Whoa, what a course. I have carpal tunnel now. I also, however, have a much deepened understanding of what this specialist thing is all about.
When I began my master's program, I quickly realized how little I knew and how deluded I had been in thinking I even somewhat knew what I was doing in the classroom. Love of the job and trial and error were my lifeblood back then. My master's program began to push me toward a recognition of just how much there is to think about in education and how to start thinking about it with baby steps into the research world.
It only barely prepared me for this class. I felt like I dove headlong into that awful, dry textbook and came up choking on half-swallowed technical and often barely distinguishable terminology. Still, I persisted, and I am glad I did. Completing the research proposal effectively required depth of content understanding gleaned in the course, for sure, but more than that: I choked my way past the rough waters until I could kind of breathe and realized, hey, I can have some fun with this. Not fun in any general sense of the word, mind you, but fun in an overcaffeinated, it's-2:06-AM-again kind of way.
If I can shake the cramps out of my hands, I want to pursue a doctoral degree, and ameliorating my research skill is critical to that end. Not only because no advisory board would approve ineffective research, but certainly that too, do I see the value in research; I also recognize that if I am to follow my passion for helping students, writing research that supports equity and improvement in quality of life then spreading that information to anyone who will listen would have the greatest impact on students' lives.
I am happy with my skill development this semester. I certainly could not have articulately differentiated even the quantitative from the qualitative research category much less recognized their intricacies and the significance of those intricacies prior to this semester. Had I Dr. Brown's suped-up, time-traveling DeLorean, I might tell past-me that those dreadful textbook readings would become less onerous and more engaging the more my mind opened to an understanding of the content's relevance and to thus keep trucking. Or, to quote my son's lively levity: "Suck it up, Buttercup."
Gotta admit, though - I will more than happily accept the imminent hand and brain break I have coming to me. It's been fun, folks, but bye.
When I began my master's program, I quickly realized how little I knew and how deluded I had been in thinking I even somewhat knew what I was doing in the classroom. Love of the job and trial and error were my lifeblood back then. My master's program began to push me toward a recognition of just how much there is to think about in education and how to start thinking about it with baby steps into the research world.
It only barely prepared me for this class. I felt like I dove headlong into that awful, dry textbook and came up choking on half-swallowed technical and often barely distinguishable terminology. Still, I persisted, and I am glad I did. Completing the research proposal effectively required depth of content understanding gleaned in the course, for sure, but more than that: I choked my way past the rough waters until I could kind of breathe and realized, hey, I can have some fun with this. Not fun in any general sense of the word, mind you, but fun in an overcaffeinated, it's-2:06-AM-again kind of way.
If I can shake the cramps out of my hands, I want to pursue a doctoral degree, and ameliorating my research skill is critical to that end. Not only because no advisory board would approve ineffective research, but certainly that too, do I see the value in research; I also recognize that if I am to follow my passion for helping students, writing research that supports equity and improvement in quality of life then spreading that information to anyone who will listen would have the greatest impact on students' lives.
I am happy with my skill development this semester. I certainly could not have articulately differentiated even the quantitative from the qualitative research category much less recognized their intricacies and the significance of those intricacies prior to this semester. Had I Dr. Brown's suped-up, time-traveling DeLorean, I might tell past-me that those dreadful textbook readings would become less onerous and more engaging the more my mind opened to an understanding of the content's relevance and to thus keep trucking. Or, to quote my son's lively levity: "Suck it up, Buttercup."
Gotta admit, though - I will more than happily accept the imminent hand and brain break I have coming to me. It's been fun, folks, but bye.