Friday, November 28, 2008

11/28/08

My goal is to have a topic by December 31, 2008. At this rate, I don't know if I'll be able to make that goal. Hopefully after finals, I'll have more time to think about this.

Monday, November 10, 2008

11/10/08

Argh! I haven't written for a very long time. I think about my dissertation everyday, but I just can't seem to think of anything NEW everyday. Anyways...

I went to another one of COEDSA's 1st PhriDay events. This time the topic was Types of Research Methodology. The three speakers spoke about qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method research. I always like to go to these events because I get to talk to people about my thoughts about my topic, and they give me insights. I talked to this one person and they suggested that I ask if I could do my dissertation on the process of creating and getting approval of a DIP (Detailed Implementation Plan) in order to create a charter school. I thought that was a great idea since I want to create a school in the end anyways. (I don't know if a charter school is the way to go though....*shrugs*) Well, it's worth asking my advisor what she thinks.

I took notes during the workshop too.
-defining a topic
-framing the problem: How am I thinking about the problem? Why something works in one situation and not in another?
-developing research questions
-deciding data and method: What do I need? What can I get?
-What do you want to study and how? Write within 2 pages.
-positionality in qualitative research: What is unique about me? You need familiarity to the community.
-ethical concerns: You must have something to offer them. Beyond IRB, ensure that people are ethically treated.
-ethical concerns: state own bias, systematically through method.
-messiness: it's ok to tweak the research question to fit
-expect to be a different person after the process
-create a 12 page proposal with a concept map and time line in order to get a committee

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

10/29/08

So I was debating whether or not to do the summer program. But I just received an email from my interim advisor and it said:

I'm paraphrasing below some info from our program's graduate chair.

EDUC 740 is an individually designed requirement done with an advisor. Usually, a student waits until the end of their coursework to fulfill this requirement. If a student has not had much varied professional experience, some sort of internship could be established in that area. For example, a student in policy studies might work with the state legislature or in other areas might attend an institute on the mainland. As for the latter, one of my students, a community college professor, attended a high powered assessment in higher education institute and wrote up a report about it for her 740. Another doctoral student wrote most of the ESL framework for the DOE. Another did a pilot study as preliminary to her dissertation. Others have worked as volunteer research assistants to a professor on a project and thereby have learned more about actually doing research. So there are lots of possibilities.


So I thinking maybe I'll do a pilot study to fulfill the requirement of EDUC 740? A pilot study of what? I'm not sure...

Friday, October 24, 2008

10/24/08

A colleague of mine recommended that I do this summer program. (http://www.hawaiiqbprogram.com/) She said that it was a great experience and it fulfills the requirements for the three credits needed for field study. The deadline to apply for the program is October 31st, but I don't know if I should apply or not. Maybe I should apply, and if I get in, then it means I was meant to do the program?

By the way, I substituted again today. It was for one of the other 4th grade classes. Today, they went on a field trip to a fish pond located in Kaneohe. Each station seemed rushed, but overall I think it was a great learning experience for the students. The most exciting part was when they allowed the students to fish for crab. They had long sticks with strings attached to them. At the end was a paperclip with part of a fish as bait. The students would dangle it near the edge of the fish pond and crabs would attack it. I was amazed at how big the crabs were...4 inches or so wide!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

10/22/08

I just bought a new book titled The Geography of Thought by Richard E. Nisbett. It was recommended to me by my professor at Chaminade. He said that if I wanted to do my dissertation on comparing the U.S. curriculum with the Japan curriculum, then I'd need to read this book. However, I have chapters after chapters to read for school, therefore I will need to make an extreme effort in making time to read this.

I substituted again today. It was for another fourth grade class. The teacher made it so easy for me to substitute. Most of it was basically supervising the students. It wasn't as stressful as my first substituting job. In fact, I'd love to substitute for her anytime. Her students worked diligently and were honest in what the procedures were for the classroom. Except for one student. He needed my attention 24/7. Crazy kid.

One of the tasks was to proctor a math test. As I was walking around I noticed that many students didn't have labels for their answers. So I told them that they should make sure that they have labels for their answers. It's amazing because some students didn't know what a label was. So I had to give them an example. 12, what? 12 monkeys? 12 bananas? 12 dollars? What is it? I think some of the students caught on, but some were still clueless as to what they were suppose to do.

Today in my EDCS 653D class a student did a project on the Mobius Strip, an object with one surface and one edge. I was totally amazed at the presentation. Do you know what you'd get if you cut the Mobius Strip in half down the middle the long way? You should try it out. You'd be amazed, too. Another presentation was about the Fibonacci sequence represented through geometry. I knew of the Fibonacci sequence, but I didn't know that it could be represented as the Golden Rectangle. Pretty interesting things.

