Possibility of an advisor!? Nothing set in stone, yet. However, I might have just found an advisor! How did this come about? Well, I took a quantitative research method class from him this past spring. He is an awesome teacher that helped me to understand quantitative research methods even though I probably won't be using quantitative research methods. I ran the idea by him that I might have the opportunity to teach a summer school class at a local elementary school, and I took up the offer after taking his advice. Furthermore, I asked him to write a recommendation letter for the scholarship that I'm applying for and he gladly agreed!
Although he is not a Curriculum and Instruction professor, as long as I clear it with the chair of my department, it's a good to go! I'm very excited as this is the next big step in the whole doctoral process. *crosses fingers*
Monday, November 9, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
10/30/09
Ok, so I haven't been keeping up with writing in this blog. *bad* I shouldn't make excuses, but I'm going go to make them anyways. This semester I registered for three classes, EDCS 653B - Math in Schools: Number and Operation, EDCS 767 - Issues and Trends in Curriculum, and EDCS 769 - Curriculum Evaluation. On top of taking three classes, I volunteer my time in a 1st grade classroom during the days. So yes, my days have been busy. Not to mention, I'm applying for a scholarship. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy every part of it.
Alright, that being said and done. I just wanted to say that I'm at the right place at the right time. That just seems to be how my life unfolds. More on that hopefully sooner than later. For now, I would like to add a few links that were suggested to me.
Evernote - Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer or phone. For free.
Mind Meister - MindMeister brings the concept of mind mapping to the web, using its facilities for real-time collaboration to allow truly global brainstorming sessions. Users can create, manage and share mind maps online and access them anytime, from anywhere.
Posterous - Posterous is the dead simple way to put anything online using email
I'm still testing these out, but so far so good.
Alright, that being said and done. I just wanted to say that I'm at the right place at the right time. That just seems to be how my life unfolds. More on that hopefully sooner than later. For now, I would like to add a few links that were suggested to me.
Evernote - Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer or phone. For free.
Mind Meister - MindMeister brings the concept of mind mapping to the web, using its facilities for real-time collaboration to allow truly global brainstorming sessions. Users can create, manage and share mind maps online and access them anytime, from anywhere.
Posterous - Posterous is the dead simple way to put anything online using email
I'm still testing these out, but so far so good.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
6/21/09
Happy Father's Day!
Ok. So the Spring 2009 semester ended and I successfully completed my Educational Statistics class...somehow. I would like to believe that I have gained enough knowledge to understand the basic in educational statistics, but of course far from being an expert in the field.
I have also completed my student teaching requirements for my state DOE teaching licensure program. After the completion of my application, I'll officially be a licensed teacher in the state of Hawaii. Yay!
Now on to summer school. Summer school for the kids, and summer school for me. When I say kids, I'm referring to the 27 second graders in my class. Yes, I'm teaching a post 2nd grade class for four weeks. Yikes! And summer school for me...a Qualitative Research class and a Mixed Methods class. It's taught by the same professor and the final assignment is the dissertation proposal. Hey, that's great and all...but WHAT IS MY TOPIC!?!?!
I'm STILL juggling different topics. What ever happened to the "I'll have my dissertation topic decided by December 2008"? Oh wells. So here are the ideas that are bouncing around in my head:
* Humor and Learning
* International Schools
* Finland Method
* Karate Training and transfer of skill
Humor is a good topic to do an exploratory case study. There's some literature on humor in the classroom and some empirical studies, but nothing major. I was thinking to do a case study on a teacher who uses humor in the classroom and see what comes up. Maybe even do a case study on my karate sensei? I don't know.
I was thinking International School because that's the whole idea behind me getting my doctorate. I was to eventually create an international school of some sort, so why not do research on it?
That's what got me into the whole Finland Method. Finland is doing something right. I'd like to know what it is. So I was thinking of just looking at the math curriculum in Finland. That'd require me to go to Finland, which is interesting, but would it be feasible?
Finally since I'm a black belt in karate, my classmate, colleague?, suggested I'd do something related to that. Which then turned into an idea of "Are students able to transfer martial arts training knowledge into an education setting?" This would be a case study as well and I would probably interview students and see what they have to say about it.
So...which topic? I better decide PRONTO. The sooner I decide, the sooner I can focus my readings and layout this dissertation proposal.
On a side not, I got a Kindle. It's great. I wish they'd put all my textbooks on Kindle. Then I wouldn't have to lug around 10 pounds of paper~
Ok. So the Spring 2009 semester ended and I successfully completed my Educational Statistics class...somehow. I would like to believe that I have gained enough knowledge to understand the basic in educational statistics, but of course far from being an expert in the field.
I have also completed my student teaching requirements for my state DOE teaching licensure program. After the completion of my application, I'll officially be a licensed teacher in the state of Hawaii. Yay!
Now on to summer school. Summer school for the kids, and summer school for me. When I say kids, I'm referring to the 27 second graders in my class. Yes, I'm teaching a post 2nd grade class for four weeks. Yikes! And summer school for me...a Qualitative Research class and a Mixed Methods class. It's taught by the same professor and the final assignment is the dissertation proposal. Hey, that's great and all...but WHAT IS MY TOPIC!?!?!
I'm STILL juggling different topics. What ever happened to the "I'll have my dissertation topic decided by December 2008"? Oh wells. So here are the ideas that are bouncing around in my head:
* Humor and Learning
* International Schools
* Finland Method
* Karate Training and transfer of skill
Humor is a good topic to do an exploratory case study. There's some literature on humor in the classroom and some empirical studies, but nothing major. I was thinking to do a case study on a teacher who uses humor in the classroom and see what comes up. Maybe even do a case study on my karate sensei? I don't know.
