A Writer Writes. And Reads.

Two weeks ago, when I was footloose, fancy-free and not a student, I had plenty of time to kill. Not that I didn’t have goals, mind. In fact, I had just taken up the courageous discipline of rising at five in the morning and sitting down to an hour of writing some weeks before. My first article was on the verge of completion when suddenly the world turned upside down and I became a student again. Even as recently as yesterday, I was telling a colleague that I was still writing every morning. But later the same day, my realization of the utter enormity of this task- just the reading, not even to mention the writing- forced me to change tack. This morning, my morning call was for reading and note-taking. In fact, this is the perfect time for me to work, when my mind is fresh and undistracted.

This morning’s reading (and this afternoon and evening’s reading too) was from Doing Teacher Research by Donald Freeman (published in 1998 by Heinle & Heinle: I can’t find the city, but I’ll annotate it properly as soon as I do.) The format is reader-friendly in that it brings in teachers’ perspectives and questions for the reader alongside the facts, but this interrupts the flow of my reading somewhat. I am acutely aware that my reading techniques are going to need stepping up. Tricky, because at the moment I’m still not sure what needs deep reading and where skimming is enough. I’ve been getting into the habit of deconstructing what I read, just to get a better grip on it, and then taking notes in outline form. When the whole book is done, I’ll make a master mindmap. Only trouble is, how do I do this before my library deadline on Wednesday afternoon? I could renew my book loan, but other students are also waiting for books. Then again, they, too, may renew their loans. Aye me…

For some variation, and also to start getting my research ideas together, I’ve been going over my old journals and tabbing points related to teaching. Still looking for an intersection of the material we are focusing on (contexts and approaches in TESOL), my own interest and what is academically and practically meaningful. But I have found at least thirty meaty references to teaching and students in the four years’ worth of general (not-teaching-focused) journals I have covered. There are another three years’ worth in paper and electronic journals that I haven’t checked yet. Quite surprising that without intending to, I have been collecting data for seven years… maybe I’m not so far behind on this after all.