Ever since my initial headlong dive into blogging in 2007, experience has taught me that I need to pace myself in order to avoid running out of things to write about. Maintaining a twice monthly posting schedule, as I have done (more or less) since 2009 or so, has helped me to survive those dry spells by writing, stockpiling, and auto-scheduling blog posts for the future while the iron is hot.
Not that I’ve run out of things to say, but unfortunately my time for writing and reflection has been overcome by an unusually heavy run of both personal and academic obligations lately – even now, I’m dashing this post off on a break from writing a research paper on educational funding in the state of New York. I’m even writing this post as much for myself as for my readers, so I can publicly bookmark some ideas that I wanted to write about as we head into the summer months. This is what I’ll be thinking about as we approach the home stretch of the school year:
- You Can’t Say You Can’t Play, by Vivian Gussin Paley, a kindergarten teacher who noticed some of her students habitually excluding others. She writes about her new classroom policy and its short- and long-term impacts. Haven’t read it yet, but heard about it on a This American Life rerun a week or two ago, and it’s going to be one of my first downloads for my Father’s Day/birthday present, the Kindle Paperwhite.
- Acronyms in Special Education – Anyone who moves in special education circles, personally and/or professionally, knows that the field is awash in alphabet soup. Jim Gerl asks us to think about the ethical ramifications of this jargon.
- Edcamp Leadership 2013 is coming back to the Garden State this summer after a successful inaugural run last July. I’ll be attending as an organizer, aspiring school leader, and possibly a presenter, so I’ll surely be writing about my day from all three perspectives.
- I’m not only a proud member, but also a part-time employee, of the New Jersey Education Association, and I’ll be attending their Summer Leadership Conference in August and hopefully writing about my takeaways from that.
- Summer provides an excellent opportunity for professional reflection, and I’ll look to do that as I get back to my on-again, off-again Habits of Mind series.
- This has been a hell of a year as far as grad school is concerned, and this summer I’ll be looking to wrap up most of my internship hours, polish up the first three chapters of my doctoral dissertation, and prepare to take my research proposal to committee by mid-fall. As long as I’m not all written out by then, expect an update on that as well. I will be done with my coursework by February, and I’m (perhaps
naivelyoptimistically) targeting an August 2014 graduation date.
Lots to think about, but unfortunately very little time to write about any of it at present. Here’s to the last two to five weeks of the school year, depending on where you are! Stay tuned…