passion / interests.

Passion and interest.

These seem like important things when approaching any aspect of education. However, in the context of my studies passion and interest simply weren't enough. I'm not saying here that you shouldn't be interested or passionate about your research, but neither can take the place of relevance.

Relevance isn't simple. That is one of the most powerful lessons that I have learned in that last few years. It is up to an individual researcher to make the relevance of their work clear. From a student's standpoint relevance can and often should be connected to an advisor's work. What better way to learn how to communicate the relevance of your research than to share the lessons of an advisor.

Faculty connections to research were the kind of connections I didn't realize the value of in my consideration of programs. Furthermore, as a student, seeking out these connections were not a priority. I'd always assumed it was the work of the advisor(s) to help make these connections clear. A successful student needs to not only seek out these connections, but actively maintain them.

The question that remains is how a graduate student should most effectively pursue these connections.

teaching / learning

Throughout my education there were key moments where I learned the most. As I've thought back to those times I was reminded how closely teaching and learning were connected for me.

When I started out at umich I was in a writing practicum course. As I learned about writing in college I became interested in working with other students. My growth as a student was tied to interaction with other writers.

At msu I continued writing center work. I saw ready connections to the ideas I encountered in class discussion and reading during my work with students.

During my time at ncsu I had many opportunities to pursue similar kinds of connections between teaching and learning. However, as I took classes I became interested in things that were not readily related to teaching. As the two grew further apart something happened.

I'm not entirely sure yet what happened. Was I distracted? There are many questions I know now that I should have asked. There is one thing that I am most curious about. Was my neglect of the teaching / learning connection the first misstep?

Lessons

So I've been thinking these last few days about all the positive changes. For a while before and after I moved it was tough to have perspective on what felt like years lost. I've recently begun to think about all the things I learned in the last few years. Granted, most of the important lessons aren't the sort that degrees are awarded for. I can't help but think they are valuable. A couple I've had in mind are my teaching / learning connections and passion / interests.

Revival

So I've decided to revive this old blog. It's original aim was to document my experiences as a PhD student. Needless to say, I've never been very good at keeping a blog. In many ways I think that is a particularly good thing for this blog. For now, I'm thinking I'll use this as a space for moving on.