gold medals and such

I love the Olympics. I'm sure I'm supposed to analyze the political implications of international competition and deplore the overly sentimental nature of the commentators but the truth is, I love the pageantry, the pride, the heart-thumping rush as the competitors near the finish line. With everything that is wrong with this country, somehow the Olympics make me feel a little better about being an American. Usually, I'm ready to defect to an assortment of foreign countries rather than accept the state of the union under our current president...but that's a rant for another evening.

Still working on the research proposal, although the working is more mental than physical. I appear to have taken my vacation as a serious venture, since I haven't done nearly as much work on school-related matters as I'd planned. Still, there's something to be said for a little rest and relaxation before the school year starts - because I know I won't have much of a break once the gun goes off 20 August. I think things are slowly coming together - or at least moving in the same direction - in terms of my research objectives. My interest in identity formation isn't something I want to drop but I think I have to temper it within the confines of this study. I can hypothesize about identity but I can't state it as an out-and-out objective when there's no cause/effect relationship with the other elements of the study. My main focus is really reflection and technology - can the emerging technology of blogs (yes, I know they're old hat for the majority of the computer world but they're still relatively new to education) impact reflection in any significant and/or positive way? Could something as simple (relative term) as a technological improvement over pen and paper increase the quantity, if not the quality, of pre-service teacher reflection? If I can answer those questions in the affirmative, I may have a decent study on my hands, which doesn't exclude identity at all, but places it as something that may emerge from the study rather than something that the study is founded on. House on rock, not sand, you know.

Graduate school is beginning to make a little more sense as I get to the level of my own interests. My feelings about grad school are, once again, a topic for another posting, but I'm starting to feel better about my place in it as I solidify my own areas of interest and research. Maybe I can make a contribution to the field of education with this PhD; maybe I was right to leave the high school classroom for the college classroom; maybe my past two years of struggle were worth it. Much remains to be seen - and I'm not holding my breath for any epiphanies on the subject - but at least I'm feeling a little better about returning for my third year.