Winter Break!

I've officially been on break for about two weeks now (aka, since my last paper was turned in) and so far it's been quite nice. The first week of break was busy with many holiday parties to go to with fellow grad school friends. This second week has been much slower with Christmas and all. Since your lovely blogger does not celebrate Christmas, that meant an evening of Chinese food and the new Sherlock Holmes movie (which I thought was really good!).

The semester brought me one A- and two As, giving me a GPA of 3.90 and a cumulative GPA of 3.74, which is a nice jump from my previous 3.67 GPA. Anything I can do to make myself more competitive for next year's applications is gravy!

Some more news. I was selected to present at the Texas A&M Graduate Conference in March! I will be presenting a paper I wrote as an undergraduate, which was about music and underground radio during Apartheid South Africa. It's a bit of a departure from what I actually study (Colonial America, to say the least), but it's a paper I was proud of and I figure it can't hurt to showcase whatever diverse interests I have. In two weeks I will be presenting at the Phi Alpha Theta Biennial Convention, in which I'll be discussing a paper on music and slave identity in the Antebellum South. This is much closer to what I actually focus on. Again, diversity!

As for next semester, it looks like I'll be TAing again as a replacement for my friend. Due to health issues, she can no longer TA so I am stepping up to fill her shoes. I love TAing, so I am looking forward to it. It will be for the same professor as I TAed for this semester and I know it will be a good Spring 2010 because we got on really well this fall and he said he'd have me TA again for him in a heartbeat. Good times!

The spring will also have me working on campus for about 20 hours a week, which will be great so I can save money for a trip I want to take after I graduate next December. Two research seminars, TAing, and part-time work will undoubtedly equal a great load of work that will be an immense challenge to undertake, but I will grit my teeth and plunge ahead because I can do it!

Just a quick note...

It is a truth universally acknowledged that papers will not write themselves.

It's Been Too Long!

I haven't updated in quite a while, apparently. Here's my news!

Here is a list of what I have to do by December 10:

1. Finish my paper for Southern history - finished as of tonight!
2. Write my paper for Atlantic history: 15-20 pp.
3. Prepare a precis for Southern History for discussion and do 1-page summary.
4. Grade final exams.

Not too bad, but it will keep me busy. Luckily I've got a thesis ready to go for my Atlantic history class (hopefully) so all I have to do is pull quotes. Professor liked my thesis and told me to "run with it!"

Next semester will be busy, which is always good:

1. World History research seminar
2. Early America/Atlantic World research seminar
3. Directed Study (this may change - we'll see)
4. French II to make my transcripts look good
5. An English class on Shakespeare just because (we'll see about that one)

Next semester will be busy but exciting!

Other news:

1. My first conference is in January down in San Diego and I'm scheduled to present on January 7. My topic is slave identity through music.

2. I'm going to New York for a few days right after the conference! I am going to check out Columbia while I am there as a Ph.D. application prospect.

All in all, a successful semester! I have been heavily involved in our new Associate Grad Students of History as the secretary and have made great new friends because of it. I getting a lot out of my program and the professors continue to be awesome and supportive. Once again, I still have not felt too many effects of the budget cuts that my State School is suffering from, but today was a furlough day which meant that I got to take over and run a final exam review session. I love doing that sort of thing as a TA. It makes me feel like a teacher. I hope to TA again before I graduate, but since I only have two semesters left, we'll see.

By the way, I have been faced with a choice to make. I will graduate in December 2010 and since there's no ceremony mid-year, I have a choice to walk May of 2010 or May of 2011. All of my friends are walking this coming May, which makes me inclined to do that. At that point I will be done with all coursework, but I will still have a thesis to complete. What's the point of "graduating" before I am done? But then again, why would I want to sit through a ceremony 5 months after I finish?

Opinions?

First Lecture Post

Earlier this week I gave my first ever lecture to the class I TA for: Early America and the Atlantic World. The day's topic was tobacco and the Chesapeake economy, which I specifically chose for few reasons:

1. I've always enjoyed the history of Jamestown.

2. It made me think of the movie, The New World (2005), which is one of my favorites.

3. To me, the Chesapeake has always been iconic when discussing the origins of the 13 colonies.

As I'm sure many TAs are, I was a bit over-ambitious with my lecture. I packed in TONS of information because I was afraid of ending too early. I discussed:

The Chesapeake settlement, both tobacco booms, tobacco production and population growth, origins of slavery, tobacco uses, and popular culture.*

Overall, my lecture went very well. I made an accompanying powerpoint presentation and one thing I did that the students liked was instead of showing a portrait of John Rolfe, I showed a picture of Christian Bale portraying John Rolfe from The New World. My line of logic: people tend to forget portraits, but they will always remember Christian Bale!

VIRGINIA'S HERO!

