Gym Thursday at Dr Ogbonnaya Onu gym. Supervising A project proposal defense for the first time
It was a gym day and my first time supervising Project Proposal (thesis) defense along with other them members. All where done in Dr Ogbonnaya Onu Polytechnic.
A student turned a lecturer is what I have become. Something I never imagined in a foreseeable time. I am undergoing a lot of trainings that are helping me to really stand tall as a lecturer. Last week, my HOD told me that he was going to assign me to a team that will be in charge of a thesis defense. I was wondering how it's going to be. During my days in school, we only defended our projects and never the proposal. Well, I was so glad to hear that and I told him that I will be glad to be part of that.
Over the weekend, he sent a document that contains the different teams for the supervision to our departmental group that is made up of lecturers. Upon opening it, I saw my name in team 5. Wow! The defence was to begin on Wednesday this week. I asked questions to know what I will be required to do. Each team has team leader. I met my team leader who was also my lecturer back then when I was In school and he was so happy to have me in his team. He told me what we are to do.
He explained that this is not a project defence. That the students have not carried out the research for the project but they are to defend the topic, the research objective or purpose, the research questions, the hypothesis, and the references. This defence is meant to ascertain if the researcher knows what he or she is going to research on. Whether he or she really understands the topic and what he Or she intends to do as well as how he or she intends to go about it. We will determine if there is compliance to the format they were given. We will also make sure that they are using the right language. In the end, we will score them and then give them corrections to work on.
We began on Wednesday as scheduled as scheduled but we noticed that the students weren't ready for it. Only 4 students came for it whereas we have about 25 in our group. We attended to those 4 and then we asked others to get theirs ready and present them Thursday being yesterday, July 10. But I had to go to the gym first before the defence because we scheduled to start by noon since the students kept us waiting the previous day. We gave them a little time to get set.
So this morning, I went to the gym first since my team leader told us that we will start the defence in the afternoon because we were very early yesterday and we waited for the students. So today, they were to wait for us. At the gym, I joined the programs that were slated for today according to the head coach
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The mirror reflects the programs, making it to look as if it's two lines in the pictures above.
First, the programs were divided into 2. We did the first set 3 sets of 20 each, some were done 25 and then we moved to the second group of programs and did 2 sets. It was strength sapping as it were. The goodnews is that I called my friend who also came around and joined me there. She had always wished that I come to Aba to train her. Now she have me back with her. Since it was her first time, her programs were different from what we had earlier done. She was given warm up programs which included some dynamic stretches, then brisk walking in that gym hall, jogging and then running, all in a progressive way. Other programs were given her, like high knees, side crunches, jacks and so on. She followed them all.
She was admitted into the gym and was encouraged to be consistent so as to get the needed results. It's all left for her to either be determined to always come out at least 3 times in a week or not but I will do my part to encourage her.
As for the programs our clients and I did before my friend came, they included what is displayed on the pictures above, we have the squat in shoulder press up, bent over rows, DB standing press up, squat in front shoulder press, Bicycle in DB, squat in front shoulder press, lunge with shoulder Arm raises, cross jack,DB knee raises, 3 in one bend over rows, DB press down up, push up jack with DB, DB with X factor and jump squat. It wasn't an easy thing to complete all in their reps and sets but I joined in doing all. You can see my sweaty face below
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| My friend I introduced to the gym |  |
Below is my U-tube video which I recorded during all the programs. You will notice all the programs as we were carrying them out.
We began by 1pm to supervise the defence. First, I went to the office of the team leader, and collected the form for the grading where I will enter the thesis topics of all who are going to defend for the day. I went to the hall we were going to stay and the students were already seated. I sat down in the designated place and began writing done the topics. Students were also coming toe to present their papers in bound volumes. Then, all the team members arrived and starting with the ones I already entered, they started taking a look at the papers. They were looking out for all the things they were to grade including the approval page, the first 3 chapters of the thesis, references to see if they complied with the format given them in the school of Business and Management Technology (SBMT) where our department belongs. A seminar/orientation was earlier held where they were all educated on how to write these as well as the format they were to use. But sad to say that the majority of them didn't comply with it. Take a look at the grading sheet below
The last was the students' response where each of them were invited to stand before the audience and to respond to the questions asked based on what they intend to accomplish during the research, they were Aldo asked questions based on the purpose of the research, the research questions and the hypothesis. Then how they intend to collect their information, their population and their sample. They were also asked questions based on their references.
Those who needed corrections where corrected so that they can go back and do a thorough work before the final defence day. Their individual supervisors will still guide them till the end before they will come back for the final defence when external team members will be part of us. Then, no corrections will be given, it's either their thesis is approved or will be rejected. So, this opportunity they are having today is best for them. I and my course mates didn't have this opportunity during our time. It was only our supervisors.
We concluded by 5 pm and then went back to the department for other matters.
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This program has just taken my mind back to what projects or thesis writing is all about. I have gotten them back. Remember that I am still undergoing training and according to them, I am learning fast. By next week, I will enter class to lecture. I am already preparing for it. It will be an awesome experience for me. Please be on the lookout for my publication on that.
This is my introductory post here
https://x.com/NgoziNwank56943/status/1943497212639449378?t=Otg_xqjRbudf1gxKiO68Iw&s=19
Students are never ready. 😆
As a student, activities like this made us nervous, especially for those in the undergraduate level. It's our first time and many are not sure of what to do or maybe not confident in their abilities. They'd start crawling out soon. By the time they are done, they'd be fine.😄
I wish you an awesome experience when you start teaching. You'd make a great lecturer given your exposure and ability to lead.
At the end of the day, most of them still messed up! Anyways, that least. They have seen what it like. They will have yo go back and get ready for the main one.
Thank you for your good wishes
This is great, nothing in life is sweet when you finish school and become something using your certificate.
Am so happy for you becoming a lecturer and starting your work, you are among the Team that supervise project Proposal,it shows that your starting as a lecture is a great work.
I congratulate you for your first assignment being delivered.
Thank you so much dear. It can only be God!
Awesome! You must have gathered some experience while supervising the topic defense. In my time, we were asked to defend our project topics too, that was the first thing before embarking on writing. About the students readiness, I hope they won't be punished for delaying their ogas?😅
Best wishes to you ma'am.
Oh that's great! Hope you did wonderfully well on that? Of course I know you did! Lol! Their punishment was that we kept them waiting on the second day. Thank you for your comments. I appreciate