Monday, October 20, 2008

10/20/08

Clarify, clarify, clarify!

I went to a dissertation defense today. The title was "Evaluation and Development of a University English Reading Program in Korea". It was a great learning experience. I think the panel consisted of five professors. They each had a stack of paper (the dissertation) that was almost 3 inches thick! That's crazy!

The student did a brief presentation about her study. Then the panel discussed the dissertation chapter by chapter. The following are some of the notes that I took during the whole thing.

-Why is your study important out side of ***** University?
-Why is this important?
-Terms: Confusing, need to clarify.
-Include graphic organizer in chapter 1 to help the reader understand.
-Include examples of program development so it illustrates and show how it applies
-Need time line in order to help reader understand if the study involves the same students and when it occurred
-Need to explain how data was analyzed. The steps.
-Don't use the passive voice
-Explain why you chose to focus on an aspect. Why the priority?
-Include reference names in the paragraph for it to be a strong back up instead of adding it in parenthesis a the end of paragraph
-Sometimes the word "paper" can be replaced with the word "chapter"
-Lesson plans, activities, materials should be boxed off, italicized, or in a different font to clarify it is different from the text
-Clarify how everything is related to each section, and transition between chapters
-In the last chapter, start by summarizing, and then including the limitations of the study in the last paragraph.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

10/18/08

Sente it is. I'll be using Sente to manage my PDF files and bibliography information. I tried EndNote, hated it. I tried BoodEnds, Zotero, JabRef, LaTex/BibDesk, Papers, etc. Nothing does what I want it to do better than Sente. So, it's MS Word and Sente for me. I hope I can compete my dissertation with ease now.

Friday, October 17, 2008

10/17/08

So I have a lead for Hanahauoli School. One of the student's mom from karate said that she has a friend that send three of her kids to Hanahauoli and is more than willing to help me "get my foot in the door" with observing. I definitely want to go and observe and see what it's like there. Then I can seriously think about evaluating their curriculum for my dissertation or not.

On a side note, I talked to my ED 631 professor at Chaminade yesterday. He gave me some pointers, but basically he was saying that I have to read, read, and read. Some people use EndNote to organize their articles. However, I've been using EndNote, and I'm not liking it so far. It's not very user friendly. I might just end up organizing my articles in an Excel file. I just downloaded BookEnds. Which program is going to do help keep what I read organized? Sente? BibDesk? Papers? I'm lost.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

10/15/08

Is my specialization math? I was told today by a mother of a child that I tutor that my specialization is math. Hm. Well, I did teach 5th grade math last year. I do enjoy teaching math rather than language arts. I feel much more confident teaching math than language arts. I guess so.

If that's the case, then I should do something related to math for my dissertation. How about I evaluate the mathematics curriculum in a specific school? What about an elementary school in Japan? Would this topic last me my entire dissertation, or would it be too short? I'm still searching.

My goal is to decide on my dissertation topic by December 31, 2008. I will have my dissertation topic by December 31, 2008.

Monday, October 13, 2008

10/13/08

Data for the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) shows that in the year 2003, 15-year-olds in Finland, scored 1st in reading comprehension, 1st in science, and 2nd in math. (In 2006, they ranked 1st in science, 2nd in reading comprehension, and 2nd math.) What are they doing in Finland that is so special? I've been reading books in Japanese about the "Finland Method". The "Finland Method" focuses on five specific abilities; the ability to come up with an idea, the ability to be logical, the ability to express one self, the ability to think critically, and the ability to communicate.

I'd like to go to Finland and investigate more. But what's the fesibility of reseraching Finland for my dissertation?

Saturday, October 11, 2008

10/11/08

I was thinking, perhaps evaluating Keio Academy would be more possible because I actually went to that school. I have no connection to Hanahauoli School, so I don't know how feasible it would be to evaluate their curriculum/school. Then again, Keio Academy is a high school, and I'm not interested in high school, so I'd have to find a way to get permission to evaluate the Keio elementary school in Japan. I just tried a real brief search to see if I could find articles related to Keio and I couldn't find any. Maybe I'll be the first? Of course there are probably a zillion already written about it in Japanese.

Friday, October 10, 2008

10/10/08

Is evaluating a curriculum/school a legitimate dissertation topic? I was thinking Keio Academy, but that would cost a lot. What about Hanahauoli School?

I think Hanahauoli School would be great. Montessori has been documented, Waldolf is documented, but Hanahauoli School hasn't, right?

Thursday, October 9, 2008

10/9/08

I talked to my mom about Ed Admin, and she said whatever is easier and faster. She said I can always go back and take Ed Admin classes if I really want to. So I guess I'm staying in curriculum studies for now.

