Faculty Research Day

Every spring the University of Central Missouri's Information Technology and Instruction and the Center for Teaching and Learning host Faculty Research Day. It begins with a call for research papers in the fall. The deadline for these papers is at the end of January. These papers are anonymously reviewed by our colleagues and winners are announced in March. The first place winner earns $500 while the second place winner earns $250.

I submitted a paper based on my dissertation data (hiss!). I wrote the paper for the ASTE conference in Connecticut in January and presented with my advisor, Dr. Wavering. I was also second author on another paper, "Persistence of Meteorological Misconceptions." My gal pal, Sal (aka Dr. Zellers) was first author and the paper shared findings from our initial study on weather misconceptions common to undergraduate students. This paper was also presented at the ASTE conference in January.

Winners were announced Tuesday. First place for Education and Human Services went to a colleague for his paper, "Effects of an Inner City Preschool Teacher-Directed Curriculum on the Achievement of Third Grade Students Following Standardized Assessment Measures for English and Mathematics" and the second place went to ME for my paper, "Alternative Conceptions in Earth Science and the Preservice Teacher." (Special thanks to my editor and advisor, Dr. Wavering, who served as co-author!)

Both of these papers came from our newly formed department, Elementary and Early Childhood Education! A major coup for us. And while I didn't place first ~sob~ I did spend several hours editing the paper that earned first place so I like to think I helped a little. The award ceremony will be Friday, March 6, in the Union! I can't wait!

Tired and Cranky

Tired and cranky. These words are almost always associated with toddlers. However, as of late, they're quite appropriate descriptors of me. The semester is winding down at an alarming rate. I have one and a half weeks of class and a week of finals; I can hear the fat lady singing in the distance. This is been a semester of 12-14 hour days: grading, planning, researching, and writing. And the most distressing thing of all is that despite all the time I've logged, I still can't seem to catch up.

There are 'virtual' piles of papers to be graded (Ma, virtual here means they're electronic, and not hard copies.), there's a dissertation that is simmering (at least it's not cold), four research papers that are in the process of being written, grades to be posted, and plans for next semester! Yee gads!

Suffice it to say I've been terribly tired and most cranky. I am tired of eating fish sticks, frozen pizza, and corn dogs (Although I do love corn dogs!). I want chicken soup with matzo balls; I want baked chicken; I want steak! But I seem to be lacking two things: time and money.

So I've hypothesized that these two factors combined with poor nutrition have only compounded the grumpy and tired factors by several degrees.

With all this said, I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can count on one hand the number of class periods I have left. I will have a week during Thanksgiving to rest and write and clean. Lovely! I plan to do all three. I'll have two weeks of class in December and then I'll have another three weeks to work on research (the dissertation and the four papers).

Children's Book Workshop

I spent the last two days in the James Kirkpatrick Library at UCM enjoying the Children's Book Workshop. During my two days I had the opportunity to listen to several authors and artists (Veda Boyd Jones, Cheryl Harness, Carolyn Mulford, and Jaime Thome), to practice the art of bookbinding, and to hobnob with other aspiring writers and published authors. Part of my requirements for taking the workshop for graduate credit is to submit a book proposal to a publishing house. I received good reviews from the two authors who reviewed my proposal. I am looking forward to incorporating their suggestions, finding a publishing house or two that might be interested, and sending off my proposal in two weeks.