This week's ruminations

This has been a really great week of sabbatical. I feel like I am finally finding a rhythm. It is grand, simply grand to have the TIME to soak up in my life. That sounds so narcissistic, but, that is not how I mean it. What I mean is that I am enjoying this gift of time to spend an hour trying out new recipes, take long, long walks every day and read, read, read. I finished Buzz this week. Two chapters really resonated with me, the one on education and the one on meditation. Every teacher should read what she has to say about being an individual with ADD herself and a parent and of a kid with special needs (ADD/OD). Most kids with special needs do not have a parent as well educated and diligent as Ellison. It is a crime that we do not service these kids well. The chapter on mediation was funny, poignant and interesting. Ellison checked herself into a meditative retreat center with a brain and body is super drive. Her own story of responding to the silence and uncovering her own inner peace is compelling, especially for someone like me who never gave much credence to meditation. I am interested to learn more now.

Another part of this week that relates to having time is my own research writing. I am working on my third paper. This one is the process by which teachers who enroll in our courses at the U of Mn implement and experience the PD in their classrooms. This paper involves three years worth of both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data is the easy part (except sometimes getting the tables right!). But, it is the qualitative part that really tells a story. And that for me is what is so exciting. For so many of our teachers, especially elementary and middle school, they begin to form a new identity for themselves as scientists. This happens gradually and in large part stems from the relationships that they develop with our team scientists as they work at their “elbows” on citizen science research. The second marvelous part of the story is how the teachers come to terms with the uncertainty that is part of the practice of science. It is a 180-degree shift from needing to know the “right” answer at the moment and becoming comfortable with the ambiguity that is part of learning, whether in science or any other field.

Writing research is a time consuming process. There are just so many angles to think about to get it right. Getting the story right is one of the most important charges you have as a researcher; this is actually the ethical dimension of the research: getting it right. But that is also one of the most exciting. You get to think deep and hard about things that matter to you (what could be better than that!) and put together all the pieces until you have solved the puzzle and voila (!) the paper is complete. Intellectually it is thrilling to see how your research fits in to the published work and how your research even ADDS to that research (or at least I think). Finally, it is understanding where you could go, what more you could do. And that leads you to the next research projects.

So, a great week has now passed filled with the gift of time. TTFN, Michele