Working Weekends
Most of the weekend spent coding, reading interviews, applying categories, refining them, cutting and pasting text. The messiness of qualitative research. Given how close I am getting to my deadline it’s crazy I’m still working on coding. The hazards of committing to things without being realistic about how long they really take. The nice thing is I can do it for hours on end from couch, with my husband. A pleasure of my work for sure. I might be working all weekend, and up until 4:30 in the morning, but I’ve got a guy who can work with the computer pretty endlessly too (especially with 3 classes this semester!) and that makes for solidarity and even enjoyment. We’re really looking forward to next year, to this coming summer, to some time off.
I’ve got a week to finish papers, and it’s going to be a full one. The first paper’s in great shape, just a few edits and then signed off. The second one still needs too much work. Like writeups for the findings I’m still finding. But it will all get done because it has to. And really, these kinds of projects can be endless anyhow, especially with the amount of data I have to work with (3 years, multiple teacher, coach, district interviews…). So it’s good to have an interim deadline. Hopefully people like the idea/analysis as much as I do and it will grow into a larger paper that could become a publication. Thinking about that kind of makes the madness of the current moment all worth it. That and other great news this week about the fellowship application I submitted last September (I got it!).