Patterned Petals

 Bullet journaling, Blogging and Lifestyle Blogger

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5 Essential Studying Tips For Degree Students 

So life has been going better and I am feeling more confident in myself after achieving my literacy skills test-yay! I have more revision to do for numeracy, but then I will be able to continue my progression onto the PGCE course! Gaining a degree, graduating in October and starting a new chapter of my life- overall I am so pleased with what I have achieved. Degrees entail hard work and motivation to complete, there are many times that pushed my stress levels to the max, but thankfully I never felt like I wanted to quit (like some people in my course). I did a 3-yearcourse in 2 years; which did increase the intensity, but I am so thankful that I have been able to complete this course- it’s so satisfying knowing you have a degree, it still hasn’t quite sunk in yet, to be honest!

As an ex-undergraduate student I thought it would be useful to you and apparently, you guys do to, from my twitter poll that I did asking about which blog post to do next; so I decided to come up with a few tips and tricks about the studying part of gaining a degree. 

5 Tips To Gain A Degree

Stay Organised

If you are like me- obsessed with stationery- this will be your lucky day, go and buy some folders, notebooks and a dairy to help you stay organised throughout your time at university. I loved going out and getting new stationery for my journals that I printed out to read or to put my notes in from lectures and seminars. And a diary to keep my deadlines easily accessible in, the notebook was always helpful for those to-do lists to give you a guideline of what needed to be done daily.

Read A Lot

You will need to do a lot of wider reading at university, I loved highlighting my printed out journals and writing out all the quotes I wanted to use within my essay before I started writing my essay because then they were all in one place. Rather than flicking from one book to the next- I wish I learnt that nearer the start of my course because it was so useful for me. I compared my first ever university essay to my last essay and my bibliography of references, my first essay I used 4 references and that increased to 20 different books or journals by my last essay- the dissertation was obviously more than that- crazy- I did say you have to read a lot!!

Start Essays Early

I am so proud of myself for not doing ANY essays to the last minute, meaning staying up to all hours of the night trying to get the essay completed for the deadline the next day. I would give myself enough time to edit and proof read it at the end so that I didn’t hand in anything to bad! I am one for needing to do lots of little drafts in my essay because the first time I write it, I am mainly getting my structure, quotes and arguments in so that I know what I am going to be writing about, and then improve it from there. So leaving this to the last minute for me would be a bad idea. Also, lectures do know when you have left it to the deadline, I am sure of it!

Share Your Reading List With Others

Comparing books that you have read is so helpful because you can use the same quotes in your work if you reference it properly, but obviously, the way you write it into your argument within your essay cannot be copied! This was great advice from my lecturer- probably the best bit of advice I received- because it reduces the amount of reading that you have to do! It also helps your understanding of the subject better when you can communicate your thoughts and ideas to somebody else that is doing the same course as you!

Proofread Your Work

Proof reading can be just as important as writing the essay, it also helps to get somebody else to read you work for you because they can pick up on more mistakes than you can! I got my dad to read mine and I am so grateful that he took up some of his time to just quickly read through my essay! There was one time where I managed to put the word ‘like’ into one of my essays because I did not get someone to proof read it, that word is definitely not allowed in the world of academia!

What are your top tips for studying at university, college or school?

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Volunteering in Romania- Diary

I can’t believe that this was over 2 years ago now when I was raising money to volunteer with disadvantaged children in Romania. I still have so many fond memories of this day and really wanted to publish the diary that I made while spending time with the children. This was the best 3 weeks of my life and I am so glad I stepped out of my comfort zone to go and see another culture and hopefully give something to other people by teaching them some English every day and helping these children try to use this so they can use it in their future. This experience really allowed me to see how blessed I am to live in the UK. While I was there I made a diary of the day to day events with these children, not only were they learning from us, it was a chance to learn about their culture and pick up some of their language and games that they play as well.

 Dairy of Romania

After a stressful and tiring aeroplane and coach ride, we finally arrived in Romania. This beautiful country full of mountains and incredible scenery; disguised some saddening truths. Like all countries, there was some poverty, but I am not going to dwell on this too much; as this trip was an experience I'll never forget. 

Day 1,2,3,4,5

The first day, we got split into two groups; I was in the group who started renovating first. As someone who hadn't learnt to paint walls previously picked up a new skill as well as helping the children’s living situations. Obviously, there is not a lot I can write about painting… So I'm going to continue to talk about the lunch times we had with the children who lived in these care homes.

