School has been going well this semester. I really am only taking one class and working on my thesis. The class I'm taking is on family theories. It's been interesting because I've been trained to think developmentally (individually) rather than from the standpoint of a family. It's definitely broadened my thinking. In fact, I'm taking another family class next semester, one on family policy, so I can better understand the family framework. (I need to in order to pass successfully through my PhD program...so I thought I'd get a head start.)
A couple of weeks ago another girl and I gave a presentation in the Family Theories class on Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory. His theory is one of my favorites. Probably because it ties nicely into human development. :) Anyway, I was pretty stressed about it because the teacher would mention her critiques of other presentations to me in passing. Needless to say, my partner and I put a lot of work into the presentation. Afterward the presentation and during the break, the teacher gave me a high 5 and smiled. Later she wrote this: "You are an excellent teacher. Your goal of a ph.d. is well worth achieving. I was mesmerized by the way you drew the class to the level of involvement you got." I was so thrilled to get such positive feedback. Most of the time I feel like I'm the dummy of the class because I have to background training in family theory. At least I can teach!
As for my thesis, I did my proposal today. Basically, I presented what I want to do with my thesis to my committee members. (I had to write my intro, a literature review, and a methods section for the proposal. Three chapters down, two to go!) Again, I was pretty stressed. My committee members are wonderful, but I still worried. As I told my advisor, when you put so much effort into something you don't want to hear anything negative about it. Kind of like when you become a parent, you wouldn't be able to hear anyone say anything negative about your newborn, even if it was something insignificant, like about its clothes. Anyway, this morning I got a call from the department secretary saying that the room I had been scheduled for had been double booked and I needed to move since she was actually defending her thesis and I was 'only' doing a proposal. Good thing they had another room readily available or I might have lost it. I really didn't mind, but any hurdle at this point seems like a mountain. The proposal meeting went fine. My committee had many good suggestions to help clarify my methods and my analysis. It's nice to get an 'outsider's' point of view...someone who is not 'entrenched' in the process so they can see things more clearly. It was a lot to take in, but very useful. So now I go back to my thesis and make the suggested changes and enhancements and REALLY begin work on the data analysis. I don't mind this part. It's a lot less stressful.
The next thing on my plate is studying for a stats pretest so that I can get into a stats class next semester. It's amazing how much I can forget in such a short time from when I took it. Okay, it was 2 years ago, but it wasn't in high school. I can remember a lot of the basics, it's just some of the formulas I'll need to try and remember.
Onward and upward!
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