• Reflective Entry – Week 6

    Introduction

    I cannot believe that we are already halfway through this internship. Everyone has been so great and welcoming, in fact I felt settled within the first week. This job has been the ride of a lifetime and we’re not even over yet! 

    As well as focusing on accessibility this week I will also complete a mid-way evaluation report, which is where Andrew (my colleague) and I wrote about how the internship is going in a mid-way evaluation report. This was an exciting start to the week, and I cannot wait to get started! 

    Monday 

    I always think it’s useful to have a morning routine to help start the day. Mine is a cup of coffee with whatever I fancy for breakfast. I usually have peanut butter on toast – they always make me feel energised. After I finished my toast, I logged onto my loan laptop to get started with the day. 

    A cup of tea next to a laptop

    The Learning Technology Development (LTD) Team provided every Student Intern with a timetable to help us all keep track of what sessions, training sessions and UniSkills webinars. The first session for today is “Whoa, we’re halfway there!” – Week 6 Catch Up Session”. This was an exciting opportunity as I got to catch up with everyone else on the internship and see how they are doing – everyone is doing fantastic and really enjoying the internship. By far my favourite part of it is interacting with the rest of the Student Interns and learning more technology skills along the way, especially with making Portable Document Format (PDFs) accessible. 

    One thing I love about this internship is that supervisors aren’t the only ones that organise the sessions. 3 other Student Interns hosted a wellbeing session. Keeping your well-being in tip-top shape is mega important, if you don’t then you have the chance of feeling sad and no one wants that! We need to happy to be able to do our best, have confidence in ourselves and most important of all being happy. 

    A PowerPoint slide showing different methods of how to keep your Emotional wellbeing healthy.

    I learnt a lot of useful strategies to keep my mental health and wellbeing healthy, such has having hobbies. It’s important to find a hobby to help give yourself a break because then you have found something that makes you happy. One of mine is playing Mario Kart 8 deluxe on Nintendo Switch, I’m good at that game! In fact, it’s what I usually do in my spare time it always cheers me up! 

    At the end of the day I logged off my PC and went straight on Mario Kart. I’m excited to what the rest of the week will bring. 

    Tuesday 

    After a great night sleep, I woke up and performed the usual morning routine, then I turned on my laptop and got to work on today’s tasks. Soon after Phase 2 began on the 14th of June 2021 I received templates for Microsoft PowerPoint, making our lives a lot easier when it comes to making the lectures and seminars accessible. Accessibility is important because it has become an extension to the equality act 2010. Therefore, any documents published after September 23rd of 2019 must be accessible. 

    Today I came across a bit of a challenge: Ally was not agreeing with a PowerPoint title. The title on the slide was in black text, however, Ally showed it as white text, to fix this error I had to perform research. Researching and problem solving is one of the best elements of this internship because I can learn new skills without the need of a training session. As a result, the research helped me fix this error, it turned out that Ally was using what the colour settings were set as in PowerPoint, not the font colour. After I fixed the colour contrast error it was resolved. 

    At the end of the day my technical skills have increased, and I feel good about that! You really do learn a lot in this internship and I’m loving it! 

    Wednesday 

    Every day working on this internship I learn a new skill and today was no different. There is one module that has a lot of PDFs in it to make accessible. The process of making PDFs accessible works a bit differently than making Microsoft documents accessible, every object like text and an image needs a tag, which is how PDFs identify the types of object in the document. This will take a lot of time to do manually, which is executed by using the reading order tool available in Adobe Acrobat Pro. However, Adobe Acrobat has an auto tag tool available which automatically tags the objects in the document, this will make my life a lot easier when making the PDFs accessible.

    Overall, I have been extremely happy with today as I was able to make 10 PDFs accessible and learnt a new skill. I logged off and relaxed with a cup of tea ready for the rest of the day. 

    Thursday 

    This day was a fun day of the internship! 3 Student Interns created a Student Intern Quiz, which was in a pub quiz style. The quiz had 8 themes: General, Superhero, Film, Edge Hill history, Accessibility, Celebrities, and guess the music. 

