This Monday was the first day of the spring semester at Vanderbilt. It is my eighth straight semester as a graduate student, but it is the first -- hurray! -- that I do not have any classes. In December, I finished up the coursework for my PhD, and all ("all" she says) that I have left are milestones -- my qualifying exam (which at Peabody is a major area paper, or MAP) and the proposal and defense of my dissertation. The good news is that I have more than two years of funded time left to complete these milestones. Finishing my MAP is my primary goal for the spring, along with making plans for data collection for my dissertation.
I could use this opportunity to reflect on what I've learned in the 90 hours of graduate coursework I've completed. I can definitely see a trajectory my learning took, and how things I learned in early classes influenced the focus I have now. What I do know for sure: there are some brilliant professors at Vanderbilt, there are a few (but fewer) true teachers, there are very collegial students, and there are a lot of people who care about kids, students, and learning (and even some who care about schools). But for all that, I am so glad I don't have any homework to get done this weekend!
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