Belay On!

Here we go! Tomorrow the spring semester officially starts. Over the last two weeks I've been working on reading, doing prep for my dissertation, and started my internship hours at the charter school, but the pedal truly hits the metal tomorrow. As I'm mentioned to a few people, I feel like I'm standing at the bottom of a vertical cliff, looking up. Can't see the top because it's shrouded in clouds. No path. Just a lot of training and experience that I need to put to use, in order to carve new hand and foot-holds in this cliff. The title of this post refers to my friends and family who've been holding the tension on the rope this last year. Hang in with me, five more months! Belay On!

The steps along the way up this cliff are numerous, and I'm trying to do most of them this semester, which is perhaps a little nuts. But then I churned through 2+ years of coursework in a year, so I have a track record for being a little nuts. There's also that black walnut tree outside my window which had a LOT of nuts this year. Maybe it was contagious! At any rate, here's what I have left to do, in order to earn my doctorate and get really great table reservations under "Dr. Gibson"...

Independent Study: 6 units of credit for reading and internship courses, to finish out my credits/experiences.

Graduate Assistantship Research: 20 hours a week of work on research projects with my advisor.

Comprehensive Evaluation: AKA "Comps". This is a project which shows that I am able to conduct research and that I am ready to work on my dissertation. There are three options, but I'm choosing to do the Pilot Study option. This allows me to do a smaller research project, closely related to my dissertation, in order to test out some ideas and further develop my research design. Through a Pilot Study, I also do a literature review, which will feed into my dissertation. I do a proposal for my comps, get that approved, then do the pilot study and write up a "mini" research report.

Defense of Comps: I present my Pilot Study and defend its merits in front of a jury of my professors and peers. They ask me questions. If I am capable at this step, I...

Advance to Candidacy: I am a "legal" candidate for a doctorate in education, and I have free rein to work on my dissertation research.

Dissertation Proposal: I write up a proposal and time line of my dissertation. If approved by my committee, I...

Conduct Dissertation: research, data collection, write up, etc. I hope to collect data before I leave Boise in June. Then I have a year to write my dissertation.

Defend Dissertation: Similar to defending Comps, but even bigger, more public, and more important. If I am successful, I am allowed to graduate. I'm shooting for May, 2011, but I realize that things come up, so I'll be flexible.

I changed my topic for my dissertation. But until it's fully approved and my Pilot Study is completely designed, I'm keeping quiet. Oh, and I'm still doing the Grammar of Schooling study, just as a research project for my graduate assistantship instead of for my dissertation. Needed more flexibility of time for that study than my self-imposed timeline for my dissertation would allow.


Wish me luck, and check in with me from time to time. It means a lot to me. This is the hardest part, and I understand now more fully the desire to walk away from something really hard, rather than trying and risk failing! Coming back to face this semester was tough--you have no idea how close I was to just tossing in the towel and heading home. But I've come so far, so fast, and I can do this. I think I can, at least! I finally started thinking about all my students from the past, and imagining they were all watching me, holding my belay rope. What would I want them to see? What would I model? That lit a fire under me. :)

Off to the races...