Saturday, May 06, 2006
Silence = Very busy!
I was going to write that this week has been extremely busy, but when I thought of it I realized the whole semester has been incredibly busy. Yes, very productive too! That is the good part of it, what makes it rewarding, what makes me happy and self-accomplished. But all of this would not be possible if it wasn't for so many people: family, friends, professors-mentors, and even my students.
My proposal presentation went really well. I am lucky to have a committee that is supportive; that believes in constructive criticism; that is willing to work with me and help me move forward. This is not something common - I've heard - many doctoral students find themselves working by themselves, with very little guidance. This is not may case at all! All of my committee members are like colleagues, working with me, and me working with them -- working together!
The meeting started as scheduled. First, I made a ten-minute presentation of the research project. From there on, a session of questions and answers followed -- brainstorming, commenting, and developing conversations throughout the following hour or so. We worked together to refine my research topic, to better delimit the research question. We identified holes in the literature review, we looked at possible areas of research that needed to be added to the second chapter. We also went over chapter three and identified sections that needed to be expanded, clarified, revised, where examples were important as to show in detail what I was planning to do. It was a great meeting! I felt I got good criticism; that we were able to negotiate, together, what needed to be done. :)
Thanks to my committee members, Drs. K. Dawson, M. Koro-Ljungberg, R. Ferdig, and R. Telg I can see myself completing my research project -- that is my dissertation -- in a few months. I still have much to do, but this is how it should be!
My proposal presentation went really well. I am lucky to have a committee that is supportive; that believes in constructive criticism; that is willing to work with me and help me move forward. This is not something common - I've heard - many doctoral students find themselves working by themselves, with very little guidance. This is not may case at all! All of my committee members are like colleagues, working with me, and me working with them -- working together!
The meeting started as scheduled. First, I made a ten-minute presentation of the research project. From there on, a session of questions and answers followed -- brainstorming, commenting, and developing conversations throughout the following hour or so. We worked together to refine my research topic, to better delimit the research question. We identified holes in the literature review, we looked at possible areas of research that needed to be added to the second chapter. We also went over chapter three and identified sections that needed to be expanded, clarified, revised, where examples were important as to show in detail what I was planning to do. It was a great meeting! I felt I got good criticism; that we were able to negotiate, together, what needed to be done. :)
Thanks to my committee members, Drs. K. Dawson, M. Koro-Ljungberg, R. Ferdig, and R. Telg I can see myself completing my research project -- that is my dissertation -- in a few months. I still have much to do, but this is how it should be!
