All I want for Christmas is to finish my course work!  Yeah, I'm looking forward to a break from the hustle and bustle of writing and reading and doctoral studies!  This has been an eye opening few months.  I was terrified when I started this program and I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  Frankly, I didn't know if I keep up with the pace and work of a Doctoral program.  It definitely has been a learning process.  I've learned to read, to write, to manage my time, and to ask for help!  I'm still working on the reading thing and I expect it'll take some more time before I can really get through a research article in a timely manner.  I've really learned a lot about scholarly writing and the process of putting together a paper.  I have some strategies in my pocket now that will help me over the next few years.  Managing my time has been a struggle.  Being an army wife, an often single mom (with a traveling husband) to 2 young girls 5 and under, a new Principal, and a 1st semester Doctoral student had been a challenge.  There were times when it seemed like I wasn't doing any of these things well.  I kept dropping all of the balls I was juggling.  As I got to the end of the semester, I took some big deep breaths and just relaxed.  That seemed to really help!  I started carving out an hour each night to do homework.  This seemed to really help keep the other balls in the air.  I'm looking forward to my next classes as I have a better idea of what to expect and how to handle the work.  

My journey has just begun!  I'm looking forward to the rest of the ride and the bumpy road ahead!

Is it really the last class already?  Where the heck did the semester go?  So we are going to eat, drink, and read portfolios!  I have enjoyed doing peer reviews throughout this semester.  I have found them to be really valuable.  I have come to trust my classmates opinions and feedback on my work and I have found that reading their work to be an incredible benefit.  I can't tell you how many times I visited my classmates blogs to see what they were up to and what they were writing about.  Their thoughts inspired me and kept me going!  

I think we have all come a long way this semester.  It was fun reading through the portfolios of my 2 classmates and seeing their work.  Some of the pieces in their portfolios helped me to improve on sections of my own work.  One of my colleagues had a great course plan and I borrowed some of his plan for my own.  I liked his class choices and they were much the same as the ones I had chosen.  It was interesting to see how we had all set up our websites and why we chose to do what we did.  One of my colleagues chose to use a "thematic" approach for her portfolio.  My approach was more linear.  It's all a personal style!  Seeing each others pictures and reading blogs was highly entertaining and informative.  It was nice to know that we all were suffering the same pain at times during class!  We all have such a diverse collection of research interests.  It will be interesting to see where our interests take us in the next couple of years.