Friday, November 27, 2009
Top choice interview
I have an official interview at my top choice position for next year - a tenure track full time professor position at the University of Massachusetts. The interview is December 15th. Yay.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Laura's Good News
I haven't posted in awhile - rather, I've been spending my waking (and sometimes non-waking) hours dissertating the last few days of my 20s away. I took a weekend break 2 weekends ago to spend time with our fantastic family and friends for Brad's 30th birthday. Once I get some pictures online, I'll post away... For now, lets just say Brad was totally surprised by his surprise party, loved spending the whole weekend with Nate and Lisa, and was ecstatic to see his and my family at Bruce and Christy's place for his birthday night. To round out the birthday celebration, we'll be going to the Weezer concert on December 7th to relive our middle school years! How exciting.
So, the title of this post "Laura's Good News" doesn't even refer to Brad's birthday weekend. Brad's birthday weekend deserves, and will get, a post of its own.
What is Laura's Good News, you ask?
I just met with my adviser about my dissertation. Let me preface this post by stating that I spent 30 hours a week in the fall of 2008 creating my first 3 chapters of my dissertation, proposed my research idea in January of 2009, gathered data every Monday and Thursday of the spring of 2009, and have spent about 30-40 hours most (not all) weeks from the summer until now writing. Because I'm doing an exploratory designed mixed-method study, I have quite a lot of data to go through. For the first part of my dissertation, I created a protocol adherence rating form and assessed the fidelity of a youth development program to a conceptual model by training independent raters in the model and the protocol adherence rating form. For the second part of my dissertation, I interviewed approximately 30 people involved in the program (students, teachers, advisers, etc), gathered quantitative data on their program attendance and self-assessed conduct throughout the program in relation to the program's goals, and gathered pre- and post- tests on 3 different scales measuring the climate, motivation levels, and responsibility outcomes of the student participants in the program. I have spent the last few months writing up the first part of the study and the qualitative piece of the second part, and am just about to start analyzing the quantitative piece of the second part of the study. I met with my adviser today who told me she thinks my project is too big and recommended to my committee that I slice out the rest of my data and only include that which I have already analyzed! What does that mean for me? It means I have at least 120 hours of work cut from my life AND it means that there is almost no way I can't graduate this May unless something goes terribly wrong (which could still happen).
All that happened before 10 am on a Monday morning. This is going to be a good week.
So, the title of this post "Laura's Good News" doesn't even refer to Brad's birthday weekend. Brad's birthday weekend deserves, and will get, a post of its own.
What is Laura's Good News, you ask?
I just met with my adviser about my dissertation. Let me preface this post by stating that I spent 30 hours a week in the fall of 2008 creating my first 3 chapters of my dissertation, proposed my research idea in January of 2009, gathered data every Monday and Thursday of the spring of 2009, and have spent about 30-40 hours most (not all) weeks from the summer until now writing. Because I'm doing an exploratory designed mixed-method study, I have quite a lot of data to go through. For the first part of my dissertation, I created a protocol adherence rating form and assessed the fidelity of a youth development program to a conceptual model by training independent raters in the model and the protocol adherence rating form. For the second part of my dissertation, I interviewed approximately 30 people involved in the program (students, teachers, advisers, etc), gathered quantitative data on their program attendance and self-assessed conduct throughout the program in relation to the program's goals, and gathered pre- and post- tests on 3 different scales measuring the climate, motivation levels, and responsibility outcomes of the student participants in the program. I have spent the last few months writing up the first part of the study and the qualitative piece of the second part, and am just about to start analyzing the quantitative piece of the second part of the study. I met with my adviser today who told me she thinks my project is too big and recommended to my committee that I slice out the rest of my data and only include that which I have already analyzed! What does that mean for me? It means I have at least 120 hours of work cut from my life AND it means that there is almost no way I can't graduate this May unless something goes terribly wrong (which could still happen).
All that happened before 10 am on a Monday morning. This is going to be a good week.
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