Hello everyone! It’s been a little bit since I wrote an actual post beyond me announcing my dissertation proposal defense. To anyone that’s reading this and knows me in my personal life, you know how incredibly busy these last five months have been. Writing the equivalent to half a novel in such a short amount of time is honestly a tremendous feat, and I’m proud to say I did just that AND defended my proposal! I’m very excited to begin collecting data for my dissertation over the summer once the necessary paperwork has been finalized, submitted, and accepted. At some point soon, I will most likely be posting my recruitment flyer on here to help spread the word that I’m looking for participants.
In terms of research, the newly minted Dr. Kristen Smigielski and I have an accepted piece in the Forum of the American Journal of Education, but it hasn’t been published yet! It should be published sometime this month, so I will update again when it goes live. I’m still waiting on reviews and feedback for another piece that Dr. Burgandi Rakoska and I submitted, so whenever that is accepted, I will also post about that as well!
Going back to my dissertation really quick—I submitted my dissertation as a poster for the Kaleidoscope section of the Teacher Education Division (TED) CEC conference in November! I’m so hoping that I can get in. It was an article in a TED journal publication last fall that started me on the road for my dissertation and gave me the inspiration to do what I’m doing. It would be an honor to give back to the place that helped orient me towards what I wanted to study.
This has been one of the most productive semesters of my time here at U.B, and I can’t wait to see what happens going forward. Besides collecting data over the summer, I will also be teaching my special education class again! This will also be a first for me, as I’ve never taught a summer course before, and I need to honestly start looking at my syllabus to see what I’m going to do with my students.
To wrap this all up nicely—at some point over the summer, I will be interviewed for the Reflections of Fredonia podcast! The podcast is recorded right on campus in the Fredonia radio station and is hosted by Dr. Jack Croxton and Chloe Kowalyk. New episodes come out on a weekly basis where alumni are interviewed about their time at Fredonia, what they’ve done since graduating and what advice they would give to current students! Though they prefer interviews to be conducted on site, alumni can also be interviewed over Zoom if need be. If you are an interested alum, feel free to email them at reflections.of.fredonia@gmail.com.
Take care everyone, and please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I continue in my endeavors!
Samantha Didrichsen, MSED. 