thesisthoughts

I was so excited this morning when Richarson’s book arrived in the mail. My learning is continuing but first I will finish the fantastic novel I am enjoying, the first I have allowed myself to read in months.

I chose one of my thesis narratives and used it as a base for a journal article. I worked hard on it but found it difficult going back to my thesis and turning the text into something new. I will have to wait for ages now until I get some feedback. I would like to try to write another article before I go back to school but I still am not sure…

I am planning a blogging project for students in the special writing groups I will be in charge of this year. This is the first time we will be blogging at our school. Although I am excited about the prospect, I have more questions than answers at this stage.  

I am still trying to decide whether to blog my school stuff here or to start another site. Maybe I’ll start making some decisions soon.

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I can’t believe that my thesis has been handed in and that this enormous task is behind me.

It has been over a month since I blogged because I was just reading, writing and revising 20 or so hours a day. I was exhausted but more than that, I was riding an emotional roller-coaster. The closer I got to finishing, the more excited and nervous I became. On the one hand I was waiting to submit the piece and be done with it and on the other, I was upset that I was leaving this incredible learning experience behind. Tears of joy, achievement, pride, frustration and worry all joined, I found it hard to describe my feelings.

Now I have many questions to explore. After a year off school and my job as leader of professional development, I am going back to work full time. How will I manage to keep up my professional learning in formal and informal frameworks? Will I continue this blog which was essentially a study tool or will I begin a new work blog? I imagine that this will all become clear to me in the next few weeks.

This blog has taken on a role very different from that intended at the outset. I thought I was opening this site as a means of recording my study notes but it has become far more than that. Blogging has helped me develop my identity as a teacher and as a researcher, it has helped me think and reflect. My writing here has brought me into a community of edubloggers, wonderful people who, as I wrote in my thesis “have let me into their hearts and into their classrooms”.

I want to thank you for reading my work. I never imagined that anyone would find this blog and would take the time to read it. You have all made a great contribution to my study and to my thesis on professional learning for teachers. I appreciate you giving me your precious time, the flowers at the top are for you! 

 The next step is preparing my thesis for journal publication, another step in this wonderful endless journey of professional learning.

But… today I am on lifeguard duty at the pool… an exhausting experience of a totally different kind.

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