thesisthoughts

When I mentioned to GP, my supervisor, that I was intending to attend the AATE conference in Hobart, his first reaction was: “Of course you are going to give a paper…”. I wasn’t intending on presenting a paper, in fact I thought I would attend my first conference as a listener and as a learner, and that some time in the future I would try my hand at presenting my work. I had no idea how this type of conference works in Australia, even in Israel I have only been to a few.

As usual, when encouraged by my supervisor to present my work to others, I felt inclined to try. I sat down (fairly quickly) and prepared my abstract. I told myself that if it wasn’t accepted I would still have the rich learning experience I was looking forward to, and that if it was accepted, I would worry about it later.

I have written enough about my anxiety and have shared my experiences delaying the preparation of the paper. I will now try to explore how the paper went (from my subjective point of you, of course). I am writing this three weeks after returning from the conference.

My paper was set to be given in a fancy board room with a large table and comfortable meeting chairs. From a technical point of view, everything went according to plan and my Powerpoint presentation worked well.

I was convinced that nobody would come to hear me, especially as this was the last session of the conference and there were another 14 sessions going on at the same time. Being up against a large session on the National Curriculum was especially tough competition.

In the end, I was relieved that I had a small audience and began my presentation on time. I was thrilled that the educators present stopped me to ask questions and to comment. If I had been worried about time, the paper fitted the hour perfectly.

I was especially pleased that each of the participants (those I didn’t know) shared what she was taking away from the session.

I am still trying to build my identity as a researcher, it’s a title I don’t yet feel comfortable wearing. I can honestly say that daring to present at AATE was a significant step in seeing myself in this new role. I’m happy I chose to present some of my Lit review in the paper, I feel it was relevant and important background to the work I have been doing.

Having one of the participants email me and then look up my blog was special for me. I thank her for her interest.

That seems to be it for my Masters thesis – squeezing two journal articles and a conference paper out of it has been rewarding and satisfying. Now it is clear to me that I will need to find new angles and experiences to write about.

I have some ideas, but no time!

I have one week left here in Australia and am already apprehensive about saying goodbye to family. It is comforting to know that my studies will bring me back again in the not too distant future.

OK, it’s 10:20 pm, my parents have gone to bed and so have the kids. I am giving myself an hour at the most to write about my experiences at the AATE conference in Hobart. I really want to thank nb for this post, since she wrote a comment saying she was waiting for the post, it hasn’t left my mind. Knowing there are readers around really does make a huge difference to the weary blogger.

I arrived in Hobart a week after arriving back in Australia. I flew down with my mum and left my daughter and son with my sister. Mum booked us in at Wrest Point which was fantastic. Tasmania is a beautiful place and although we didn’t go touring at all, the view from the hotel was spectacular. Being in the hotel made it easy to hop backwards and forwards and I could spend time with mum before, after and between sessions.

 I was extremely nervous about giving my paper but was determined to make the most of the program.

Some of the sessions I attended were:

• Professor David Pearson from Berkley, “The pedagogy of promise…”. The paper discussed the teaching of reading in a time of uncertainty. A broad overview was given of the new reality in the United States and the possible implications for Australia and the rest of the western world.
• Richard Flanagan – Why Novels are Power.
• Prof. Peter Freebody – Uni of Sydney – Bridges and Divides in High Stakes Curriculum knowledge, language and Literacy in the Classroom: What Governments Should Want to Know about Literacy Achievement in Schools.
• A session on Interactive Whiteboards and their use in literacy classrooms.
• Natalie Jane Prior – Please I’m Stuck: Common Creative Writing Mistakes Children Make and How you can help them Avoid Them.
• Teaching Reading and Writing: Engaging with the Professional Community – Marion Meiers. This interesting session was attended by a small group of educators, and all participated actively in the workshop. The discussion was around encouraging teachers to write for the professional journals of AATE and ALEA. Together we brainstormed on the theme of the next edition of Practically Primary. I was reminded by this session how few publication opportunities there are in Israel for teachers. The idea of brainstorming about possible writing opportunities in a staff meeting seems to be feasible and sensible.
• I was thrilled to hear Professor Ilana Snyder speak and was even more excited to finally meet her. She is another of those influential people at Monash who have encouraged me in my study and inspired me to learn.  At that session I was also very happy to meet Scott Bulfin. After reading so much of his writing and building a lot of my thinking around his early articles, it was exciting. I was sorry not to hear Scott give his paper, he spoke at the same time that I did.
• A fascinating talk with author Christine Harris about the use of memory jars in writing.
• One of the highlights of the conference for me was to hear Graham Parr talk for the first time. His paper was titled Literature Teachers learning in the Age of Standards-Based Reforms. I was interested in hearing the work I have been reading spoken out loud and was interested to hear the questions posed by the audience.
• Bridges to Improved Pedagogies: Lessons from Singapore – Scott G. Paris. This paper was mainly about the high price teachers and students in Singapore pay  for their high achievement levels on international examinations.
• Marion Meiers, ACER, Identifying the Outcomes of Teacher Professional Learning Programs. I should write more about this session later.
• My paper was at the very end of the conference and I do have  a lot to write about it. I promise to do that in the next day or so. Now… I must get to bed.

Good night!

OK, I’ve been in Australia for a week and a half already, and I feel that if I don’t start recording a bit of what I am going through, it will be lost.

