I've had a great comment over on my other blog, Balanced Voice, that I would love to open up to a discussion in the comments. If anyone has the time or inclination to give their two cents, I think it's an interesting topic that needs more exploration in the pedagogical world.
Check it out: Technique vs. expression
New Voice, New Career
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Another semester, another workload
I'm getting pretty burnt out of school right now. I'm tired of taking classes, studying for exams, and having homework of any kind (even if it's just reading articles). I suppose this is reasonable for someone in their second year of their PhD program of a new round of degrees after a career change, but I'm just tired. The fall semester is about to begin and I'm dreading the work load that comes with it.
That said, I'm very happy that I decided to continue for the PhD in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. I'm really enjoying getting to dig really deep into the research literature, learning how to design scientific studies (there's a lot of planning to do!), and getting to guest-lecture in courses. The mentoring I'm getting from the faculty at my university is really amazing! I'm at one of the top schools for SLP for my PhD. I say that not to brag, but because I want to say learning how to think critically from some of the best researchers in the field is incredibly exciting! It's also cool to see these top researchers day-in and day-out and then to see other people at other schools get all "fan girl" or "fan boy" over these people I get to work with everyday. Maybe this is what it feels like to be a young artist at the Met!
I'm also doing my clinical fellowship on a part-time basis in voice, with some other clients with things like traumatic brain injury and Parkinson disease to round out my hours. In the US, everyone who wants to be an SLP has to do a clinical fellowship after they finish the clinical master's degree. The governing body for SLP, ASHA, dictates a certain number of hours for the CF, so mine should be completed in two years (hopefully) at my current part-time hourly rate. Usually, this clinical fellowship is called the "CFY" for "clinical fellowship year," since it's usually completed after 9 months of full-time clinical work (so that those SLPs who work in the school districts still complete it after their first year of work). But, since mine is part time and will take me a little longer than a year to complete, I'm calling it my "CF"--minus the "year" part.
This semester, I will be completing my PhD minor in neuroscience (which involved taking all the first-year PhD required courses for neuroscience at my university) by taking a biological computer modeling course. For this, I need to brush up on my calculus. This is the course that I'm worried might be a heavy course load. (Last year, I took a cellular and molecular neuroscience course and a systems neuroscience course for my minor. The cellular one was not quite up my alley--good to know, but not the most exciting material for me--but the systems one was fantastic! Exactly what I wanted from my minor! And the cellular course made a good foundation for the systems one, so I'm glad I took both.) I'm also taking a grant writing class where we'll compose a draft for a grant called an F31. This is the research-dissertation (for PhD students) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US. It's a very competitive grant, but my department has a very good record of their students being awarded F31s...possibly due to this really good class I'll be taking. I'm excited about this class because I have a cool project to write on and being forced to plan every aspect of your study, including possible limitations to completing your study, from the very beginning is a BIG skill that all good researchers need. And it's daunting at first! But I'll have good guidance from the professor for this course, so that will be great.
And last but not least, I finally found a good voice teacher where I live, so I'm back taking lessons (sporadically at the moment--once a month or so) and practicing regularly on campus. I'm hoping to get up a program for a recital in town just for fun, but I'm not putting any pressure on myself to make that recital happen anytime soon. I'd rather get my coursework mostly done before I schedule something like that. But it really feels good to be singing regularly again!
And I must say I'm loving the "singing as a hobby" compared to professional work right now. There's something satisfying about not worrying about catching a cold or if I had a little reflux the night before. I can just take a break from singing that day. No big deal! --I guess I kinda feel like just a regular person in that way.
Anyway, if I don't blog as regularly during semesters, blame the calculus! jk. But seriously, I'll try to stay on it a little more now.
That said, I'm very happy that I decided to continue for the PhD in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. I'm really enjoying getting to dig really deep into the research literature, learning how to design scientific studies (there's a lot of planning to do!), and getting to guest-lecture in courses. The mentoring I'm getting from the faculty at my university is really amazing! I'm at one of the top schools for SLP for my PhD. I say that not to brag, but because I want to say learning how to think critically from some of the best researchers in the field is incredibly exciting! It's also cool to see these top researchers day-in and day-out and then to see other people at other schools get all "fan girl" or "fan boy" over these people I get to work with everyday. Maybe this is what it feels like to be a young artist at the Met!
I'm also doing my clinical fellowship on a part-time basis in voice, with some other clients with things like traumatic brain injury and Parkinson disease to round out my hours. In the US, everyone who wants to be an SLP has to do a clinical fellowship after they finish the clinical master's degree. The governing body for SLP, ASHA, dictates a certain number of hours for the CF, so mine should be completed in two years (hopefully) at my current part-time hourly rate. Usually, this clinical fellowship is called the "CFY" for "clinical fellowship year," since it's usually completed after 9 months of full-time clinical work (so that those SLPs who work in the school districts still complete it after their first year of work). But, since mine is part time and will take me a little longer than a year to complete, I'm calling it my "CF"--minus the "year" part.
This semester, I will be completing my PhD minor in neuroscience (which involved taking all the first-year PhD required courses for neuroscience at my university) by taking a biological computer modeling course. For this, I need to brush up on my calculus. This is the course that I'm worried might be a heavy course load. (Last year, I took a cellular and molecular neuroscience course and a systems neuroscience course for my minor. The cellular one was not quite up my alley--good to know, but not the most exciting material for me--but the systems one was fantastic! Exactly what I wanted from my minor! And the cellular course made a good foundation for the systems one, so I'm glad I took both.) I'm also taking a grant writing class where we'll compose a draft for a grant called an F31. This is the research-dissertation (for PhD students) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US. It's a very competitive grant, but my department has a very good record of their students being awarded F31s...possibly due to this really good class I'll be taking. I'm excited about this class because I have a cool project to write on and being forced to plan every aspect of your study, including possible limitations to completing your study, from the very beginning is a BIG skill that all good researchers need. And it's daunting at first! But I'll have good guidance from the professor for this course, so that will be great.
And last but not least, I finally found a good voice teacher where I live, so I'm back taking lessons (sporadically at the moment--once a month or so) and practicing regularly on campus. I'm hoping to get up a program for a recital in town just for fun, but I'm not putting any pressure on myself to make that recital happen anytime soon. I'd rather get my coursework mostly done before I schedule something like that. But it really feels good to be singing regularly again!
And I must say I'm loving the "singing as a hobby" compared to professional work right now. There's something satisfying about not worrying about catching a cold or if I had a little reflux the night before. I can just take a break from singing that day. No big deal! --I guess I kinda feel like just a regular person in that way.
Anyway, if I don't blog as regularly during semesters, blame the calculus! jk. But seriously, I'll try to stay on it a little more now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)