I did some research on this project, for another project in another class. The
assignment was to find one scholarly article about a chosen topic and to write
a brief overview of the article and post it to an online “poster board.” I figured
I’d kill two birdies with one stone and get a head start on some researching
for this class. After waaaayyy too much time looking for ONE article on
the MSU psychinfo page and to no avail, I was more than discouraged from
pursuing a 30-page paper on this topic.
With that said, I don’t think that is necessarily a bad
thing. This semester has been a very productive semester for me. I feel as
though I am inching closer and closer to where my future is taking me—it has just
taken me a few hundred deviations. It seems like my graduate school
programs of interest keep evolving, frustratingly. However, I can almost taste
where I am supposed to be. First it was educational psychology, which morphed to
school psychology when I decided I would like to do more hands-on work with
students, then it briefly deviated to Literacy Specialization, but that quickly flew
out the window when I realized that I did not have a teaching certificate
that is required for admission to any Literacy
Specialization program (I still think that is dumb). But I think I’m on to something—I have newly discovered
the Reading, Literacy and Culture Ed.D. program at the University of Arizona.
This program will give me the training I need to work in media literacy
learning, whether I decide to go into policy making, researching, instructional
practice or educational leadership. As of now, I am pretty set that this is the
best choice for my future, though I’m sure there may be more deviations along
the way. I am still tweaking my options and am open to suggestions, but as of now,
I am closer than I have ever been before. With that said, I will be changing my
topic from something that was more based in psychology and not as relevant to
my future endeavors to something that is founded in education and will progress me toward my future goals. It goes something along the lines of: “How can we harness media literacy
learning to the advantage of policy makers for the benefit of children?” >>Subject
to change, as its pretty broad right now.
I am currently reading Tap,
Click, Read by Lisa Guernsey and Michael H. Levine, which has been
enlightening on the topic of media literacy learning, and will be an excellent
aid in writing this massive paper. With that said, I guess I can say that I
have already started preparing to write it. As far as continuing to prepare myself for the assignment, the only work I have done, beside reading (and highlighting important and relevant passages--thank you eReader!), is mentally
preparing/terrifying myself about writing the damned thing. I’ve also had some nightmares...so there’s that, too. Also, I have been
thinking ahead to December which makes me feel better because I will be pretty
much done writing it. That is how I am staying sane, as of now. That last
strategy works really well...
How will I end up weaving extra work into my time? I am not sure,
but I think it will have to do with pressure. I thrive on stress. If my life is
not stressful and I have nothing to bitch about, I find things to stress about.
Congruently, if I have all the time in the world to work on a project, I won’t
get it done until right before the deadline, however, if my work schedule and
my school/homework schedule don’t agree, I
will make time—even if it requires me to get up early. My next step is to
pencil some time into my planner to sit down and dig in. If my planner is
screaming at me in colored pen and highlighter on nearly every page, something
will get done. But when…
Sunday. I will pencil it in for Sunday.
~Grace
No comments:
Post a Comment