Reflections of the first year doctoral student

One year has passed since I started the doctoral journey and a new job as an Assistant Principal. Much of what I planned to do never happened (both at work as well at school) as I was busy surviving the challenges thrown at me from both directions. Looking back, I wish I had taken more time to reflect. Perhaps, hoping that my thoughts would be useful for someone with a similar journey.

Here are my biggest takeaways:

1. First Year Doctoral Students - you should NEVER start a new job at the same time when you are starting your studies. You need stability for both your own sanity as well as for the professional context that is much needed in a professional practice doctoral degree. Lacking either one of them will be a challenge that will result in frequent headaches and a lot of extra work. Also, you must develop a system for everything that you do. Most of all, this applies to categorizing the materials that you read. Readings in a graduate program are different in several ways: first, the volume of reading is overwhelming (and the information is not always easy to retain), and second, the references to the readings will keep on resurfacing over and over. In other words, you are better off creating a system that allows you to easily find the information that you read. I tried RefWorks and Mendeley and settled for the latter. After searching articles, I upload them to Mendeley on my desktop, and immediately sync the account so that these articles would be available on my iPad. Sounds like I had a great system. Wrong! Just a heads up - as a doctoral student you will need to be able to synthesize and find information from past readings based on the authors (easily found in Mendeley), core concepts (also easily searchable), research design and methods (not easily searchable), further research suggestions (good luck with that!), etc. To make it more explicit - here is the list of categories that I have had to search for: journal name, search terms that I used to find the article, type of methods that were used for conducting the research, underlying theories, environment and area of application (K-12, higher ed, professional, etc.) to name a few. Organization is a key component for your success, and lack of organization can very well be the end of it all. Finally, while it seems like there is so much to read every day, the reality is that it is still not enough. A good suggestion from one of my professors, Dr. Antonenko, at the end of year 1 was to read one (additional) article every day just to stay current with the literature in the field. I wish that I had done that... I am starting my second year, feeling a bit behind but nevertheless, feeling confident about where I am heading.

2. My first year as an Assistant Principal flew by before I knew what had happened. The biggest challenge was the time management. Once you become a school administrator, you can count on being the first one there, and often the last one to to leave. That is a really tough combination if you have other responsibilities like most of us do. Your children will become very familiar with the school as they will do chores for you before and after school because there is no-one else there. In addition to managing the learning environment, you are now in charge of the facilities, air conditioning, water and plumbing, pest control, storage, lawn maintenance, playground inspection, discipline, testing, technology and labs, equipment, inventory, special events, employees - and oh so much more. It can be quite overwhelming. The payoff comes when you realize that you are rehired, and that you have a clear plan for what you are going to do the next year!

3. If you have a second job, please quit it as soon as possible! Being a doctoral student with a new job as well as trying to teach night classes at the college is not going to work. Remember, you will also need some time for your family! When you children start talking about research methods, it is time for a break.

If you survive the first year, you are half way there. Persistence and dedication will pay off. Just remember, there must be a system to the madness or all will fail.