I made a rookie mistake, and am frustrated with myself. I just wrote a pretty long post for here, had it all in the Weebly page (instead of cutting and pasting from a Word document) and when I went to publish it, something happened and it disappeared. Aaahhhh. I know better!
So, I’ll shortly recap (while writing this is MS Word to cut and paste into my blog) some of my updates.
I was able to get to the 2/3 mark with my coding today—all As are coded together and all Bs are coded together. The final 1/3 will be coding both essays together for each student. It was awesome to be able to sit and focus, to get a chunk of this work done. After a beginning to the summer that was not-going-as-planned (as life often does), and a real struggle to dive in completely, I’ve hit a stride. Today marks ½ a week into a 3-week dog sitting gig where I get to isolate myself at a table by a window that looks out on the Organ Mountains. In fact, two summers ago, I completed my comprehensive exams in exactly the same way—holed up in a dog sitting place in the mountains. It is the perfect place to get into a work groove.
My supportive and loving partner, has been an inspiration through this process. Her work ethic is admirable and heartening—she is thorough, detailed, and precise. This makes me want to work hard, too. We’ve still managed to cook delicious meals together, watch a few episodes of Orange is the New Black, play softball, etc. I’m happy to have preserved joy outside of school in order to get through what at times seems like an arduous school process.
It’s nice to be at a place where my dissertation work does also bring some joy. After reading and coding the second set of essays today, I have REALLY interesting things dumped into my side-file (“things_I_think_about_while_coding.docx”) that remains an open, running self-commentary of associative thoughts, interesting connections and themes, and the occasional poem title for later use. Just a very short selection of some of the things I’ve been noticing students discussing in their post-course reflection:
--new understanding of intellectualism
--expanded understanding of communication and writing, audience
--expanded understanding of definition of writing as beyond essays
--assignments built on each other in a way that fostered memorable learning
--memorable assignments help them invest more of themselves
--developed creative-critical thinking
--students engaging with one another was important to figuring things out
--hands-on style creates engagement which makes work meaningful to them
There’s about 4 pages of notes in the file.
Today I’m also thankful to scholars Jody Shipka and Cheryl Ball for posting their own productivity and work on Facebook—it keeps me going. Jody posted something last week to the effect of, “summer means I can’t wait to go to bed at night so I can get up and start working again in the morning.” Hell yes! I love that attitude, and the travels and current scholarship that these scholars both address on FB keeps the type of work we do visible, and keeps me motivated.
Also, a shout out to Spotify Free which has been helping me move through my academic work for the past several years. Thank the universe for limitless music with a few keyboard clicks.
Looking forward to getting through the last 1/3 of my coding very soon so I can dive back into my chapter drafts and get them polished and start writing my results.
So, I’ll shortly recap (while writing this is MS Word to cut and paste into my blog) some of my updates.
I was able to get to the 2/3 mark with my coding today—all As are coded together and all Bs are coded together. The final 1/3 will be coding both essays together for each student. It was awesome to be able to sit and focus, to get a chunk of this work done. After a beginning to the summer that was not-going-as-planned (as life often does), and a real struggle to dive in completely, I’ve hit a stride. Today marks ½ a week into a 3-week dog sitting gig where I get to isolate myself at a table by a window that looks out on the Organ Mountains. In fact, two summers ago, I completed my comprehensive exams in exactly the same way—holed up in a dog sitting place in the mountains. It is the perfect place to get into a work groove.
My supportive and loving partner, has been an inspiration through this process. Her work ethic is admirable and heartening—she is thorough, detailed, and precise. This makes me want to work hard, too. We’ve still managed to cook delicious meals together, watch a few episodes of Orange is the New Black, play softball, etc. I’m happy to have preserved joy outside of school in order to get through what at times seems like an arduous school process.
It’s nice to be at a place where my dissertation work does also bring some joy. After reading and coding the second set of essays today, I have REALLY interesting things dumped into my side-file (“things_I_think_about_while_coding.docx”) that remains an open, running self-commentary of associative thoughts, interesting connections and themes, and the occasional poem title for later use. Just a very short selection of some of the things I’ve been noticing students discussing in their post-course reflection:
--new understanding of intellectualism
--expanded understanding of communication and writing, audience
--expanded understanding of definition of writing as beyond essays
--assignments built on each other in a way that fostered memorable learning
--memorable assignments help them invest more of themselves
--developed creative-critical thinking
--students engaging with one another was important to figuring things out
--hands-on style creates engagement which makes work meaningful to them
There’s about 4 pages of notes in the file.
Today I’m also thankful to scholars Jody Shipka and Cheryl Ball for posting their own productivity and work on Facebook—it keeps me going. Jody posted something last week to the effect of, “summer means I can’t wait to go to bed at night so I can get up and start working again in the morning.” Hell yes! I love that attitude, and the travels and current scholarship that these scholars both address on FB keeps the type of work we do visible, and keeps me motivated.
Also, a shout out to Spotify Free which has been helping me move through my academic work for the past several years. Thank the universe for limitless music with a few keyboard clicks.
Looking forward to getting through the last 1/3 of my coding very soon so I can dive back into my chapter drafts and get them polished and start writing my results.