Image by Lincolnian
Over the last couple days I took the time to write the summary for my AR Project and posted it to my website. As I posted it, I couldn't help thinking how far we have come over the last year. I remember when all my pages were empty and the project resembled looking out over a big black hole with the word, "TEXT" emblazoned over the top.
Now, only one black hole remains, the Publishing/Leadership project. (My apology in advance to my critical friend Debra Atherton, who is an English Literature teacher, but I could not help asking myself, what would Hamlet say?)
To publish or to present, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of colleagues
Or take pen against paper in a sea of words
And by writing them say an end to EMDT
To sleep and more sleep, to say we end
The heartache of the thousands of projects
Completed accurately to the rubric
To sleep, perchance to dream-ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep what dreams may come?
Where a presentation could impact so many
We must take pause to the universe of possibility
I guess my first inclination is to go the publishing route, but I don't think my project merits publication. I hate seeming insecure and it's not that it's a bad project; it's just not the caliber of the projects that I have seen published. In some respects, I believe it should be published, because it is practical and useful and much of what I have seen published in math education journals is not that practical, but I don't find my project to be scholarly. Are there acceptable publications for less scholarly work?
Since I have only been back in education for two years and I have been a wee bit busy since then, I haven't been to any conferences in years and I'm not really certain what would be expected of me there. I am much more fearful of a presentation, but I have good presentation skills and I do believe that I have an important message to convey. I am leaning more in this direction, but again, I am not sure where would be the best place to start. Ideas?
O, "Gentle Lady Anne"!
ReplyDeleteYou write poetry, you paraphrase Hamlet, you create elegant and witty prose. Your AR demonstrated tangible great results for a revolutionary way of presenting curriculum that, if your administration were just a bit open-eyed would transform teaching math in your school--why would you not share that with everyone in the world? You'd be great at presentation--but the cred that would attach to you by publishing could really validate what you've done in the eyes of people who aren't inclined to pay attention.
Besides--you'd do it so well!
You seem to have clearly captured my own feelings in your blog post… and, you did it in a creative way! Kudos to you! I have completed my research on increasing writing skills using discussion boards as well as email, and other fun writing based projects with a group of fourth graders based on literature we were reading in class. Although, I feel confident that given the proper circumstances, my research would have been consistent with the literature I reviewed, unfortunately technical glitches made the project very difficult to complete. I do not feel that my results were very conclusive because of these issues that were out of our control. And I wish that I could have a chance to try it again, with more updated computers that were capable of performing the tasks with less trouble. Like you, I do not think that my results are worthy of publishing in a scholarly journal. I am planning to do the presentation. I think the presentation allows a little more freedom in reviewing our projects and hopefully lends itself to more personal inflection.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, you rendition of Hamlet is truly inspiring. I have had the same dilemma in my own head the past couple weeks. Publishing or presenting will both take about as much equal time to set up, but which would be less painful?? :) For me, I have come to the conclusion that my writing abilities are weaker than my speaking abilities which has led me to choose presenting. I will most likely present at a conference being held by my district (if approved). Hopefully you will decide what to do, but I would like to plant the seed of presenting....you are too eloquent with your words to publish :)
ReplyDelete