Peer Reviews--Week 7

Taxonomy of Reflection: Week 7

Remembering: What did I do?

I reviewed the second drafts of my fellow Tasmanian Devils and sent them my feedback.  I received feedback from the same.

Understanding: What was important about it?

The importance is in the process of reviewing, which sharpens my own abilities as a writer and reviewer of academic literature.

Application: When did I do this before? Where could I use it again?

I've reviewed literature before when grading my students' work, and when reviewing papers back in my undergraduate writing workshop days.  Work study at the old U of Memphis.  Those were good times.

It seems that this will be particularly helpful as my career in academia continues, particularly if I should find myself on a poster or paper review board.  Of course, reviewing papers is good practice for reviewing one's own work too.

Analysis: Do I see any patterns or relationships in what I did?

Just that I enjoy nitpicking.

Evaluation: How well did I do? What worked? What do I need to improve?

Well, the feedback I created was useful, I think.  I hope I wasn't too harsh with my critiques, but I think all the advice was good.  I started this process early so as to finish before Thanksgiving, so that was nice.

Creation: What should I do next? What's my plan/design?

I will review the comments of my peers, along with the comments from Dr. Weaver, and compose a final draft.

Personal Reflections

A nice relaxing week this week--I enjoyed the hiatus very much.  Looking forward, I have some minor revisions to make and a few small sections to create.  I feel good about my ability to satisfactorily complete the literature review on time and at a high level of quality.

Literature Review 2--Week 6

Taxonomy of Reflection: Week 6

Remembering: What did I do?

I completed a belated first draft and revised a second draft of my literature review.

Understanding: What was important about it?

This is the product itself. It's important because the nascent thoughts are beginning to form.

Application: When did I do this before? Where could I use it again?

I did this when writing other literature reviews. I will use these writing and revising skills as I go forward in this class, and as I write my dissertation.

Analysis: Do I see any patterns or relationships in what I did?

Not so much, except for the pattern of working which will continue to repeat itself in the near future.

Evaluation: How well did I do? What worked? What do I need to improve?

I feel that I put together a product with some logical flow, that reads pretty well, and is reasonably concise. I need to work on updating on a regular schedule.

Creation: What should I do next? What's my plan/design?

Next up is Thanksgiving week, with reviews and redrafting. I think I will consider reorganizing my last section, and grouping the bullet points into topical headings.

Personal Reflections

This week, I felt much better and was able to finish the late first draft and the second draft.  I'm pretty happy with the results.  The nature of my last blog post almost certainly indicated my despair; I was bluntly worried that I had lost my edge--that I would not be able to focus going forward. This week brought reinforcement that my exhaustion was anomalous.

I'm writing this today from New Jersey, where I have travelled for a business overnight trip. I cannot wait to return home tomorrow evening.

Reflection on Failure--Week 5

Taxonomy of Reflection: Week 5

Remembering: What did I do?

I organized my sources for the first draft of my literature review. I failed to complete any additional work.

Understanding: What was important about it?

The importance is to the future act of writing; this will help me create the literature review with maximum efficiency.

Application: When did I do this before? Where could I use it again?

I've done this kind of thing before when writing papers; that is, classifying and organizing sources.  It is likely to occur often throughout the rest of my life.

Analysis: Do I see any patterns or relationships in what I did?

The pattern is procrastination, though this time it may be more accurate to refer to it as exhaustion. More about this below.

Evaluation: How well did I do? What worked? What do I need to improve?

I did horribly.  I had no energy, no discipline, no concentration, no time. This has been one of the most difficult weeks I have ever faced academically.

To improve, I must actually create a product.

Creation: What should I do next? What's my plan/design?

I must complete the belated first draft of the literature review, post haste.  But I can't focus my mind!

Personal Reflections

What a disaster. What a personal failure. I arrived in Denver feeling sick, and stayed that way throughout the week. After completing CE classes and professional requirements, I would return to my room exhausted. I failed to get any work done throughout the week, except for minor expansion and classification of the material. I sat down to begin writing several times, but each time I could not manage to concentrate on the task.

I've never experienced such utter academic failure. There have been times when I have produced subpar work, but never before have I straight up missed an assignment. I am disgusted with myself. I am so sorry for letting Dr. Weaver and my professors down.

Even writing this blog post is taxing my stamina. I feel like I could sleep a week.

I will arise tomorrow morning, complete my obligations at work, and then write until I have a product to submit.

Reflection of annotated bibliography and first outline draft--week 4

Taxonomy of Reflection: Week 4

Remembering: What did I do?

I added the final twenty articles to my annotated bibliography.  I put together a very rough first draft of my outline for the literature review.  I shared the latter with the Google+ community.

Understanding: What was important about it?

Having the annotated bibliography finished is nice. This is important because it suddenly becomes a useful resource, rather than an albatross.  Nothing has changed except for its requisite nature, of course, yet I could not help thinking of it primarily as a burden when I had deadlines to meet.  I expect to see it as a useful and helpful resource as I begin in earnest the writing of the literature review.
The outline is important as an organizer of my thoughts and content. I'm already starting to classify my sources (mentally, at this point) around the outline topics.

