The importance of being earnest.

It seems only right that the first thing that should cause me to write a post for my reflective journal blog is a typical Rob-like drama.
I enjoyed a very productive evening yesterday, thanks to my partner staying on at work for an extra five hours to finish an IT project.  I usually struggle to work at home thanks to the distractions/convenient aids to procrastination and it is only when I can have the place to myself, turn off the phones and really spread out that I tend to get any work done.  I had found a number of really interesting government written and/or commissioned papers regarding the teaching of Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) in the primary key stages and made a great deal of progress on my formative assignment.  Particularly of note, in my opinion, were Lord Dearing's Language Review (2007) and the DfES' Languages for All: Languages for Life - A Strategy for England (2002).

Today I came into the university and proceeded to carry on with my research on these and other reports that I had found and in the process, created a blank MS Word document to paste any relevant quotes and ideas to that I felt would be relevant - and then SAVED IT OVER MY FORMATIVE ASSIGNMENT.  This means that I have lost all the work that I have done to date.

If I can take nothing else from this, it is the importance of earnestly backing up my work as soon as I make any changes - not to mention, check what I am saving and where.  If I were one of those annoying optimist types, I might feel that having to rewrite the assignment with give me more opportunity to reflect and review the material - however, I'm not.  So instead, I will merely settle for some wailing, a few tears and some gnashing of teeth...