Well I just spent the last week at ASTE conference in Baltimore. I presented my first first author paper, I learned how to be a journal reviewer, and I worked on my comps. Yes in the middle of my 30-day work period, I ran off to Baltimore bringing 12 paper books, about a 100 papers on my iPad, my computer and hopes that I would/could be productive during a conference full of people I wanted to see or meet. So did it work?
The presentation went wonderfully!! I had a full room and some of my previous professors from my masters days were there. It was nice that I still have their support. I had lots of great questions at the end that will prove to make my paper stronger which is the whole point of doing a conference presentation. There were things that I had thought of but weren’t in the data set I presented so it was nice to confirm that I had considered things that others thought would improve the final project.
I also went to a very informative meeting with the editors of the various ASTE journals to learn how to be a reviewer. Let me just say to those grad students out there seeking a way to enhance your own writing, learn how to critique other’s writing! It makes you a better writer. Promise! Anyway, back to the session, it was very informative and though it was meant to let the participants learn how to be on the review board for the journals. It also taught me what the editors look for in their articles which means I can now tailor my writing to better fit. Again to grad students or those considering taking this on, if you are trying to get an article printed, read the journal you want to get it in. See what kinds of articles they print, see what format they prefer. Do your (journal) research!
I did get to see many colleagues that I hadn’t seen since last year, I got to meet some of the authors I have emailed over the past year for the book I’m editing (associate editor), and I got to meet some lovely new people. But the best thing about conference is you get talk about your ideas to others who listen with more than polite interest. These are my people! They can talk for long periods of time about learning theory and how to best get your preservice teachers to better use it. They can talk about Dialogue and dialogic teaching and since it was a science education conference there were crazy science nerds there too!
Okay, okay, you say, but what about your comps?!?!?! Well I wasn’t as productive as I had hoped. BUT I did get something done. And I had planned for this week to not be as heavy on the writing, thus the 12 books and 100 articles. So I read. Which is part of academic writing. You have to know the literature to speak on it. Did I read it all? No of course not! But it eased my anxiety to have them all with me so IF I caught a thought, I had my tools available. And lo and behold one day I did! And I ended up finishing question three!! So I’m going to count this week as a win!
Now to get back home and double down…and get this thing finished!
O's Bureau of Scientific Investigations 