Friday, May 14, 2010

'Tis the Summer o' Productivity

As the semester is officially coming to a close, I have shifted my thinking this week to how I will organize my summer time to get some specific goals accomplished. I feel really good about being able to accomplish quite a bit this summer. Thinking back to last summer, I spent a lot of time to prep for the conference presentations I did in 2009/2010. This was necessary, but it seemed as if that was the only thing I really was able to focus on and accomplish. Also, as I remember it, I was very tired going into last summer. It was the end of my first full academic teaching year and I taught two new courses for the first time. So I am not sure I was extremely productive in the summer as I was so tired from the year. However, this year, while still VERY busy, felt more manageable as I was in a better routine. Consequently, I do feel more energetic going into this summer than I did last year.

My publication activities is definitely the area where I am lagging behind in the most compared to other areas. There are some specific projects I intend to complete this summer. So what better way to help myself stay on track than to publicly declare what it is I plan to do! Per the academic structure, I have divided my planned activities into three categories:

Teaching

- Technically, I am teaching two courses this Summer but the courses involve supervising and mentoring studetns as opposed to a set class schedule.
- For the student's community project course, I will need to follow up as needed with the students, particularly for the ones that I do not hear from regulalry. Especially as it nears time for them to finalize their proposals. All of the students seem to be on target at this point, and I will look forward to hearing their final project proposals in July.
- Since this is the first time we are offering the international service learning course to Belize, there is a lot of prep work that still needs to be done. But I am really excited about this course. We had such a great experience visiting Belize last summer to plan the course, I can only imagine how great it will be with the students!
- Plan for Fall 2010. There are some additional changes I want to make in the OT process course. I would like to use Camtasia to create audio files for the student to use for class prep. The feedbackfrom them this Spring on the audio modules was very postitive, so I do think it is a good way to move some of the foundational material out of class time and to use the class time for more applied activities.

Service

- I am on the board of two state associations so service activities will revolve mostly around these.
-For TSAHP, I will need to collect the incoming student scholarship applications and organize them for the selection committee.
-For TOTA, I will need to prepare the review of the supervision guidelines according to TBOTE prior to our Fall board meeting.

Research

- I have four projects in the works right now of various sizes and at various stages. This is probably one project too many to have occurring simultaneously, but I applied for several things last year that mostly materialized so it will work out with some planning.
-Project #1 is a relatively large, ongoing data analysis project. I have had quite a few barriers with this project, but it will get there eventually. I do have a presentation in June to the funding agency for this project, so I will need to present some preliminary findings as well as my revised timeline.
- Project #2 is a project with a colleague. We have presented initial findings from the data, but need to do some additional analysis. I anticipate we will be able to complete one publication this summer based on the data analysis, with probably two more publications to follow.
- Project #3 is a smaller, ongoing project. I need to complete some resources - perhaps a wiki- surrounding this project and one publication.
- Project #4 is actually related to Project #3. It is still in progress and will require some concentrated effort this summer. I plan to create a project wiki, plan for a symposium, and should be ready to develop at least one publication later in the Fall on the project.
-Finally, I have another article that I would like to get done this summer that is essentially a concept paper. I have been stuck on the lit review but with some focused effort, should be able to complete something.

So, I think the Summer Activity List looks like this:
1. Prep content changes for OT Process course.
2. Mentor students on Community Projects.
3. Prep activities for Belize course in August.
4. Complete scholarship review process for TSAHP.
5. Prepare review of supervision guidelines for TOTA.
6. Continue data analysis on Project #1.
7. Present preliminary data on Project #1.
8. Complete data analysis for Project #2.
9. Write first article (with colleague) for Project #2.
10. Complete Project #3 wiki.
11. Write article for Project #3.
12. Continue work on Project #4.
13. Complete Project #4 wiki.
14. Prepare Project #4 materials for Fall symposium.
15. Write concept paper.
16. Last but not least...keeping up with this blog!!!!!

We will see how I did in the Summer o' Productivity come August!






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