    The student intern quiz title slide
    An image showing one of the questions during the student intern quiz. Which is When was Edge Hill Founded, the correct answer is 1885.

    I thoroughly enjoyed the quiz; it was a nice break from improving the module areas. The very fact that other Student Interns made this quiz is astonishing, it makes it even more fun! My favourite theme was guess the music, I am a huge fan of music, it is my tool I use to improve my well-being. One of the songs in this theme is the most streamed song on the popular music platform Spotify, it is Shape of You by Ed Sheeran! I’m so happy that song came up because Ed Sheeran is one of my favourite singers. Overall, I placed 25th in the quiz which I am proud of, but I was there for the fun not to be competitive.  

    I spent the rest of the day working on the mid-way point evaluation with Andrew, which is currently going well. 

    Friday 

    Friday, the final day of the week has arrived. I am a bit sad that the week has nearly come to an end, everyone on this internship is so great and working on the mid-way evaluation form is also fun to work on too. 

    Speaking of which the mid-way evaluation form, it is an individual project evaluation for each small project within the large project and our professional development. My favourite part of the report is the individual project evaluation because we need to provide some data to show how hard we have worked. For the first project (accessibility) all but 1 module have been made 90% or more accessible, the other is 85% accessible. Andrew and I are both tremendously pleased with ourselves we have made such an impact on accessibility. 

    You might remember from my last blog I completed a LinkedIn Learning course called Communicating with confidence. I did that course because I wanted to improve my confidence with communicating to others. However, I still wanted to expand my communication skills, so I completed another one on communication called Interpersonal Communication. This course increased my skills of how to communicate with my colleagues and supervisors, as well as communicating in tricky situations. I can already tell this LinkedIn Learning course will help me a lot as I continue throughout through the final 6 weeks of the internship. 

    An image showing some of the Linked in course Interpersonal communication course. It says Effective communication is key to executive presence, meaning do you seem like a leader.

    After I handed in my mid-way evaluation form and completed the LinkedIn Learning course, I logged off my laptop with a smile on my face, looking forward to next week’s work.

    Please keep an eye out for Rachel’s blog coming out very soon, you won’t want to miss it! 

    By Simon Hackett-Evans (Student Intern) 

    Laura

  • The Perfect Work from Home Recipes: 15 Minute Breakfast Ideas to Help You Through the Day!

    Overnight Oats


    Overnight Oats are fabulous. They barely even fall into the category of 15 minute meals as you make them the night before AND that alone takes 5 minutes! This no-cook breakfast option leaves you with a healthy grab-and-go meal to enjoy throughout the week. Plus – it’s endlessly customisable! The beauty of them is that you can make them as simple or as fancy as you prefer. They are perfect for Student Interns who might get up no long before they are due to sign onto Teams for the day!

    For this overnight oat recipe, you will need 50g of rolled oats and 2 tablespoons and natural yogurt. This is the basic recipe. As extras, you could add some honey, 50g of mixed berries or some protein powder. The procedure is simple, in a mason jar, stir together the oats and yogurt. Leave the jar in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours. Add any other ingredients!

    ProOat Pancakes


    What is better than a heap of pancakes for breakfast? Healthy pancakes! Packed with protein and fibre, these are my personal go-to choice most days! By following this recipe, you can get your brain and body perfectly powered up to complete all the tasks at hand and smash your day.

    Just read this recipe and tell me it doesn’t look amazing.

    For the Pro Oat pancake recipe, use 50g of oats, 1 banana, half a teaspoon of baking powder, 1 scoop of protein powder and 70ml of any milk. To make this recipe, blend together all of the ingredients until the batter is smooth. Heat a non-stick pan for about 2 minutes. Add the batter to the pan in small circles and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side. Serve the pancakes with any toppings you wish!

    Shakshuka


    This Middle Eastern dish is perfect. Not only is it ridiculously delicious but it can also be made for breakfast, lunch or tea! It’s made from simple, healthy ingredients – Shakshuka literally means “a mixture” and the traditional version uses tomatoes, onions and spices as the base with eggs poached on top.

