Month: May 2013

The Scamp Needs a Title

Posted on by erranteditor

Yesterday I was finally able to meet with my supervisor (which reminds me that I now need to email her again to set up another meeting for next week), and although she claims she didn’t get any of the 6 emails I sent her, she does have a really good plan of attack for me and is okay with me going home to finish my work (I’m going to rot in the in-between for lying about the seriousness of my mom’s brain tumor, but I have decided that I am okay with that). Her strategy for getting everything written and turned in on time is to give the students she is supervising homework for each week. I’m all for this as it keeps me on schedule and keeps me accountable for the work that needs to get done.

Among the first bits of homework is coming up with three possible titles for our dissertation. This one has me stumped. I know why I am choosing to undertake the research, and I am well underway with my theory and literature, but I can’t think of a title to save my life.  I figure since I can’t think of anything, maybe one of my 7 readers can. I need a title that gives a good vision of the paper that I am writing. Something catchy, but informative…something that will allow the readers to know what they are getting into so they can skip to the next paper.

Here are the details of my research:

I’m going to be using critical literacy and the concept of the language of power to examine two books, Chato’s Kitchen by Gary Soto and Skippyjon Jones in the Doghouse by Judy Schachner. I will be examining both the text and the pictures of both of these stories and discuss how the choices made in terms of language used, structure of the story and the choice of illustrations affects the way in which children view the Mexican culture. Part of the disucssion will focus on the importance of teachers critically analysing the books that they are presenting to their students, and how the right choices will help their students become strong intercultural citizens.

This was the title I used on the proposal I had to turn in, but it is crap:

Skippyjon Jones in Chato’s Kitchen: A Theoretical Study on the Importance of Portrayal of Mexican Culture in Children’s Literature

The problem with this title is that the project this title suggests is one that I would not be able to complete in a matter of months. It also lacks the info that the research is aimed at how critical literacy will help teachers when deciding what books they will teach in their classroom.

So I need to come up with some new possibilities to take to my meeting on Wednesday. I am prepared to bribe my readers into helping me, so the person who comes up with the best title will get an awesome Scottish present…..and by awesome I mean haggis flavored chips.

A Scamp and the Perfect Wednesday Night

Posted on by erranteditor

The recipe for success?

The Princess Bride

+

Junk Food

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Some of my favorite people

=

Perfect Wednesday night.

I am now going to swallow a whole bunch of Tums to help settle my stomach after ingesting so much popcorn, Skittles, Oreos, chips and chocolate. My inner fat kid loved all of the junk food (although my digestive system might not love it in a few days). The rest of me loved a relaxing evening watching a movie I love with people I love.

I finally met with the director of my program and got the paperwork in, and tomorrow I have the first meeting with my supervisor. I no longer feel stressed about the meeting. The director was super nice to me. He let me invade his office for a chat, talked to me about my project, and gave me some good suggestions on research to do. He also assured me that he would always be available and I could email him with questions, concerns, and any updates on life. I’m sure the meeting tomorrow promises to be interesting, but I at least feel a lot better about the fact that my first meeting is only 9 days before I leave.

The Scamp Doesn’t Wanna

Posted on by erranteditor

Today the sun came out. Not only did the sun come out, but it was 63 degrees! My legs saw the sun today. I wore my toms instead of boots and tights. I walked around without a jacket. I felt great.

Until I didn’t.

I only have ten days left of my adventure here and I have come to the realization that I do not want to go home. I like the safety of my Scotland bubble. There are no painful memories here, no worries about a social circle and friends, and in my little fantasy land, there is no worries about bills, my lack of job and paying for school next semester. I ran out of time to travel, and was unable to see some of the other parts of the UK that I thought I would get to. The end has snuck up on me. I’m not ready. I still have yet to hear from my supervisor about a meeting and have to wait until tomorrow to get the paperwork signed for my leave of absence. I know that I pushed a lot of this to the last minute, but I am a little disheartened at the lack of support from the professors. I hope this isn’t a pattern that will be repeated for the next four months. It will be harder for me to get things done when I am more than 5,000 miles away.