I was thinking International School because that's the whole idea behind me getting my doctorate. I was to eventually create an international school of some sort, so why not do research on it?
That's what got me into the whole Finland Method. Finland is doing something right. I'd like to know what it is. So I was thinking of just looking at the math curriculum in Finland. That'd require me to go to Finland, which is interesting, but would it be feasible?
Finally since I'm a black belt in karate, my classmate, colleague?, suggested I'd do something related to that. Which then turned into an idea of "Are students able to transfer martial arts training knowledge into an education setting?" This would be a case study as well and I would probably interview students and see what they have to say about it.
So...which topic? I better decide PRONTO. The sooner I decide, the sooner I can focus my readings and layout this dissertation proposal.
On a side not, I got a Kindle. It's great. I wish they'd put all my textbooks on Kindle. Then I wouldn't have to lug around 10 pounds of paper~
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
2/11/09
Yay! I passed! weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! No more Praxis for me. I'm done dilly! All I need to do now is survive student teaching. Then I'll be done with state licesure and I can focus on writing my dissertation. *whew*
Stats class has been interesting. It's a class that teaches me how I can use statistics in my dissertation. It's quite interesting, but at the same time a little scary. You can make your statistics say basically anything you want it to say...it's a matter of how you tweak your data. Very trippy!
Stats class has been interesting. It's a class that teaches me how I can use statistics in my dissertation. It's quite interesting, but at the same time a little scary. You can make your statistics say basically anything you want it to say...it's a matter of how you tweak your data. Very trippy!
Monday, January 26, 2009
1/26/09
I pray that I passed my Praxis, even though I realized I wrote the answer to #19 in the space for #20 when there was less than 10 minutes left in the exam...leaving me with no choice but leaving my answer for #19 for #20 and copying what I wrote over to the space for #19. Er* Please pass me...
Anyways, yes, it's been a while since I wrote anything...again. Since classes at UH started and my student teaching at Chaminade has officially kicked into full gear...hopefully I'll have more academic things on my mind. Which will in turn get me to write more in this blog. Which in turn will get me to think about my dissertation more. *hopeful*
Today in my EDEA 629 Educational Statistics class, I told the professor about my idea about doing my research on humor in the classroom...kind of like a case study. So he replied that I would need to incorporate classroom observational data in which I use some sort of coding system. (Yes = 1, No = 0) Is the humor spontaneous? Is it intentional? Is it student initiated? Is it teacher initiated? He pointed me in the direction of looking at different types of data collection technique such as on task / off task, or even questioning strategies in order to adopt it to fit my needs.
As for now, it looks as though I'll be trying out this 'humor in the classroom' as a topic. I'll narrow it down when the time comes.
I'm student teaching as I do all of this thinking...Good thing I'm only taking one class at UH this semester. It is very stressful / nerve wreaking to know that I'm being graded on how well, or in some cases how badly, I'm teaching. I guess overall my first observation didn't go so bad. Next will be a longer period. Hopefully I'll do better!
Anyways, yes, it's been a while since I wrote anything...again. Since classes at UH started and my student teaching at Chaminade has officially kicked into full gear...hopefully I'll have more academic things on my mind. Which will in turn get me to write more in this blog. Which in turn will get me to think about my dissertation more. *hopeful*
Today in my EDEA 629 Educational Statistics class, I told the professor about my idea about doing my research on humor in the classroom...kind of like a case study. So he replied that I would need to incorporate classroom observational data in which I use some sort of coding system. (Yes = 1, No = 0) Is the humor spontaneous? Is it intentional? Is it student initiated? Is it teacher initiated? He pointed me in the direction of looking at different types of data collection technique such as on task / off task, or even questioning strategies in order to adopt it to fit my needs.
As for now, it looks as though I'll be trying out this 'humor in the classroom' as a topic. I'll narrow it down when the time comes.
I'm student teaching as I do all of this thinking...Good thing I'm only taking one class at UH this semester. It is very stressful / nerve wreaking to know that I'm being graded on how well, or in some cases how badly, I'm teaching. I guess overall my first observation didn't go so bad. Next will be a longer period. Hopefully I'll do better!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
1/3/09
It's January 3, 2009....around 2AM in the morning...and guess what, no dissertation topic. I need to set a different date as my goal for deciding my dissertation topic. Hm...how about June 1, 2009. That gives me enough time, right? Another semester to think things over.
And yes, I've been slacking recently because of the whole holiday season. Finals ended, then it was Christmas, then New Years...and now I must study for my final Praxis Exam. Hopefully this will be the last and final exam. (Meaning, I'll pass and won't have to re-take it.)
Ok, so it's waaaaay beyond my bedtime. Must get my beauty sleep. Goodnight world.
OH! I know, how about my New Years Resolution? no...Goal...is to get my dissertation topic, and write at least a chapter or two by the end of the year! That's a good one....right? Oh, I'll give it more thought later. For now, I must go to sleep.
And yes, I've been slacking recently because of the whole holiday season. Finals ended, then it was Christmas, then New Years...and now I must study for my final Praxis Exam. Hopefully this will be the last and final exam. (Meaning, I'll pass and won't have to re-take it.)
Ok, so it's waaaaay beyond my bedtime. Must get my beauty sleep. Goodnight world.
OH! I know, how about my New Years Resolution? no...Goal...is to get my dissertation topic, and write at least a chapter or two by the end of the year! That's a good one....right? Oh, I'll give it more thought later. For now, I must go to sleep.
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