The PhD Chronicles: The Balancing Act
Unlike the summer session, wherein it's basically the program straight for three weeks, this semester is a little more challenge to navigate. The work is just as hard and engaging, but it's dispersed over the semester with us meeting each Friday. So determining a rhythm is a bit of a challenge, not just for me or others in the cohort, but for the instructors as well, especially with our larger than usual group.
Finding the right rhythm was challenged by the fact that all of us impact each other. The professors had trouble settling into working with thirteen students as opposed to the usual six to eight. This impacts what we do in class, how much content we cover and whether we're able to hit everything we want. This disruption to a steady pace also made reading in the first month, though now challenging because it wasn't entirely clear what we were reading for. Yes, we know the course and we will read the content, but what frames or takeaways we should be getting from the readings has only recently been made more clear.
But now that we're in the final third of the semester, I'm pretty sure I've got a grasp of what is essential and what is not, what to look for, and what to ignore. That's good because I can only anticipate that the final third of this semester is going to be nearly consumed with the final projects.
Oh what fun!
Want to keep up with my PhD adventures? Check out any of the links below:
Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and check out some of my other posts!. You might also want to keep up to date with my blog by signing up for them via email.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Finding the right rhythm was challenged by the fact that all of us impact each other. The professors had trouble settling into working with thirteen students as opposed to the usual six to eight. This impacts what we do in class, how much content we cover and whether we're able to hit everything we want. This disruption to a steady pace also made reading in the first month, though now challenging because it wasn't entirely clear what we were reading for. Yes, we know the course and we will read the content, but what frames or takeaways we should be getting from the readings has only recently been made more clear.
But now that we're in the final third of the semester, I'm pretty sure I've got a grasp of what is essential and what is not, what to look for, and what to ignore. That's good because I can only anticipate that the final third of this semester is going to be nearly consumed with the final projects.
Oh what fun!
Want to keep up with my PhD adventures? Check out any of the links below:
- Acceptance...and acceptance
- Orientation
- Day 1
- Week 1
- First 2 Courses Completed
- First 2 Courses Finished
- Semester 2, Here We Go
- The Existential Crisis of the Week
- The Balancing Act
- Negotiating Privilege in Higher Education
- Zeroing in on Research
- Completing the Second Semester
- My Educational Autobiography
- So Starts the Third Semester
- My Educational Philosophy...for now
- PhD'ese
- And Sometimes, You Feel It
- Semester's Endgame
- Year 1, Officially Done
- Year 2, Week 1, Day 1
- Year 2, Week 1 Done!
- 1/3 Complete!?!?
- Click...
- Day 1; Semester 5
- Share and Share Alike
- Mindful and Mind-Filled
- 5th Semester Down
- Day 1, Semester 9
- The Two Demons of My Doctorate
- When Senioritis Kicks In
- The Final Friday
- Dissertation Journal #1
- Dissertation Journal #2
- Dissertation Journal #3
- Dissertation Journal #4
- Dissertation Journal #5
- Dissertation Journal #6
- Dissertation Journal: QP Revised Edition
Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and check out some of my other posts!. You might also want to keep up to date with my blog by signing up for them via email.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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