Okay, it's September (I know, I know) I missed updating you in August. Life got busy and as I often tell you, I struggle with balance (got off track again). I'm taking two of the five courses that I have left in this pursuit and in addition to that I am now an adjunct professor of teacher education at Paul Quinn College, by the way I LOVE it, but with this addition, I have more late nights even still, I continue to press on. Along with my course work, specialist work, and adjunct work, I am also an appointed member of my school districts Racial Equity Advisory Council for the area that I live in. This gives me the opportunity to be the voice for the children in my neighborhood as well as the teachers who work in my neighborhood. I want to use this platform to speak about how to improve the level of instruction that babies in my area are getting. This leads me to what I really want to talk about tonight, teacher efficacy.
         Teacher efficacy is the educator’s belief that they can guide their students to success no matter what challenges they come to school with.  Teachers who come to work believing that they can positively affect student academic success do what is necessary to achieve that. Collective teacher efficacy is the belief that as a school community, working together all teachers can positively affect student success. This is what creates effective, high performing schools. This can sometimes be the novice educator (I’ve seen and worked with some) quite often though, it’s the veteran educator. The educator who has experienced teaching children from differing backgrounds and challenges. The teacher that is continually working on his or her craft.  Here is the real provocation, quite often those teachers don’t work in the areas that need them most – areas with high crime and low socioeconomic status. In my work, I have seen the effects of teachers with poor efficacy. I have seen too often brand-new teachers, and/or poorly trained teachers working with our students who come from low socioeconomic areas. The problem with this is that they are quite often not properly trained to deal with the various needs that these babies come to school with and as a result, performance in those schools is low over all. It is on my mind because I have got to find a way to change this pattern. ACE (accelerating campus excellence) helps, but what happens when those schools still cannot fully staff with good veteran educators, what can we do when the money runs out? What can we do with and for educators and schools in these areas to get and retain veteran educators? Better still, how can we train the educators we have that are willing to work in these areas? These are questions that I am seeking the answers too, because the goal should be and still is, student academic success and we need it to be done equitable.
 
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Here is another progress update. I missed my May update. I got busy with life/work balance again. A lot has happened since April. As I sit here and reflect, I am truly proud of myself—professionally and personally—as I continue learning, living and leading.  I just had a birthday (insert birthday dance). I am a 48 year old woman and I feel like I am truly beginning to live (I think I say that every year).  I have just completed my 20th year as an educator. I am an educational specialist with a wealth of knowledge to share. I am looking forward to the next 20 years of having an impact on student academic success via working to build teacher self efficacy in every educator I come in contact with. 

I have knocked down two more courses which brings me closer to end of coursework.   . I hit a bump in the road, when I miss calculated how many classes I had left to take, but I had to remember that I am not trying to rush the process,  I am having to pay close attention to the courses I register for, because I am close to the end and other doc students have had issues with taking courses not needed and/or taking courses again without knowing.  This summer I will get a break (July) because the amount of courses I need is shrinking and there is no available course for me to take in the summer II session.  I was temped to take two tough courses this term because this would have allowed  me to finish a semester sooner. I was advise against it for my sanity's sake and I am glad I listened. I am trying to keep moving at a steady pace to maximize my learning along the way. It is working and I am able to apply what I am learning in practical ways in all aspects of life. I continue to try to get my writing published and keep getting feedback that tells me to "revise and resubmit". I do expect that, and I know feedback like that will help me focus my writing and help the dissertation process become much smoother when the time comes.

On to statics, I am in the place in my pursuit where I am working through courses that will help me build the skill set necessary to be called Educationis Doctor (EdD). Statistics is one of the first of those courses. I had/have anxiety about this course because I fear working with numbers and I fear not being successful in my pursuit. Week one is over and my anxiety has subsided (just a little). Like my sister told me: "The last quarter is always the gut climb". I am understanding that this course is set up to prepare me to use, understand, and interpret the data that I gather when I conduct my own research. I am excited to be this close to the finish of my pursuit. I will be fortunate enough to have a break in course work to rest, refresh, and work on making sense of all the courses I have taken thus far. 

I have big things coming this year. Stay tuned to see what happens next. Thank you for reading..

I am tired!!! It is hard, at times to even want to continue. (I am not stopping though; I will finish) The quality of my work is suffering and so is my focus I know that means it's time for a break. All I can think of is finishing and what I need to do to get done.  That is my motivation for now.  In my talking to people who have made this pursuit, I understand that these feelings are normal. I also know that since I am not giving up, I must find a way to push through. 

So, here is my update for this month. I continue to find ways to discuss, share, and refined my research topic. I participated in the A & M-Commerce Research Symposium. I used information that I have so far on my topic. I know I was not nearly ready, but I know that I need as much experience as I possibly can get in sharing my topic so that I can defend it when the time comes. I will say that I did not do well, but I did not expect to. I did have the opportunity to share my thoughts and get some good feedback from a couple of professors on what some good possible next steps will be for me. So, in that aspect; the experience was beneficial. 

I'm a guest blogger:
As a result of this blog, I was given the opportunity to be a guest blogger for McGraw-Hill Education's Art of Teaching Blog. My piece was titled "The Heart of the Read-Aloud". https://medium.com/inspired-ideas-prek-12/the-art-of-the-read-aloud-5847af75c792  Check it out here. My piece was published this month and I am very proud of that. I will be writing something for them again, very soon.

