starting a fresh....

I have now finished my dissertation and am officially done with my career in graduate school.

I am hoping to use this space to share my plans, ideas and goals and integrating my professional life as an academic with my personal life as a wife and mother.

Just call me Dr. Feger

It is done. I defended the dissertation yesterday afternoon. It was scary and exciting. The committee talked about my work and the potential it has take the conversation about quality teaching and high-stakes testing in new directions.

I am so excited. I just need to finish my paper work and get the last signature.

Differentiation and Dancing with the stars

Today in my class we talked about differentiating lessons. Several students were concerned about labeling students and the "tyranny of low expectations". I don't think I did a very good job explaining the concept. I ended the lesson early, feeling defeated.

When I got home I decided to watch Dancing with the Stars. I am just going to admit that I LOVE THIS SHOW. The premise of the show for those who have been locked up writing in a library. Is that professional dancers are paired with "celebrities" and each week the professionals teach their partner a new dance. The couples then perform the dance for a panel of judges, a live studio audience, and the viewers at home. The judges rate the dances on a scale of 1 to 10 and the audience votes for their favorite. Each week one couple gets eliminated.

As I was watching, it occurred to me that this show is an excellent example of differentiating instruction. Here's why...

First, each week the celebrity must learn a new skill (a different dance). The second, it that the job of the professional to design and teach the dance to the celebrity. Each dance must include certain elements (kicks, steps, etc), the judges look for these elements and others which are marks of good dancing in general (style, grace, musicality, etc.). At the end of each dance, there is an evaluation of the performance and the judges use the criteria to assign a score.

Of course, the metaphor doesn't always Reality television and education are very different. Besides the budget and the costumes, the most major difference is that on the show each week one contestant is eliminated and at the end there can only be one winner. Which is ironic, since the whole goal of differentiation is to facilitate success for everyone.

one last glitch

Well, the end is truly near.....

I am working on the final edits from the SAM. I am gathering the necessary signatures. I have reserved a room.

AND.... I am sick.... no not the "sick and tired" kind of sick - the lay in bed with tissues and ginger ale kind of sick. Could the timing be worse? I am not sure...... I have 6 DAYS to get this dissertation done and sent to the committee. And it hurts to think.

I keep reminding myself that I will get the dissertation looking as good as I can and then I will GRADUATE. But I want it to look better than it does.

Tuesday night writing club.

Just so you know how "un-hip" I am... when my husband called the community the "Tuesday night writing club" I had no idea it was a reference... apparently this album was a big deal a while back.... oh well, just one more confirmation of my tragic lack of coolness and deeply absent knowledge of popular culture... apparently this gal dated some bike rider from around here. But that is not the point.

Last night our group met and we had read a piece that SAM had submitted to a journal and had gotten back to "revise and resubmit", a popular refrain in the academic world. I was amazed at how harsh and specific the feedback was. But... here is why SAM continues to inspire me. He had responded to all the critique from the editors, done the revisions and then sent his new draft (including the letter) to our group and asked for more feedback. The group was honest and in spite of the fact that he is in some ways our boss (perhaps leader is a better word) we had a lot to say and he seemed very grateful for our critique.

I am learning more and more that this whole thing - life, graduate school, writing is all a process and the only way we can learn from our mistakes- is for someone to kindly (hopefully) point them out. I think about how much better my writing and my thinking has become as a result of all this.

I am hoping that I can continue to meet with this group after I have finished...