Tickets bought, 11 weeks to go…

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We are all so excited. This week we finalized our tickets to Australia and will fly out early in July. I can’t wait to spend significant time with family and also to have a bit of a holiday.

Of course there is no pleasure without business…

In the first two weeks of July I will be very busy attending the Education Winter School and the ALEA National Conference at the Melbourne Hilton hotel. I will present papers both at the Monash MERC day and at ALEA.

Some time in the third week I will present my PhD proposal to a confirmation panel. I am busy revising my proposal and am fairly happy with my progress at this stage. I must say that I am very grateful to both my supervisors for the excellent feedback they provided on my first draft. I have been noticing that their clear comments make it possible for me to systematically revisit my writing, think about what is missing and explore the changes which are required. I am managing to do this relatively calmly. Last week I had the opportunity to discuss this paper with  both GP & SB in a Skype conversation and that helped me probe the issues worrying me even further.  

The revision process is made up of rereading my text, thinking, becoming acquainted with suggested literature, playing around with new ideas, writing and rewriting.  I am lucky to have the Passover break to devote myself to this writing.

The more I read the more I find there is to read, I just wish I had more time to devote to this endeavor, I really do enjoy it!

Waiting!

Waiting…waiting…waiting! I’ve had enough of waiting and it’s making me nervous!

What am I waiting for?

  • The grade for my thesis – I still have a few weeks to go before I’ll hear any feedback. There is nothing I can do to make the time pass and I certainly can’t do anything at this stage to improve my mark so…I will just have to keep waiting patiently! 
  • Narrative article that I sent to journal A – I haven’t heard anything – not even if they received it by email and I sent it off over a month ago. Wait! Maybe I should check if they got it? I don’t know if that isn’t being pushy. I will definitely keep waiting.
  • Narrative article that I sent to journal B – I know it was received and read and that it will probably be accepted. Again, I have to wait and see.
  • The beginning of the school year – In Israel, schools open on the 1st of September, next Monday. This year I will be working full time at our school (instead of leading PD in other schools two days a week). After school, one day a week, I will teach two PD courses for teachers, both according to the principles discussed in my thesis.

At school it will be a mixed year. I will have many hours in my role as vice principal, about 8 hrs in my role as head of teaching and leader of PD, 8 hours teaching ESL to two grade 6 classes, 2 hours teaching bible studies to grade 6, and 2 hours participating in a digital comics competition which brings together religious and secular pupils as they learn about other cultures and tolerance (last time one of my pupils came second in the final). I will also have 4 hours with groups of stronger pupils in our striving for excellence program. Together we will experiment with blogging – something new to me, our school and Israeli primary schools in general. I have lots of plans and am waiting for it all to begin.

 I still can’t decide if I should keep blogging here or open a new work blog. Let’s WAIT and see.

 

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