Application: When did I do this before? Where could I use it again?

I have completed similar annotated bibliography assignments twice already this semester, and I'm sure to perform similar functions as I continue in my research career.
Outlining is one of those ubiquitous steps.  I've created a basic modular outline such as this one for every major paper I've written in the last decade, and will likely continue to do so as time goes on.

Analysis: Do I see any patterns or relationships in what I did?

I'm coming across many of the same articles in database and literature searches. It's a good feeling to know that, in some areas, I am coming close to the point of literature exhaustion. The production of an outline can be thought of as a formal representation of the patterns and relationships I have identified as I created the annotated bibliography these last three weeks (particularly the subheadings).
On a less positive level, once again I procrastinated rather badly. I found myself passing by the library after a hard day's work, putting the bulk of the work off till the weekend.  Even then, I did almost no work on Saturday, because of my desire to balance family time (and, honestly, good NCAA football). That left Sunday afternoon and evening for the production of most of my output. This pattern is a bad one. With my trip to the American Academy of Optometry meeting coming up Tuesday through Sunday of this upcoming week, I will have to do as much work as possible Monday, and on the airplane Tuesday evening, to prevent a terrible crunch.

Evaluation: How well did I do? What worked? What do I need to improve?

Again, I feel pretty good about the sources I found for the annotated bibliography, and my summaries of the articles. I need to reorganize the sources now around keywords; perhaps I can put references under each heading and subheading of my outline?
I felt constrained by my topic outline when creating my literature review outline; I would have liked to have organized the literature review differently based upon the information I found during my annotated bibliography, but I wanted to at least have one outline that was reasonably similar to the topic proposal. I'm sure that this will change before the week is up.

Creation: What should I do next? What's my plan/design?

I will review the new online course material as soon as it is released Monday morning.  I'll organize and plan my work Monday night, and enter the specific steps into my smartphone task app, HabitRPG.  This will keep my on task this week, hopefully.

Personal Reflections

I'm very happy to be done with the formal annotated bibliography, and to get on with the actual writing. I hope this bibliography will in fact lead to a reduction of the work load when I am writing. I believe I made a quality document, but I left much detail out for the sake of space and readability. Hopefully, I won't have to review the articles too deeply during the writing process.

I'm exhausted. There are so many pulls on me now. There's the doctoral work, of course, and the three courses I'm teaching (two as instructor of record).  I have to prepare for the poster session that's coming up this week. I have an obvious and good desire to spend time with my wife (now 19 weeks pregnant!), which pulls me in another direction. On top of this, I am feeling as though I am neglecting the other members in my church, who count on me as I count on them (a word on this point: there is no spiritual dryness or fear of sinning here. Grace is a wonderful gift, and God does not begrudge me being busy. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, and, in lieu of a true Sabbath day, I have learned to rest in him). Last, and certainly least, but still important, is my wish for some straight-up leisure time. I want to take some time at the Academy meeting to simply spend time with friends and see the sights in and around Denver. Hopefully I will be able to schedule this and stick to it.

Reflection upon more literature review work--Week 3

Taxonomy of Reflection: Week 3

Remembering: What did I do?

I added twenty more articles to my literature review.  I completed my report on the meeting with Dr. Dennis.

Understanding: What was important about it?

Compiling the report about Dr. Dennis' ideas was useful in formally putting them down so as to not forget.
Reading and reviewing the additional articles was important, as this week I found that understanding of the central issues and themes of my questions crystalized. I better understood what is going on, what the conflicts are, who the major players are, and so on. I'm also gaining more and more enthusiasm for the project.

Application: When did I do this before? Where could I use it again?

Re: literature review, I did something similar to this last week. I'll presumably do something similar next week as well. This skill is usable for every study I do in my career going forward.
Re: library report; the creation of the report itself is not particularly applicable, but the information within it is very useful. I can see that it will be very helpful as I create my dissertation in the next few years.

Analysis: Do I see any patterns or relationships in what I did?

Just that it was like what I did last week. It was interesting that I started to see the same articles coming up in my running list of important articles, indicating that I am starting to reach saturation of sources in some of my research areas.

Evaluation: How well did I do? What worked? What do I need to improve?

I think I did okay for the most part.  I'm starting to really get this subject and the controversy underlying it. I need to pay closer attention to how the varying articles interrelate. As I write up my outline this week, I'll try and organize my articles according to where in the paper their information will go.

Creation: What should I do next? What's my plan/design?

Finish this thing. Keep on with what is working (most of the process). Link the articles together more. Be sure all loose ends are tied up and gaps in my understanding, filled.

Personal Reflections

I don't have a lot to add here, except to comment that my enthusiasm for this material is growing. I'm starting to see how this subject has influenced education and how this plays into my personal view of the world and education. I've forwarded a few other articles on to my wife, who has enjoyed and digested and summarized them so well that I'm beginning to wonder if we should switch places.