2013 Highlights by the Month - January - June Edition

2013 was a big year for me, academically. 

So much wonderful happened.

I've been working hard for the past few years on this degree. One of the hardest parts of academia is the waiting and patience it requires. It can take years to see a project through to completion. It can take months, or even years, to have a manuscript published (after it is written). Everything takes a while. Sometimes, academia is worse than a hospital on the waiting bit. Nevertheless, the waiting and patience doesn't dull the elated feelings when you see your hard work has paid off. I was blessed to get to have a lot of those moments this past year. :) Here they are by the month...

January - Teaching Methods

My first semester to teach at A&M, I got to teach Children's Literature. It was perfect. The course was a writing-intensive class, which I love, and focused on children and adolescent literature. This course seemed a perfect fit for me. I absolutely loved teaching it and swore I would only teach this course for the rest of my life (not really, but I would have been happy with that). As a graduate student, it is never guaranteed that you will get to teach a course you want, or even teach at all. I was surprised when I was told in December that come January, I would be teaching the Junior Methods course - Classroom Management. Eek! I was nervous about this. Classroom Management was not one of my strengths as a teacher. My first year teaching was a disaster because of this topic (though every teacher's is). As I continued teaching, I learned some tricks and strategies, but most of my methods were a bit unorthodox, and I'm not even sure they were backed by research. How would I teach impressionable young minds about this topic? 

Well, I dove in in January and LOVED it! I discovered that teaching methods-based courses as opposed to content courses suits me better. I love them! I fully plan to search for a job that allows me the flexibility of doing research and teaching the practitioner courses. 

February - Southwest Education Research Association Conference in San Antonio

(SERA #1)

February was a busy month, conference-wise, for me. I actually presented at three conferences that month: (1) SERA in San Antonio, (2) Teaching with Technology at TAMU, and (3) The Texas Gifted and Talented in Corpus Christi. By far, the most impactful and fun conferences was SERA in San Antonio. This is a small, graduate-student oriented conference that is meant to allow graduate students a forum for presenting their work. I co-presented one paper at the conference but found it to be a great networking experience. It was also fun to enjoy San Antonio. My favorite part about conferences is getting to travel to new places and enjoy the sites. While San Antonio is not new, it was still fun to go. 

March - First Intervention Study

When it comes to research, I am very hands-on. I don't enjoy literature reviews or "desk work". I prefer to be in the trenches working with teachers and kiddos. I was fortunate enough to get selected to work on a small-scale intervention study with my advisor and a small research team. This research is something I am highly interested in as it focuses on perspective-taking and motivation to read. For the study, I was helpful with the methodology and got to be one of the intervention teachers. As an intervention teacher, I got to work one-on-one with the sweet kiddos and remembered how much I love teaching kids. It was a great experience to be so integrated into the classroom again and to see how our intervention was helping students. As my first "get your hands dirty" study, I am beyond pleased. Right now, we are working to write up the results and will be presenting them at several conferences in the near future. 

April - American Education Research Association in San Francisco

(AERA #1)

AERA is THE conference for education research. Anyone who is anyone is presenting there and it is a great opportunity to rub shoulders with the most influential people in the field. It's also a really big deal to present there as a graduate student. I knew I would want to try to present at this conference in the future, so I wanted to go once to see what all the fuss was about. I was fortunate enough to get some funding to help offset the cost and got to go! I was excited to get to see San Francisco as I had never been and attend an uber-professional conference. 

AERA proved to be nothing short of awe-inspiring. I have never seen so many academic professionals in all my life. It was overwhelming and impossible to see everything I wanted to see. My colleague and I were able to attend just a few presentations and panel discussions in our few days there. We also got to attend several receptions that included wine, food, and networking like crazy. Through these experiences, we met many important people and made some great connections for future job searching and collaborations. I felt that this experience was the beginning of my professional career outside of A&M. This is what the field is all about, getting your research out there so people can benefit from it. Here's to AERA #1 as I plan to attend this conference every year for the foreseeable future...

May - Hardest I've ever worked for an "A"

This one is silly, I realize that. Historically, I have been a terrible student. Until my master's degree, I was always bored in school. As a high school student, I joined so many clubs and sports that I only attended classes 2 or 3 times a week. I remember my sophomore chemistry teacher asking me one day, "What are you doing here?" when I had been to school 3 days out of the week. As an undergraduate, my motto was "why work hard for an A when I can do the minimum and get a B?" My parents were thrilled. 

Once I started my master's degree, I enjoyed what I was doing and was interested in it, so I put forth more effort. As a Ph.D. student, I definitely work hard. I began taking the dreaded stats courses this past year with a professor who is known for being difficult. I did my usual "why work hard' dance the first semester of his course and made it out with a B. The hardest hurting B I've ever made. I decided that would not do, and I wanted to prove myself to this professor. By working my little tail off the spring semester, I sailed through his course with an A and a deep understanding of the material that has proven extremely valuable in my own research. This past fall, I took two courses from him and plan to take another in the spring. Masochistic, yes, but the man knows his stuff.

June - Teaching Excellence Award

I love teaching. I've mentioned this before on this blog and to anyone I've ever met. I fought this profession for many years, but ultimately realized that it is my calling. It is what I am meant to do, I love it, and I'm not half bad at it either. In June, this became official. I was the recipient of the Teaching Excellence Award given by my department to graduate students who demonstrate high levels of effectiveness in teaching. The award is based on a statement of purpose written by me, letters of recommendation, and evaluations from my students. I was so honored to have been given this award and think it is one of my favorite awards to date. To me, it means so much to be thought of as a good teacher. 

I hope you have enjoyed the January - June edition of my 2013 Highlights by the Month. 

Stay tuned for the second half of the year!