 Big News Alert!!!
I have an upcoming opportunity to do some work related to my future goals. This work has required me to update and revise my resume and my vita. In doing so, I realized that I am missing some very important experiences that are necessary to "pad my resume" if you will. I am venturing out and making new connections—this is hard for me— I am an introvert. I have some new and big things coming in the next few months that will help me to establish myself as a thought leader in the field of literacy. 

I can see the future and it is looking bright. I believe that I will not fail if I can just keep moving. So, here's to forward motion...

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Well, it’s time to update you again. I know, I know, I said that I would update you on my progress more often, but I’ve noticed that I have been repetitive when I do. So, I’ve decided to make sure I update at least once monthly and/or when I have big news to add. I am still struggling with balance—I think I always will—which means I play catch up quite often. I will continue no matter what. I do have some news that I think is good.  That leads me to this month’s updates. I want to tell you about my experience at TALE 2018 and about me now being a published author.

The TALE conference is nothing new, but to me it is a very big deal. It is another opportunity to present to educators at the school level, the college level and at the post graduate level that I don’t work with every day. It is also an opportunity to share my ability to create a presentation and share my research. That is the fun part. I would do this just for the shear enjoyment of my own creation. This time I decided that I would take a different approach and share some of the work I have done toward my dissertation. I was able to work on the beginnings of my dissertation in the classes I took in the fall semester, so I decided that I need to share that information as much as possible because I need to become better at sharing and defending that information. I am proud to say that I was able to do so at this conference and had an audience of people that came to hear what I had to say. I was pleased to have this opportunity. TALE (the Texas association for literacy education) is an organization that I am glad to have an association with and I plan to continue this association. I see opportunities for my growth as a literacy leader.

In one of my reading courses, our class’ main assignment was to complete an action research assignment to show how we used the information from the class in our occupations. Each person in the class had to write that information into a narrative and submit to our professor. He showed us the format he wanted us to use to submit it.  We did it and he told us he was going to submit it to the Journal of Teacher Action Research. He did, and we got an email that our article titled: “Using Action Research in a Graduate Literacy Class to Connect Theory to Practice: A Replication Study” will be published in their Fall edition. I am very excited by this opportunity. I will continue seeking opportunities to write and publish my work. My next step is to submit a version of my dissertation’s chapter 2 (the review of the literature) to the TALE yearbook. This is the same publication that told me “No “last year. I am going to take their feedback, look at what I have already written and do some edits and try again. I feel that I have learned a great deal from my experiences thus far, so I am ready to try again. Whisper a prayer.
 
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Since my fall semester finished in December, I had lots of ideas for goals to accomplish while I was on break. At the same time though, I was exhausted. So, although; I wanted to edit my review of the literature on vocabulary instruction and the read-aloud and find a place to publish it, I didn’t even look at it. This was an opportune time for a break and was also a good time to write because the spring semester did not begin until the first week of February. I did get plenty of rest but also may have lost so valuable time toward my timeline of having my doctorate by 2020. The rest worked out though because during this time I had to stop to bury my dad.

 If you remember, I looked at the courses I have completed thus far and I told you that I am 3 semesters (including this one) away from completing my coursework. That is seven classes, 2 this spring, 2 in the summer and that leaves 1 left to complete in this fall. There are several factors that can come against this timeline for example, the courses I need may or may not be offered when I want to take them.  I am in prayer that this situations happen. In the time that I have left to complete my coursework. I have residency requirements that also need to be completed by the time I finish coursework.

I have several things I want and need to have completed in order to stay within my timeline (Ed.D by 2020). I still intend to be working on chapter’s 1, 2, and 3 of my dissertation. I want to start that by revising and editing my chapter 2–the lit review. That portion is my proposal—the “what’s and why’s” behind my research idea. That needs to be completed because the college has to say yes to what I want to study. I often work on my residency and am finding lots of enjoyment doing so. I have volunteered to work at conferences, I have attended workshops where other doctorate students talk about their research, and I have presented at conferences at the state level. I understand why this needs to be done because it has opened my eyes to all the opportunities that having a doctorate will bring my way.

I am especially proud to be presenting at TALE 2018. This is my second year doing so. I am looking forward to sharing my progress so far. It is a good feeling to be going again. I am looking for ways to work in this organization and networking with these Texas literacy leaders.

I can see the light at the end of this tunnel I call doctoral pursuit and I am very excited about my progress so far.

Thank you for reading…

Dear Daddy, I know it is time for you to go. You are truly missed and it’s time to say goodbye. I want to thank you for your part in making me who I am. I was able to see what a man should be by watching you. A few times I’d eavesdrop on some of the conversations you would have with the people who sat in your chair and talked to you while you cut their hair and learned that a man should be passionate about something. I saw a man who was always there and always worked to keep us taken care of and I learned stability. I saw a man who was revered and respected by people all over the city and felt protected and safe. I saw a man who had a vision for something and went out and did it. I saw a man that said education was important so, I keep going and keep learning and keep growing. I thank you daddy, because of you; I am me.   I have the memories of you that will keep me going and I will cherish them in my heart forever.
Good bye daddy, I love you, your service here is done.

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