Listening to the Interviews and Writing Grants

I have officially begun spending time with these interviews. I have listened to a couple of focus groups and the beginning of Dan's one on one interview. I really tackled some difficult matters. I am very proud of myself. I have to give Matt his recorder first thing on Monday. I really want to observe him. I can do that during my prep. I need to observe Dan and Gary as well. I will arrange to do that in the fall. And I would like to have one more focus group with Dan, Gary and Matt.

My school district does not seem to be committed to providing the materials I need so I have to apply for as many grants as possible. Luckily I had a pep talk during the ASM camp. I think I am really ready to start going for it. I need the experience. I have applied for one already this summer. It was for Biotechnology equipment and we did not get it, but this time I will give myself more time and really put thought into the goals and budget.

I have the goal this weekend of listening to Dan and Gary's personal interviews and finishing memos on the focus groups for this school year. I think it is doable. I was thinking that I am not that interested in using transana for video since I can't video record the classroom sessions. The video recordings of the focus groups are almost unnecessary, the audio is really sufficient. It would be the classroom recordings that I am most interested in. I need permission to video tape. And I think I can get that permission at ECA. As I suspected, the epilogue might end up being much more interesting than the rest of the dissertation. If that is the case I have to start working on that and contact IRB with the materials they requested as soon as possible.

In any case. I just have to chip, chip, chip away at all of this. One day at a time. Today I listen to interviews. Today I work on a grant a little bit. Today I build that model rocket.

NOYCE and the beginning of coding

KJ and MT are teaching full time now. MT will be tenured next year. I also have the opportunity to present at a NOYCE regional conference. I should take a look at the data I collected from them way back and interview them again in the Fall. It would be interesting to discuss their views on discourse identity. It would be very cool to see how they have changed over the years or if their teaching experience has influenced their thinking in any way.

I listened to my last focus group interview and there were so many interesting ideas. I only got through 30 minutes out of two hours, but it was pretty amazing. According to my proposal defense, I need to finish identifying what is analytically interesting according to my research questions and write memos about what is interesting about those ideas.

Off we go!

Next week should be interesting at work. I get to do some teacher training on using graphing calculators for data collection on a physiology of zebra fish experiment. I also have great ideas for rocket science for the consortium students. I am brushing up on exponential and logarithmic functions. I need to brush up on my trigonometric functions as well. Looking forward to it! Kepler's Laws here I come!

Listening and Crafting the Vision

SO what is the goal here anyway? I think the goal is to finish by May so that I can either apply to a University or apply for a job as an assistant principal. Is alternative education now a focus? If so, where in the process do I want to be? School administration? Post-doc and researching many schools? Teaching teachers?

Here's what I think. I think I want to work with practicing teachers. I think I want to receive grants to provide teachers with experiences that inspire. I think I want to increase the quality of STEM education in alternative schools and detention centers. I think I want to train teachers to educate themselves about jobs and opportunities for job training for their students. I think maybe if I were a principal who was effective at creating a STEM - focused school, that would be very fulfilling. I think If I were a professor who obtained grants for research experiences for teachers, that would be even better. Courses for pre-service, newly inducted, and practicing teachers in which they bring the research experience into the classroom and take the students out of the classroom on a regular basis to conduct investigations. I think I would like to teach a course on discourse analysis for teachers. I think I would like to teach a course on developing research and publication skills in high school students. I think I would like to offer college courses to high school students in alternative school environments.

That may be the vision.

Motivating the Last Hurdle

I need to start fleshing out my vision and purpose and perhaps even some specific goals for the school or program I want to create after I graduate. I was just noting that what motivated me to begin this PhD program is very different than what is motivating me to finish. I thought I wanted a charter school for a really long time. That may still be true, but my goals are very different now. I know I still have a whole lot to experience, but last year taught me more than all previous years combined. So these summer months will be great in that i can deal with some seriously neglected areas of my life and start fleshing out the dream.

Any way, I pulled out all of the discourse analysis books. I think Deena is right about starting with the data. I think I'll start coding this week for at least 2-3 hours per day and see where it takes me.

But right now I have to go to the consortium and get these dissections started.

Summer 2011

I have three major goals. That is to revise my first two chapters, do a bunch of coding and really fine-tune my coding scheme, and finish up my lit review. I also want to speak to Matt Giordano next week to see if he will allow me to record him during the Consortium. I know he'll do it. That is going to be phenomenal because I know this group is challenging. I am back from NASA and fired up! I plan to begin a group of high school junior and seniors that are involved in airborne research. I will contact everyone about that next week. The principal of ECA wants to hold a three day professional development to get on board for school next year. I really want to attend but I have already missed two days of the summer program to go to NASA. Well, I am sure it will all work out.

Good things are happening. But I need to make a schedule for my three dissertation goals and e-mail them to Arthur.

A nice thing happened just yesterday, though. I found out that I passed the School Leadership Exam!

One more focus group

I think next week will be the last focus group. I want to ask some questions about cultural genocide. I am thinking to ask about the most underprivileged students and simply explain the effects of cultural genocide with out using the term and ask if DD and GT see any of those things in their students. I may even completely remove race from the issue initially. Just ask about the effects of cultural genocide and ask if they see those effects and in whom and why they think that is happening. I'll actually explain what cultural genocide is at the end of our discussion and ask about whether or not they think that it is possible that this has effected some of their students. I had a really good idea to play back recordings of CDR's class which we all taught actually and have a nice long discussion about what DD and GT think about that whole situation. Now THAT would be interesting because I know that a bunch of those students have exactly the issues I have been pondering. I could use that as a reason to ask about that population specifically and have GT and DD reflect on how they have handled situations like that and what they attribute all of it to. I think I should revisit those recordings on Saturday and put together some questions that get at the cultural genocide issue. That may lead me to some ideas about how to code those data.

New Direction Same Old Problems

Yesterday's meeting was really helpful. I'm glad I recorded it with my livescribe. I have decided to incorporate cultural genocide as a lens to really bring things together for me conceptually. I have to think of it in terms of coding. So I think over the next two weeks I will meet with Alex and get him to help me with making the connection between cultural genocide and discursive identity. It seems intuitive to me. But I know I need to explain it really well. I might want to double back and revisit Bernstein. Bloomfield definitely has the students I want to write about, but I have to schedule some classroom visitations I think. I need to sit in the back of the room in their worst classes and record. I think that is all I am missing thus far. I'm going to have a closer listen at what I've got and talk to GT about whether he has any really challenged students. I think I have an idea of who I want to observe. I have two more teachers to talk to. I may be able to observe one of them over the summer! Woo hoo. We're working at a summer program together. I actually think I'll start with my recordings and Dan's. This Saturday I'll drive out to New Brunswick and get started. I still have readings to complete in genocide studies. If I can complete those before Saturday and print out my lit review, I would be off to a good start. Off we go...