I left Israel the day school finished for the year. Exhausted and stressed, I parted from my colleagues and from everything that the school year demands of me and got on the plane with my two younger children. Thank goodness they were cooperative and we all slept most of the way to Australia. The family welcome we received was as always, wonderful… our visit had begun.

Mylife is always intense, rushed and pressured, and so was the beginning of my month out here. The next morning, at 9 am, I was supposed to be at Monash University for the MERC (Monash Education Research Conference). I was panicking about finally turning up at the uni in person, after 3 years of online study. I was shy and unsure of how the day would go.

The day was interesting and varied. I payed particular attention to the kinds of work the research students were presenting and how they presented themselves as students and researchers.

The highlight of my day was finally meeting GP my supervisor and we had a nice lunch together. It seems to me that meeting someone face-to-face after years of online conversation is as unnerving as a real first time meeting.

The next article I attempt to write may very well be about distance education and the experiences I have had with it.  

After a weekend off (crammed full of family commitments), I was back at Monash on Monday and Tuesday. The Winter School for postgraduate students was a terrific way to get the feel of the campus, of the research assistance available and to start to chat to other new (and not so new) PhD students. The workshops were interesting and relevant and gave me a sense that I’m really getting started and that this PhD idea is viable.

I especially enjoyed the workshop by Dr  Judy Williams and Ros Winters on Self Study. The session on Autoethnography by Dr Peter De Vries and the sessions on writing by Rosemary Viete and Anne Prince were also very worthwhile.

One of the highlights of those days was going into the Matheson Library for the first time. The library staff have given me so much assistance over the past three years and really have catered for all my research needs, despite me being on the other side of the world. When I got to the Education section and started seeing the books I had used for my thesis (scanned as PDF files or read as ebooks) I almost couldn’t breathe. The excitement was immense. I had butterflies in my stomache and was simply overcome by the experience. I was shocked at my own reaction.

I took five books from the library that day. As I approached the loans desk, like a normal student doing an everyday act, only I was aware that I was a student in my fourth year at Monash, touching “real” library books for the first time.

My next post will tell about my experiences at the AATE coference in Hobart.

I can’t believe that it is almost a month since I wrote last. Things have been terribly hectic at school and I finished teaching both of my courses. At home things are also heating up as end of year concerts, parties  and ballet performances get closer. I am trying to organize an extra day off for study next year – otherwise there is no way that I will be able to keep up with all my commitments.

So what’s up?

School:

As every one who works in education knows, the end of the school year is a difficult period. There is a lot of tension in the air for many reasons: pressure to get everything done, not easy working with tired children who are dreaming about the swimming pool or their next party, the teachers still don’t know what they will be doing next year and they are nervous about it… I feel as though I am organizing hundreds of things at once and nothing gets done 100% properly and certainly not from A to B without interruptions.

Courses:

I finished teaching both my courses and received interesting feedback from both groups. I will write a separate post on that.

For the last meeting I showed the teachers the movie “The Freedom Writers” about the Freedom Writers Diary. It was a nice way to end the course and the movie touches many of the issues discussed during our learning. There was a great atmosphere in both groups and the movie and popcorn added a lot. There is nothing like sitting together and sniffling over a great movie.

I must quickly reread the written feedback I received and make some kind of report out of it. I must inform the Teachers’ Centers where the courses were held, and I want to get the school principals involved in what the teachers experienced. In addition I must start thinking about next year and how I will improve on this year’s programs.

I received an invitation to go to Tel Aviv to a meeting with those in charge of Language and literacy in the Education Department. They are interested in working with teachers and writing more next year and wanted to hear more about my courses. They are planning a series of filmed lectures on teaching writing which will be used in inservice teacher learning all over the country. The Centre for Educational Technology is producing them. They liked my ideas and I am already going to do one filmed lecture in the next month, before I go to Australia. It sounds like something new and exciting, but a bit scary too. Lecturing in front of a camera will be a totally new experience – I am used to developing a topic together with the teachers listening and participating.

Conference:

I swore to myself that I wouldn’t leave my paper to the last minute. This week this will be one item at the top of my list. My paper is on the last day of the conference and I probably will have a very small audience. I am quite happy about that as my main aim here is just gaining experience. The problem is that I was hoping to get it over and done with early in order to enjoy the conference.

PhD:

No progress here. I think in a way I am waiting to get to Australia to sit down face to face with my supervisors in order to get myself going. On the other hand, all I did and am doing with my courses is the ground work for this enormous project. What worries me here is the less you DO, the less self confidence you have. When I am busy reading and writing and discussing ideas I feel I can achieve this task, when I’m not involved, it looks impossible.

Good news:

GP wrote to congratulate me that my article for English in Australia is out, that he actually read it. I can’t wait to see it – exciting news.

I’m off to make huge lists of things to do. I WILL keep writing here!

I have been busy thinking about applying to present at the AATE conference in Hobart, Australia this summer (winter). If I decide to apply I only have a week to do it.

A while ago I thought of applying and then decided it was better to attend the first time as a regular participant. It seemed sensible to go, get the feel of the function and learn from others. When my supervisor heard I was going he encouraged me to to seriously consider presenting some of my work.

I will see… I still have a few days to get the 250 word abstract in. I’m working on it despite the fact that I still have no final answer.