Today I was up at half 6. I read 3/4 of a Stephanie Plum novel before I finally got up and decided to start the day. I’mm not sure what has been disrupting my sleep pattern, but it is on the fritz lately. I have been having nightmares about David which leave me feeling sad and empty, and I am worried about my dissertation and the research that I am doing. I know that these two things are just a product of stress, but I am worried that they will take over and I will go back to being dark and twisty. I don’t want to be dark and twisty.

Last night I packed up parts of my room to ship home. That made the end of the journey seem more real. Today I took the first box to the post office to send on home. While that doesn’t seem like a hard task, I had to carry the box and walk the 10 minutes to the office. The box didn’t seem heavy, but by the time I reached my destination, my arms wanted to fall off. I still have two more boxes that have to be walked and shipped. I’m thinking I am going to wait until Thursday to do the second box and I will take care of the third one on Monday. In the meantime, I am going to do some pushups and work out my little chicken arms.

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I need a pint….or maybe three.

A Scamp and the Library

Posted on by erranteditor

great-photos-thechive-14

I love libraries. I always have. The only job I have ever had has involved working in a library. In the last 12 years I have worked in 3 different libraries and become very familiar with the ins and outs of them. I’ve been in good libraries, bad libraries, public libraries and university libraries, but none of those libraries compare to the ones at the University of Edinburgh. The library here makes me feel like an idiot. Books show up in the catalog that are not actually part of the collection, or books appear on the shelves that do not appear in the catalog. Today’s hunt had me on three separate floors after two trips to a computer to verify the call number in the catalog. Ever since the great library firing of 2005 when the branch manager told me she thought I needed classes because I couldn’t see the numbers, I double, and sometimes triple check what I write down, and today was no different. After checking to make sure that I was right, I went back to the shelves and looked for the elusive critical literacy book. No luck. I went downstairs to ask one of the librarians for help, and after a 20 minute search, it was concluded that the book was either at a desk or study cube with someone, or had been improperly shelved. Either way, I was out of luck, and I was free to come back and check to see if it had been returned.

I’m going to take this to mean the universe is telling me to take a break today and read one of the crime novels I checked out from the public library. Critical democratic power sharing pedagogy can wait until tomorrow.

A Scamp and Her Supervisor

Posted on by erranteditor

Sometimes I wrestle with my demons and sometimes we just cuddle.

Today I just wanted to cuddle with them. There was just enough rain to keep me from really wanting to go out and about for a walk, and I woke up with just enough of a headache to make any serious work on my dissertation impossible. I am going on a month of no response from my supervisor, and I am starting to get worried about how not worried I am about it. I have paperwork that needs to be signed, a plan that needs to be made, and books that need to be read.

I finally got an email from my supervisor….well, the email wasn’t to me per say, but at least I know she isn’t dead or ignoring me. Her email was addressed to all of the students she is supervising, and suggested that she wants to schedule a meeting with another group of students and their supervisor so we can have a repeat of the general info meetings that we have been having with the director of the program for the last month. I’m starting to worry that it is going to be a lot harder now to write my dissertation from home, and I’ve already bought the plane ticket and have started packing. I’m worried that I will not have access to materials, books, and help from my supervisor once I get home. I’m worried that this will be a trend for the next few months while I am trying to work on my paper.

Instead of driving myself crazy with worry over these things, I called my best friend in New York and caught up with her. We laughed, joked and distracted each other from the worries of that each of us has. I’m looking forward to being reunited and for some of the ridiculousness that will ensue when we are together.

Now I am going to hang out with the Pollock Halls cat, read an article on critical democratic power sharing in the classroom, and make a plan for what needs to get done for the weekend. Monday I will try to hunt down someone to sign my paperwork, and try again to get a concrete date set-up for a meeting with my elusive supervisor. I kind of feel like I am playing my own version of Where in the World is Carmen San Diego.

This round goes to Carmen, next round goes to me.