The children’s English language abilities were quite limited (although, still much better than my Hungarian!), so conversation was quite minimal. It was still clear how eager they were to try and communicate to you and learn new English words. They were very hospitable (puts some England staff to shame really), they served up our food; took our plates away and were always polite whenever we tried to speak Hungarian to them (who knows if what we were saying to them made any sense whatsoever!).

The care homes were like a working flat (which we also lived in throughout the 3 weeks we were staying there). I have never seen a hob and an oven where you have to light them by match before; so cooking pasta occasionally in the evening was eventful.

Day 8

Started going to the camp site to see the children (they went to this campsite while their homes were being renovated). We had bought a ball with us beforehand to help break the ice between us and the children. The younger children were interested first and we just had a game of catch and learnt their names. Next, we bought out the colouring books and pens. This was popular with all ages in the camp site.

After lunch we had to go inside because a thunderstorm started, I was surprised to learn that they knew games such as wink murder and duck duck goose! We played games like this for the rest of the afternoon until tea!

Day 9

In the morning a group of children went to play football. I stayed with some of the younger ones who were not able to join in and played catch with a ball with them!

Today we started our planned activity for the day which was a scavenger hunt! They seemed to really enjoy this (probably because there were sweeties for the winner)! This was also an opportunity for the children to practise their English because we had written the list in English and they had to work out what the object was.

Day 10

The activity that was planned for today was a game of Sharad’s with a pile of cards with different animals and job roles. It was fun to watch the children act out the different cards. They also seemed to enjoy us, adults, trying to act them out as well!

It was another stormy day today, while we were inside, we taught some girls how to say Basic English questions (e.g. how are you?) and the English answers to these questions (e.g I am good thank you). It was lovely to see how eager they were to learn new words and phrases.

Day 11

Bingo was today's planned activity to help the children with their number recognition! Their careers also joined in with this game and helped to translate the numbers to Hungarian for the younger children. Again, there were sweets involved, which is why it probably attracted most of the children in the camp.

We also did some egg painting as we knew it would be another inside day, because of storms, so we organised another activity.

Day 12

As it was the last day of the week with the children we decided to have a pay dough competition. They all wanted to get involved and make their model of anything they wanted. We had some prizes for the first and second place. Then, we gave some 'well done' sweets to the rest of the children who took part (because we had some leftover from previous games). Not only were we teaching them English, one of the children started teaching me some animals in Hungarian, as we had brought doe animal flash cards in! (I'm annoyed that I have forgotten all the animal names he had told me, I should have written them down.)

Finally, this was the most amazing trip that I have been on and hopefully, this will not be my last. I really want to use my teaching degree to its full advantage and maybe teach abroad somewhere at some point. Have you ever volunteered abroad?

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Elephant Cruelty: I Don't Understand It!

This is a topic really close to my heart which I haven't talked about on my blog at all. It is about animal cruelty, especially to the elephants, I hate hearing about how they have been killed in horrific ways; so that humans, like me and you, can use their trunks in selfish ways to benefit THEM. I have never understood animal cruelty, animals haven't got a voice, so we need to be their voice. I feel really strongly about saving animals as without them it can have some serious impact on the planet.

Every animal on this planet deserves to be here no matter how big or small. Technically we are animals too, and just because we are at the top of the food chain doesn't mean we are more important.

For example, without bees, they wouldn't spread the flowers pollen in order to make new plants which gives us oxygen. So all animals have a role in our world. So why are we killing innocent lives for our benefit?

The elephant issue is the one that speaks to me the most. They are beautiful graceful creatures,much like us as they are sociable and live as a family. When you here about these poachers trying to kill elephants for there trunk, it makes me sad that they are killing these magnificent animals for something so small in comparison with their size, I do not understand why?!? There are some terrible people in this world, one poacher even said this:

“Once you shoot the animal it takes just 15 or 20 minutes. So you just track the animal and it collapses.” Via BBC news

This is just so inhumane and makes me feel sick inside. How can we as human beings be so cruel, we are meant to be the only animal with feelings! But you would not believe that by what some of these poachers are saying. It saddens me that we can even talk of an animal this way. What if this was your child, and this was how somebody talked about them. Would you sit there in silence or would you speak up about it? Well some of these elephants were babies. But the difference is, they cannot speak up for themselves so we need to do it for them.

One day I would love to volunteer with some elephants and help out with building some protection for them and raising money to help support these beautiful creatures. 

