It has been a month since I last posted on this reflections blog due to being caught up with both clinics and finishing up a summer course (my last course to complete the required coursework for the Ed.D. program before I can officially begin my dissertation). And I also grouped together with four other colleagues, the same group for studying comps via email, for dissertation accountability group. We respond the each weekly email correspondence to keep our minds focused on doing our respective dissertations by asking questions and such.
Yet all this week so far, I was procrastinating.....and Gadsden State starts August 20th for the fall term, meaning I begin teaching Orientation 101 August 21st. I teach Tuesday and Thursday at 4:00-5:15 p.m. for ten consecutive weeks, ending right before Halloween. I am looking at Fall 2014 as my prototype, the pilot study, for my dissertation.
I need to whip up about seventy-eighty pages for my dissertation proposal. End of August is my goal to have a first draft. Then proofread it through and possibly have my cousin to proofread it before uploading it onto this website for Dr. Major to read and give constructive feedback. Depending on her feedback, I need to schedule a proposal defense meeting sometime in September (or early October) in order to go through the IRB approval process.
That way I can be really prepared for Spring 2015 classes, to officially start the data collection and analysis. Both Spring 2015 and Fall 2015 are the data collection/analysis periods, with January 2016 as the goal for dissertation defense meeting being scheduled.
Why am I procrastinating? I have been reading for leisure, putting more pressure on myself. I always feel I work best under pressure. But the dissertation books advise against that. Yet with next week looming large, I am glad to get back into routine. Once I am in routine, I know I will focus better on doing my dissertation.
I am about to be finished with Fink's (2013) book on significant learning experiences. I need to focus on only the taxonomy and not the integrated course design and active learning. However, I can plug in the integrated course design and active learning throughout the dissertation; just not as part of my official theoretical framework. I need to keep my dissertation simple. My tendency to go on and on, branching out in my writing, needs to be tampered down.