Reflection - Stay the Course

I finally got my website up to house my portfolio. I got feedback from my peer reviewer to correct my professional overview, speak about my accomplishments, and not shy away from them. Tell a story showing how I can transition from the corporate arena to the academia and provide value to the educational field. Once I rewrite my professional overview, I can upload the other components of scholarly writings, publications, and creative works. I believe what will hurt me is not having published articles, but I have several publishable articles. I have attended several conferences, including international ones. I had several ready, but none published. I got my major professor in my second year and changed AGF because my previous AGF and mentor passed away last year. It would help if you published articles by your third year and started working on the first in your second semester or at least inquiring. I hope to have my portfolio defense ready by April 12 and wish to get it scheduled and defended by  April 25 or earlier.

Since I will be done with all my classes this semester, the best thing I can do in the next six months is to finish my dissertation in six months. I must stay prepared, focus on the task, and ask for help when needed. I need to narrow my scope to the details of my research questions and ensure that my literature review meets my research goals. To make the case for the study robust, I need to keep looking for articles related to my research. Then, I need to put together my constructs in a way that makes sense in the context of the reason. Find holes or areas in which more study is required. It will help you set research goals. I need to find extra data sources related to the research topic and goals and ensure they fit within the research goal. Also, I need to look at the data and make a codebook for the attributes or data I will use in the study. Look into the databases, repositories, and archives that hold the info. Learn the data's structure and format to ensure it fits my study's needs. I am breaking my work into manageable chunks to ensure that the literature review fits with how I organize the dissertation.

I'm making a project plan for the following work breakdown structure to ensure I stay on track. I set goals and ensure I keep in touch with my major professor and AGF. The project plan will help me set due dates for all my tasks, such as the introduction,  literature review, methodology,  and other writing chapters. I also need to add time to the project plan to read through, reflect on logic and thinking, and make changes. Considering some tasks ' challenges will ensure I give each process enough time. It may be done by August or September if I work hard after this semester. Having enough time to prepare and analyze the data is very important. At first, working with secondary data can be tricky, but once you fully understand the data and what indicators or constructs you need for your study, you'll be fine. Research analysis is more straightforward when you have an excellent codebook that is easy to follow and makes sense of the data you are working with.

After all the surprising adverse events that have happened to me in the last six months, losing my father, who was also my mentor, and then my sister-in-law was challenging. I had never seen me change so much. Since my family relies on me a lot, I don't think I have time to grieve fully. After taking care of everything for my sister-in-law, I went back and did everything for my dad's funeral. I remember working on an assignment in the other course to keep up and then working on the obituary or funeral program. It's been challenging to catch up and turn in work for both classes on time. I usually turn in my assignments on time, which is out of the norm for me. I'm almost there catching up, but the Lord makes me strong when weak!