Last lap

This is the last week of classes. Next week is finals week, and I have one to do (which I have yet to begin to study for OR even look at the exam study guide). Eep.

I finished the first draft of my Spirek paper and REALLY like it. It came out very nicely, I must say. I think if I can keep on myself to get the survey through human subjects ASAP, then I might be able to collect some data before the school year out. Although, honestly, this is a bit ambitious.

Right now I just have to pound away on the keys, finish coding 6 more folders for Bradshaw, and finalize a few little things. Mostly, I'm done. Like I said a few months ago: Things get done. I feel swamped just like everyone else, but for as long as I can remember my work always gets done. This PhD is no different. It just takes earlier mornings, later nights, more trips to the library, more coffee, more conversations and more revisions. But, it's nothing your friendly neighborhod Masked Doctoral Student can't handle!

M.D.S. AWAY!

A Stunning Revelation

After a particularly long evening of superhero daring-do and writing papers and researching in the library I returned home to my fortress of seclusion. I removed my M.D.S. superhero costume and sat down to enjoy a nice port.

I relaxed in my recliner, with my feet on my ottoman, reading The New Yorker. Then, to my amazement, my mysterious, beautiful, and vivacious partner said, "You have a grey hair."

"Noooooooo!"

What do you do with 30 minutes?

30 Minutes is the worst amount of time in an academician's schedule. It's too much time to waste and too little time to do anything truly productive with. You can't start any real projects, you can't wrap up any major undertaking.

If you’re lucky you have a few, small errands to run. The best you can hope for is to be able to check your e-mails and have enough to fill the time with reading and replying. Maybe you have to go to the office to check your departmental mail...that's rarely a good time-killer, though. When all else fails, you pick up a copy of the campus paper and skim that.

If you get really really bored, you put a new post up on your blog. Hence...

So, I'm waiting for my first (of what will hopefully be many) meetings with Dr. Morris Jenkins. He's a professor at the University of Toledo in their Department of Criminal Justice. Today he is going to speak to my Sociology of Law class about restorative justice programs and his hopes for northwest Ohio.

I really hope this relationship becomes one of collaboration. He has already told me that he can train me as a restorative justice mediator (a step I've been looking to take for a while now). I look forward to writing some grants for restorative program funding and maybe co-authoring some pieces for publication. I'm pretty excited about the whole range of possibilities.

CSCA

"The Central States Communication Association"

From Wednesday to Friday of last week I was at the CSCA meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana. I presented a paper on teacher-student communication and feedback. It went pretty well. I got some free books. I drank some coffee. I talked some communication research. Upon my return I told one professor in my department, "It was like a Start Trek convention, only no one was dressed up."

I had a really cool meeting with Dr. Beth Goering, who has also studied restorative justice in communication. She did a study of the programs which are successful, and those that are not to explore what factors contribute to successful programs. The piece is helpful. I'm certain it will make it into my final paper for 630 this semester.

Now everyone is feeling the time pressure to finish everything up in a mad rush. I, on the other hand, already had that stress in my life and feel like I have a handle on the rest of the semester (all three weeks of it).

Now I'm off to do a bit of reading. Later today I have a lunch date with the prof. I think will be my dissertation advisor...Probably the most important professional relationship I'll ever forge. Then I have my IPC faculty meeting and then my sociology class. Time to strap on my cape and hit the sky.

-MDS up, up, and away!

April is the cruelest month?

Yesterday I taught my IPC 102 class (it's the Communication basic course: public speaking, a bit of theory, small group, persuasion, etc.). Instead of giving them the rundown of the week's plan, I got to give them the plan for the remainder of the semester. THE REMAINDER OF THE SEMESTER. Egad.

So, things are speeding along, although I'm waiting to see how this month goes; I do have almost the whole of April left (and the first part of May, too). I foresee a pretty easy month. This biggest project I have looming in front of me is my Soc. Scientific methods project. But, I know exactly what I am going to do, what resources I need to write it, and how I am going to compile the research, so I'm in a very good place with that. Now it's a matter of beginning the actual writing of the thing. Other than that, I have some revisions to do for sociology and for education. I also have a final exam in sociology which I'm not looking forward to, but there it is...

Last week I filled in my doctoral progress report, so I know what I am going to be taking for the next two years and what I should have as my goals for publishing, etc. All in all, I'm right on track. Speaking of starting work on that paper...I think it's time to stop blogging and get to work.
Although, if I were a cyber-communication scholar, this would be my work...hhhmmm...