    Here is a recipe for shakshuka. You will need a medium sized onion, 1 diced red pepper, 4 garlic cloves, 2 teaspoons of paprika, 1 teaspoon of cumin, a tin of chopped tomatoes and 3 eggs. To create this meal, heat some oil in a large pan on medium heat. Add the chopped pepper and onions and cook for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and spices to this pan, when adding the chopped tomatoes, break them up with a large spoon. After this, make wells in the mixture and crack the eggs into them. Cover the pan and cook for 5-6 minutes.

    By Lydia Woods (Student Intern)

    Laura

  • To Everyone That Has Made Me Smile

    Hi, I’m Reece, and I am a student at Edge Hill University and a Student Intern within the Faculty of Education (FoE).

    How is there only five weeks left to the internship? I’m not sure how it has gone so fast, but I definitely don’t want it to end.

    This will be quite different from any other piece I have written as I will explain why working with a great team has made me more motivated, confident, and engaged in work.

    Balloons

    Let’s start with the FoE team…

    The FoE team are brilliant, and I don’t think I have a bad thing to say about any of them. Every morning we have a team meeting to discuss our work and deadlines. However, we also end up chatting about the next Marvel film or how I don’t like chocolate but sometimes drink a Mocha. The endless conversations and the laughs we cherish are what makes the internship so much more fun.

    Neon lights saying 'say cheese'

    Ailsa, you are a dream to work with, and I can honestly say that the team would be lost without you. You make our meetings more engaging, and I’m sure I have been told a new story from your life every time we organise a Microsoft Teams meeting. Thank you for being the mum of the group.

    Harry, I’m not sure where to start, but I do want to say sorry for always annoying you. However, you are very hard-working. You deserve a reward for all the tasks you have completed during the internship. Calm.

    Amy, you are really kind-hearted, and I always appreciate it when we work together because not only are we a great team, but we are always laughing together. Although you were quiet at the beginning of the internship, we now can’t get you to be quiet. You bring positivity to the team, and I am grateful for that. Thank you.

    Sharnie, you definitely bring creativity to the team. All your engaging tasks are very enjoyable, especially the Escape Room that I completed in only 6 minutes (hehe). You are always smiling, and like the rest of the team, your positivity radiates through our Teams meetings. When you return to Ormskirk, you are definitely coming for a drink.

    Faye, every time you speak, I just visualise how happy you were on your 60 seconds with Faye video. Them jazz hands will definitely be one of the highlights of the internship. You are always smiling and are always there to help the rest of us when we are struggling.

    And Emma, you are so hard-working, and I think the team would be lost without you. Thank you for completing that huge spreadsheet task with Amy, but make sure you don’t open Microsoft Excel for another few weeks, or you will go insane.

    Well, that is the FoE Interns in a nutshell. We are all very different, but I think we work well as a team. I have made some really good friends, and even last weekend we had a fantastic day together. The FoE team has helped me improve my communication skills and become more confident and engaged in work. You are all fantastic people, so thank you.

    So now, the Vlog-Blog Squad Wellbeing team. After the initial meeting, Eleanor, Amber, and I joined forces and set up a meeting to discuss ideas. Now we produce so much content every week, and I have learnt so much from you. However, after a few meetings, we suddenly got a new member, Lydia, who has been so fun to work with (p.s. you still need to make a TikTok). Eleanor, you are so kind and considerate of everyone. Even the well-being session you created was so thoughtful. Amber, you are the most creative because Lydia “doesn’t have a creative bone in her body” (your words Lydia, not mine). Amber, thank you for helping me with my Vlog and just always being friendly and chatty. Finally, Lydia, thank you for being supportive. Although you joined late, you are definitely a great addition to the team.

    Now, all the staff. Sarah, you are a bundle of joy, and you always light up our team meetings. Thank you for being so supportive and always making sure we are comfortable in the roles and tasks you assign. Thank you, Laura and Leah, for giving me this opportunity and providing a support system where I feel comfortable asking any question.

    Thank you to everyone that has made me smile. 🙂 I am looking forward to meeting the rest of the interns when we go out in September.

    I hope you have enjoyed reading this.

    Photograph of people sitting around a campfire

    By Reece Thomas (Student Intern)

    Picture of Reece Thomas.

    Laura

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