Samantha Didrichsen, MSED.

Hello everyone! It’s been quite some time since I last updated the blog. Life has been hectic, both in good ways and in I-could-have-done-without-this-ways. I think that’s the norm though, we all have ups and downs, and whatever happens, you are absolutely allowed to feel how you feel but process it and figure out next steps. I had infertility-related surgery right before the spring semester started, and I’m set to have a second surgery to remove the hardware from my foot at the end of finals week! My spring semester has been book-ended by surgeries! It’s funny how life is like that at times!

I finished up my time at Fredonia as the early childhood adjunct instructor. My students were absolutely wonderful and I wish the best for them in their careers, whether they choose a career in early childhood or not. I’m still in the faculty pool, so if they ever need some assistance again, I hope that they’ll reach back out to me. I’m actually scheduled to go back there in a few weeks to give a talk in a SLP course for Dr. Christina Mead, and I’m waiting to be scheduled for another talk for Fredonia’s CEC club!

I’m in the process of preparing for my dissertation proposal, which has been an exciting endeavor for me, filled with LOTS of reading and writing, and coffee—a bit of it, yeah. I’m hoping to be able to defend my proposal at some point this spring semester and begin data collection in the summer! Once my defense goes through, I’ll talk a bit more about what my study will be. However, I’m interested in understanding the relationship between an early childhood special educator’s self-regulation skills and their self-efficacy beliefs, and how this relationship effects their risk of burnout and ultimately leaving the profession.

The last time I posted, I also mentioned that I was done with classes. Well, that actually wasn’t the case, as it appeared that I needed another research course! And so, I decided to go further down the qualitative methods path, and I’m taking a QUAL methods course to help prepare my study further and submit it for IRB approval. I will then take the next course in the sequence in the fall to help analyze the data I will have collected. With that, I’m excited to say that I’ve gotten approval to have a qualitative methodology designation added to my transcript and my PhD! If you’re a doctoral or master’s level student at U.B, I highly encourage you to take a look at it—just take four QUAL courses and that’s it! The department was able to accept my version of the Mixed Methods course that I took during my first year, which helped with my timing greatly. If you’re interested in learning more, go here: Qualitative Methodology Advanced Certificate.

I have also had the joy of submitting a piece to the Forum of the American Journal of Education with my friend Kristine Smigielski! She is a doctoral candidate now and full-time staff member at UB, so this profile is outdated. We wrote an op-ed on how online college instructors can use UDL to help support their students! We’ve also submitted this same work for this year’s U.B GSE Symposium as a poster! We’re hoping that both are accepted. I’m also in the process of planning to write a piece to also submit to the Forum of AJE with my friend from Fredonia, DOCTOR Burgandi Rakoska.

Finally, to wrap up my post, I wanted to take a moment to remember my mentor, Dr. Mira Berkley. She unexpectedly passed away on Valentine’s Day of 2024. I wrote about her here last year in my mourning. It’s been a whole year without her, and while I’m still sad that she’s gone, I am so happy that I was able to get to meet her and be her student. I’m also honored to, at least in some respect, be a professional colleague with her, assisting her with resources for young children with delays and disabilities. In a funny way, she’s still helping me in my studies—I’ve been able to use her published dissertation through U.B to help organize my thoughts and paragraphs as I write the first handful of chapters of my dissertation. Thanks again, Mira—I still appreciate your help.