I straight away turn to this section, and am happy to tell other classmates to do the same.

I also love that I have this information from the beginning of the semester. It means that from day 1, everybody is on the same page, everybody has the same level of access to information and what you do with this information is up to you.

With the frequency that I was using this document in semester 1 and considering that I was taking it to and from university, having the printed pages stapled together was just not working for me. It was hard to keep it open at a specific page, it was hard to keep the pages in order and it was incredibly difficult to keep the pages neat and prevent them becoming creased.

So, in an effort to combat these problems I was having, I took my unit outlines and a self-made title and tabs pages down to my local Officeworks.

Easily one of the best decisions I made all semester.

This solution fixed every problem I had had in the past. The binding kept it neat and together in the right order plus the nature of the binding allowed me to keep it open at any page without any fuss. Added bonus that the coloured tabs made it easy to separate each unit outline.

To date, I haven't seen anyone else in my course set up their unit outlines this way but I am curious to see how other people set up and use such an important document.

Did you have a document similar to my unit outline?

Did you have any problems with your document?

What was your solution?

Let me know and leave a comment below. Don't forget to follow the LMST blog!

Miss Tracy xx