Submitting my essay

Well, I've officially done it. I submitted Essay 2 today. I spent a lot of time at the weekend, and over the last few evenings, adding the finishing touches. I had two different drafts reviewed by my supervisor, so it wasn't submitted in hast. Admittedly, I am very relieved. It feels nice to know that I can enjoy the rest of my summer holiday, without the thought of submitting the essay looming over me. It wasn't even that hard to get it finished this early; although I suppose if I had the responsibility of being a wife and mother things might be different. 

The BEST part of submitting the essay is knowing that I came in at a cool 6,479 words. You may not realise this, but the last time I submitted an essay I struggled (to say the least) with my word count. It caused me many sleepless nights, needless to say. However, what's done is done. I am not going to regret anything in life, because if that hadn't happened I wouldn't be in the position I am today; I am feeling much better about things; I'm proud of having submitted Essay 2 over a month early; and most of all I'm proud that I did it under the word count.

What that means now is that I can devote the rest of my summer to reading lots of literature about using students as researchers, and other such interesting and fun things! Don't expect that the blog will die down over the summer. In fact, I reckon that I may write more than I probably should (considering I will be in Canada, where the sunshine burns bright and a pool will be waiting for me out back). 

I also have to finish up my pilots-for-my-pilot. I'm meeting with some lovely girls in my form tomorrow to share with them my goals and a few tips I've learnt about conducting interviews. I may try to trial them interviewing one year 7 before the year is up. It'd be a useful starting place for us, as a team, to explore what works and what doesn't before we embark on a proper trial. I'll save that for the autumn, and I'll have my team interview other students in my form, just so they can get comfortable with the process. I'll do all the proper ethical paperwork then too! Not that I haven't kept things ethical this time around; I sent letters home to all the parents thus far! I'm a good girl, I promise, even if it isn't for 'official thesis business'. 

I'm just about to finish up with Cook-Sather et al., and then I'm going to start in on Fielding and Bragg, because frankly I haven't read enough of their work and it makes me feel quite ashamed. 

Stay tuned for more interesting and riveting posts about my forays into the literature around student voice/perception, student researchers and general student-led-goodness. 

KC