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Live music + cupcakes + David Preston = my book launch!

It’s all about that #YesICan. Self-efficacy. The book. This Tuesday 5:30-6:30 GMT is the time to share and celebrate, and yes, the event will be live-streamed.

I’m not so good at celebrating or accepting compliments of any sort, and somehow I have managed to make this event into something that I am really looking forward to and am so excited to share – and, no, I am not going to stand on a soap box and talk at people. I am going to do the book –  show you what it says on the tin. The event is to celebrate and launch my book  Fostering self-efficacy in higher education students and it has also been billed as a Learning & Teaching event by the University of Chichester, where I work. I love that – it is absolutely lovely, and makes me feel valued and supported ‘at home’. I am very grateful. There is a very special guest coming to say a few words – My good friend and colleague David Preston (He founded the Open Source Learning Foundation and I am pleased to be able to say I am also one of the co-founding members of the OSLF, which is in it’s infancy yet, but international links and projects are springing up already) is on the plane at this very moment winging his way from LA to England (the land of tea and cakes that I call home).

It all happens on Tuesday, 15 Dec. at 5:30 GMT in the University of Chichester Chapel and it kicks off withDavid as the special guest speaker at the event. That in itself is reason to tune in (or drop in if you are local). David is one inspiring person with whom I have been very fortunate to collaborate on many projects over the past year.

The idea of the book in a nutshell is that self-efficacy is a sort of holy grail in life, and no less in education. If someone wants to do something, and believes in him or herself, then that belief + the requisite skills + experience = #YesICan.

Now you may be thinking, ah, there are so many books that tell you what to do…. The difference is that I do it too. I do the things that I expect of my students. I learn. I sometimes explain it to them saying that I am still some sort of hungry student and I just want to keep learning… the thing is that when I do this, I keep my teaching fresh because I know what it is like (really know what it is like) to do things for the first time. I’m going to do this on Tuesday too – my part of this event, my book launch, is to show – if you want to read the book, you can, but I can temp you to it by showing you what I mean. I am going to play a really fun duet with a lovely violinist who just graduated from the MA in Music. For that I play my cello (which is my main musical instrument) and that is something we do as teachers, we model, we demonstrate, and we do what we do well. That’s all good and I’m excited for that because it’s an excellent piece. Then I will show a bit of my learning as I sing a song, accompanied by a fantastic second year student. For some that’s no big deal – for me trust me, it’s a gib deal. It is not what people expect from me: It’s a pop song. Remember I am a classically trained cellist. Royal College of Music and all, and I’m singing a pop song – like, with a microphone and all. Some people talk about walking in other people’s shoes. You can see me do it.

I’ll be honest – that makes me nervous, nervous and excited, because I haven’t done that before. But the point is I have learned. I have worked hard on developing the requisite skills, and I have built my self-efficacy over months and months. You see in the book I talk all about building this Yes I Can, and Tuesday I will be showing you another part of my own journey. (you can read some of the earlier bits in the book.) I am still nervous, because until I do it, I won’t have done it. Sounds basic, but it’s real, and I can tell you I sympathise with the students who have to do a task for the first time! So my performing? Anyone can watch – it will be streamed via this link:

http://chi.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=68f70b80-ae5d-4a8c-973e-2d2283b70c94

I am so pleased to be supported by both my colleagues and my students. Hope you can join us!

As for me, I might just sneak in a little more practise before I call it a night… 🙂

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Image CC BY-NC-ND by Sylvia Chan http://bit.ly/1NrCfaf

Featured image CC BY-NC-ND by Ars Electronica http://bit.ly/1IOqxK9

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