Why Elephants Matter

“Elephants directly influence forest composition and density, and can alter the broader landscape. In tropical forests, elephants create clearings and gaps in the canopy that encourage tree regeneration. In the Savannah, they reduce bush cover to create an environment favourable to a mix of browsing and grazing animals. Elephants directly influence forest composition and density, and can alter the broader landscape. In tropical forests, elephants create clearings and gaps in the canopy that encourage tree regeneration.” Via WorldWildlife

Saving elephants is something that is really close to my heart, reading what the world wildlife organisation says is hopeful as they are trying there hardest to prevent this issue from happening. Although I wouldn't want any harm to come to any animal, hearing about people who want to just kill elephants for one of their smallest parts of their body is just sickening to me. I would love to know what you think, let me know in the comments.

What are your thoughts on this topic? I would love to know in the comments.

P.s this isn't a sponsored post, this is just a subject that is really close to my heart!

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Review: Pros and Cons of the Pastel Tombow Dual Brush Pens

If you don’t know already the Tombow pens are extremely popular in the bullet journal community. I did not really know what the hype was all about until I bought some of my own. I have now had the pastel colour Tombow Dual Brush Pens for a couple of months now. They are surprisingly heavy for a pen, and if you want to fit them in a pencil case you may have to get a bigger one because they are long in length too.

There is a range of colours in the pastel colour pack which are purple, blue, yellow, pink and green. This gives you lots of choice as to what you could use these pens for. Personally, I wanted the brush pen part of this pen to practise calligraphy writing for my bullet journal. I read some people’s responses to the Tombow Duo Brush Pens and though that I would have a go with them too.

Pros and cons of the Tombow Dual Brush Pens

Pros of Tombow Pens

1.      On one side of the Tombow pen there is a brush pen and on the other a felt tip pen, this is so useful because you can do fancy calligraphy writing with one end and small, finer details with the other.

2.      The colours are beautiful and they are subtle which allows you to write over them, which is perfect for including colour in you bullet journal in a minimalistic way. I also have used the techniques where you write underneath your main writing with the Tombow pens, which looks really cool.

3.      It doesn’t shine through the other side of the bullet journal, which is great because then you can use the other side. If you don’t like ghosting in your bullet journal then, in my opinion, I think these pens will be a good addition to your stationery set.

Cons of Tombow Pens

1.      I find the brush pen side to be quite delicate, when you are trying to write a little thicker I feel like I could damage the brush pen if I do press too hard. I haven’t yet broken a brush, so they must be sturdier than I think but I still will not press too hard even so.

2.      The pastel colours are too light I feel and you can’t really see what they word says unless you put a darker outline around the writing. I think if I bought the primary Tombow set then they may have shown up better.

3.      When I tried highlighting a title in my bullet journal, it did smudge the writing. Maybe this was because the writing was wet and I didn’t wait long enough, but I always find that annoying with any pens.

In My Opinion,

Tombow pens are a good addition for my bullet journal because they do not leak through too much which really would be a deal breaker for me. So thankfully, this is not the case and I have enjoyed using them to practise calligraphy. They are so lovely to use as they just glide along the paper and provide a subtle burst of colour throughout my bullet journal. I am a minimalist in my bullet journal so this is perfect to add bursts of colour but because the colours are so subtle it doesn’t ever become overwhelming with too much boldness. The only thing that I really don’t like is that I can’t fit them in my pencil case, what is with that? But because I am stationery obsessed, I let that go with the knowledge that there are two pens in the one, pretty cool, huh… no? Just me then ha! Also, there is also the feeling that it could break, like the hairs of the brush could split on me and they will never go back to their perfect point. But that is probably just my own fear of not having all my stationery in perfect condition….  Anyway… let’s go to the star rating… I give this a 4/5 because there are a few things I would change but overall they are a great pen to have in my stationery collection.

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To conclude

I would definitely recommend this product to any person that loves to add colour to their revision sheets, bullet journals and colouring pages. The colours are beautiful and subtle and add a pop of colour on my page spreads. If you haven’t started a bullet journal yet, make sure you check out the post how to start a bullet journal for easy ways to start one of your own, it is so easy I promise.  I post all of my bullet journal pages on my Instagram so make sure you give me a follow on there. 

I would love to know what do you use the Tombow Dual Brush Pens for?

Do you want to be updated when I post more reviews? Then make sure you become a member of the patterned petals community and get access to my free resource library.

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Dailies are he heart of the bullet journal