thesisthoughts

When I see that my last post is from the end of August I feel that time is running away from me. We went back to school on the first of September and since then I have been on the run. I have been trying to get up at 4:00 am every morning in order to sit and work on my doctorate. I can’t say that it happens every day and there are days when I do get up but have some urgent assessment or planning to do for school and I do that. Most days I manage to take a few baby steps forward.  

I am working on three different things at once. My ethics application is being read by GP and I already know that there will be many changes made to it. I wanted to get the application in and authorized before starting this years’ courses but I understand now that that was unrealistic. Once I have the forms in, I need to send similar documents to the Israeli Department of Education, to get their approval too.

In the meanwhile, I have started working on the literature review, according to the recommendations in Destination Dissertation by Foss and Waters. I feel as though I am progressing and am enjoying the work so far.

In addition, I started teaching the first of my four professional learning groups yesterday. As part of my big effort to write a lot about my experiences with the groups, I returned to blogging this morning.

http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=266493

The clock is ticking all the time and I must write a new post, the one I got up to write, about my session yesterday.

Often when I read Faultlines, Ward’s informative blog on writing a PhD, I encounter inspiring materials which help me as a writer and as a researcher. I have written here before that I began blogging after reading an article by Ward on her blogging experiences.

Today I read about Lilia’s honest post on publishing a PhD which is both exposing and highly personal.

Another wonderful source of information I discovered through Ward is the inspiring How I write series from Stanford – transcripts, videos etc.

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 am happy that I have taken another step in the direction of getting re-enrolled. Filling in all the forms and having my certificates and passport all certified by a notary was a bit of a hassle, but of course the main difficulty was getting the proposal summary down on paper. When they asked for 200 or so words, I had no idea what kind of text was expected. Sending it off to my supervisor was very helpful as it was only when I started to receive his comments that I felt my brain cells getting back into order. After three revisions, I am happier with the summary but realize that it is only the diving board.

As soon as I sent the envelope off, I realized that the question I wrote last may be the one which is the most original and interesting.

Big news!

I am planning to travel to Australia in July. I am excited by the very thought and can’t wait to see family and friends. It will be strange to arrive at Monash university and to meet the people who helped me through my MEd studies and will be accompanying me on my journey to my PhD.

In addition, I would love to attend the AATE conference in Tasmania. It would be a great opportunity to hear some interesting lectures and do some face to face learning.

With all this excitement going on and my burning desire to get stuck into studying, work is a tiny bit on the boring side (I can’t even bear to admit it to myself)