Today I visited Ms. ****** at Punahou School. She teaches 6th grade math and science. Each 6th grade class (12 total) are team taught. One teacher teaches math and science and the other teacher does language arts and social studies (humanities). Their classrooms are partitioned by a think sliding door. Each student has a MacBook. (They are individually given a computer from 4th grade.)

The math curriculum that they use is called Impact Math. The text describes math using lots of words instead of numbers. Today they were learning about factors. The teacher taught the lesson and supplemented it with a factor game found online. Students worked in pairs or individually. Students take notes in their composition book. They use the composition book to do classrook as well. Homework is completed on folder paper and graded on a scale of 1 - 4. 4 being the highest grade.

In science, they were learning about about the ocean floor. No textbook is currently being used. They just finished a unit on the scientific method. The teacher asked, "What geologic structures would you find on the ocean floor?" Students were given 10 minutes to search the internet with their computer. After, students were to recreate the ocean floor using clay. Later, they will be using a chopstick as their "sonar" to explore their ocean floor.

The humanities class started by correcting Wordly Wise Book 7 Lesson 4 Part E. Students were given guidelines as to what is acceptable and what isn't. Then they moved on to discusssing in pairs their ideas for their Nat Turner essa. The teacher (Mr. ***) already had them write about each side of the story. Now, they were to pick a side and write about it.

Overall, it was a great experience to observe a class at Punahou. The students seemed to be discipline. I'd love to teach there one day.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

10/8/08

Being a first year student in the COE (college of education), I'm not too familiar with the different programs. However, if I'm interested in creating, owning, and operating a school, shouldn't I be in Ed Admin?

For me EDEF 678 class interview my theme is classroom management. I'll be interviewing Mrs. Ikehara to understand her ideas behind classroom management.

I've pulled up several recent literature about classroom management. One article talked about general guidelines. Another talked about how the NCLB legislation has schools cutting down P.E., art, music and recess time in order to meet the legislation's mandates. However, the article stressed the importance of physical activities and other activities in order to develop the "whole child."

This makes me think about schoosl like Punahou where students spend hours and hours a week on P.E., music and art. Yet they still produce smart students. I'll be visiting Ms. ****** at Punahou tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to find out more.

Anyways, the other articles that I pulled up were about the effects of parent-teacher communication on students, effective use of time-out, and the use of humor in the classroom.

One of the main points in the time-out article, which makes sense now that I think about it, is that the most effective type of time-out is the exclusion time-out where the student is removed from the instructional setting in which the student wants to stay in.

The humor article said that humor is good for retention and recall.

The interesting thing I read about today in my language arts book was referring to "speaking" as "talking". Aslo, language arts is 6-tiered; reading, writing, listening, talking, viewing, and visual representation.

Today, I found out that one of the karate students got diagnosed with ADHD. I was shocked because ****'s a kid that is intelligent. However the recent problems seem to be that he can't control himself to concentrate for long periods of time, and he day dreams. I talked to Travis about it and he made me think that there's probably many people who are/were ADD or ADHD but learned to cope in one way or another and are well-rounded adults now.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

10/7/08

...Oops... I missed A LOT! (>___<)'

Ed Admin?

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

9/9/08

Ok, so I slacked a few days...or a week.

Today for my ED 678 class we needed to decide who we'll be interviewing for our Final Project. I wrote that I wanted to interview Mrs. Ikehara, but I don't know how it's going to relate to my dissertation. Actually, I don't know what my dissertation is going to be about so how would it relate? Maybe through this interview I can come up with a theme that'll interest me.

In class we discussed the book "Sticking to the Union" by Polishuk. I really didn't know what the book was about until the students in class talked about their views. The professor said it's hard to be indifferent about this book and usually people like it or hate it, but I'm on the fence about it. Mostly because I didn't understand it though...

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

9/2/08

I better write something since I missed yesterday.

Today in my ED 678 class I learned more about the difference between qualitative and quantitative methods. Basically qualitative is more personal. My research would definitely be qualitative.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

8/31/08

I was reading a "what is qualitative research" handout from EDEF 678. It stated the three orientations to research. Positivist, interpretive, and critical. The characteristics of a qualitative research is ...

Saturday, August 30, 2008

8/30/08

Oops. I forgot to write yesterday. I was really tired.

Today my karate sensei said something very interesting. The more someone is able to concentrate, the more they can enjoy the fun things. He was saying that if someone can really concentrate on school, work, TV, etc. then they are able to enjoy is more.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

8/28/08

I thought I was going to miss a day because I had a paper due tomorrow. But I finished it. It was a terrible paper. The title, "Using Reflection as a Tool to Increase Homework Completion." Blah.

Too bad I'm not in Educational Administration. If I was I'd write my dissertation on about how bad ********'s administration is.

Yesterday I substituted for a SPED teacher. It was upper elementary. So I wasn't too worried. However, once I knew I had to teach this one extremely SPED kid reading, I got nervous. This kid does raspberries randomly, verbalizes random things, etc. I don't know exactly what I did but, he didn't have any outbursts while working with me! He even showed extreme concentration when I was reading. I was amazed. I don't think I'm fit to be teaching SPED though...

I was once told by a parent of twins I used to tutor that I should document my teaching style, but it's hard. Maybe I can hire someone to observe me and decipher what exactly it is that I do. I sometimes feel I have a gift in making a connection with students.

Maybe I can write my dissertation about discipline strategies used in my karate class that can be used in the classroom. Or the effects of karate on a student's academic achievement, concentration, and motivation. I read that in Switzerland, students concentrate on school while they are there, but once they leave school, Swiss people don't think about or deal with academics. Maybe I can investigate the skill of concentration when you need to and relaxing between sessions to enhance the amount retained or academic achievement when concentrating in chunks.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

8/27/08

Today, I went to my EDCS 653D class. This class deals with geometry and measurement. It sounds like an interesting class. I know I would like it because the professor is good (Dr. Dawson). I had professor Dawson last semester and I enjoyed his course.

However, I stayed after class to tell him that depending on my Chaminade schedule, I might drop the class. He asked me what I was interested in, and I told him about combining SLS and math; how can we best support students learning math when their first language isn't English. He said, "That's a language problem, not a math problem." I guess that's true. Back to the drawing board.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

8/26/08

Ok, so I might not be writing a lot but at least I'm writing everyday. Second day at substitute teaching today. I think it went well. The students seem to be focused.

Anyways, yesterday the EDCS 767 class was very interesting. The title of the class is Issues and Trends in Curriculum. In class we talked about the hidden curriculum. What is it that the teacher are teaching their students without explicitly saying so? We also talked about curriculum alignment. Curriculum alignment checks to see if what the teacher is planning to teach matches with assessment.

Monday, August 25, 2008

8/25/08

First day at substitute teaching. Overall, I think it went better than I thought. One more day tomorrow.

It was fun teaching first grade math. Today they were reviewing what number comes before, after, and in between. Most students were able to do it. However, there were about three students who couldn't. Other students would get it wrong independently, but when prompted with a question, they immediately knew their mistake. No one in the class seem to be struggling from not understanding English.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

8/24/08

Got busy today because a classmate from high school is in town.

I need to write a Review of Literature for my Chaminade ED 604 class. I chose to write about "reflection" as a means to improve homework completion. A handful of students in the 4th grade class I'm currently observing don't turn in their homework. I'm thinking that through reflection, students will complete more assignments.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

8/23/08

PhD orientation from 9AM. It was informative and helpful. I spoke with Dr. Slaughter too. I don't think she remembers speaking with me...which actually might be a good thing.

Anyways, I talked to Dr. Slaughter and she recommended that I use my SLS credits toward my Cognate classes and take math classes for my Emphasis classes.

I just got the APA Manual. The dissertation is suppose to be in APA format, right?

Thinking about the topic...
-On supporting English Language Learners in elementary mathematics
-What type of instruction/curriculum is needed for ELL students learning math?
-How do previous notions of math affect learning math in English?
-On understanding the different methods to teach math in Japan and America
-On mathematic learning centers in schools
-Struggling children in mathematics: A case study
-Individual differences in problem solving
-Elementary math problem solving: An error analysis study

Friday, August 22, 2008

8/22/08

What is a dissertation? According to the American Heritage Dictionary it is a length and formal treatise or discourse, especially one written by a candidate for the doctoral degree at a university; thesis. Basically, it's an original research that is really long.

*note: Answer questions on page 42 and 43 of Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day.

Original research means no one has done it before, right? What sort of research do I want to do? What am I passionate about? It needs to be something I can stick with for a few years. Is it second language acquisition in the early years? Is it going to be on bilingual studies? Is it going to be on elementary math? What about classroom discipline? Regular academic discipline? The program I entered is titled "Curriculum Studies". Does that mean that it has to do with studying a type of curriculum? Does that mean I'm coming up with my own curriculum? Am I analyzing curriculum? Comparing and contrasting curriculum? I really don't know. Maybe I can choose a topic and if it doesn't fit, I can switch programs? Is that a lot of hassle? Is that possible? Does an original research require money? For travel? Data collection? I think I need to re-read what exactly curriculum study is about first.

Ok, so specialization in curriculum and instruction is a specialization in developing educational leaders in curriculum development, teaching, curriculum evaluation and/or teacher education and professional development.