My professor shook my hand and said I did an excellent job and then he emailed me again later to tell me that I did very well and that he was proud of me. This always feels so good to hear. It's really the best source of validation.

I asked the students to give me an evaluation and the general consensus was that they liked my powerpoint and the discussion on popular culture, but I spoke too quickly and that made it hard to take notes. I expected that to be my criticism as I have a tendency to be a fast talker, especially when I get slightly nervous. But I know with practice I will get better at that.

All in all, very successful for a first lecture!

Daily Advice:

Don't overprepare, less is more, always remember discussion questions, and SLOW DOWN.

*The tobacco uses and popular culture bits were my own personal touch to the subject. The professor is an economic historian so I had to model his lectures. However, since I am a cultural historian, I wanted to make the lecture distinctly my own.

News/Illness coping/Review sessions

It's been longer than I thought since my last update. Oops! Sadly, I have just been busy.

So here's some grad school bragging for you: I'm going to be presenting at the Phi Alpha Theta Biennial conference this January down in San Diego. I'm not going to go into any real detail on what my paper topic is but to be vague, it's on antebellum slavery. I'm pretty excited as this will be my first conference. It will be great experience and networking...not to mention it will pad my C.V./Ph.D. applications nicely.

I have been sick the past week. Nothing major - it's just a cold. It's a pain getting sick at all during the semester because I prefer not to miss any school, especially since one of my classes requires a 3-page analysis for a missed class. That's not something I want to do when I'm sick. So I just bucked up and went to class on Wednesday night. I didn't participate as much as I usually do, but I performed well enough. To paraphrase Woody Allen, 80% of success is just showing up.

Thursday was a furlough day for the class I T.A. for. I offered up my services to run a study/review session since the midterm is tomorrow and considering some of the quizzes lately, the students kind of needed it. My throat was sore and my head ached something awful but I made a commitment, dammit! Overall, I think it went well enough. What's nice about a 400-level course is that I don't have to hold hands nearly as much as I did for the 100-level that I T.A.ed last semester. I outlined on the board while the students did most of the work. My role was merely to guide. When I run review sessions I make it very clear that my role is help, not to repeat lectures because that is simply a waste of time.

So in lieu of going into too much boring detail, here's a break down of how to run a good review session:

1. Show up on time.

2. Make it clear right away that you are not repeating lectures.

2a. Ask if anything from the lecture notes need to be cleared up or further explained. There is a difference.

3. Go over only the pertinent information since time is limited.

4. Admit if you can't answer something. That's what the professor's email is for.

Daily Advice:

Use Purell, drink Emergen-C. If you get sick anyways, take a cold pill, buck up, and shut up.*

*I stole that from the movie Zombieland. It's awesome. Go see it.

Traveling + School

Sometimes in grad school, we decide it might be a good idea to take some time off, go out of town, and have a good time.* Then the weekend ends and the inevitable stress and denial come crashing down: you have two books to read and a critique to write.

Okay, not you, me.

Did I bring my books with me? Of course I did. Did I have every intention of getting a slough of homework done in the evenings over the weekend? You bet I did. Did that actually happen? Hell no.

Going out of town in grad school is like a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you get some much-needed time off and destressification. (I made up that word. Awesome, no?) On the other, there's a great possibly that you won't get anything done. Well, at least I didn't.

Lesson learned! I spent all last night skimming (or "gutting" as I heard a cohort say), all of today skimming, and writing a critique. For those of you who haven't heard the term "gutting," it basically means that you just read the first sentence of every paragraph and move on. This helps you fly through books while still g

etting the gist of the main idea. It's a last resort tactic and I do not condone it, but sometimes it just has to happen.

I will not be going out of town for any more weekends during the semester. However, there will be a Disneyland day next month. But the best part about a one-day deal is that it's really easy to account for.

Daily Advice: Be diligent if you travel or else it will bite you in the ass.

*I went up north over the weekend to the Northern California Renaissance Faire. It was awesome, ridiculously hot, and oh-so worth it.

Throwing knives!

My first visual!

I meant to post this a long time ago. Here's a visual of the reading I have to do this semester. This is actually my DVD-shelf (courtesy of my step-sister) but below my actual DVDs you can a tiny selection of my books. The entire top row (books) is completely dedicated to my academic endeavors this semester. 34 books total.

A Thesis: This requires a lot of bolding.

Tonight at a school function for a lovely program that I am proud to be a part of, I found myself amidst a very brief but fiery "discussion" about writing history.

The opposing argument was that history gets too philosophical and should not need a thesis since the subject is just a synthesis of facts.

My dear readers, I wholeheartedly disagree, especially since this is not the first time I have heard this argument. When I was an undergrad, a classmate of mine got into an argument with one of my professors, Dr. K. She was planning to write a research paper about Mary Tudor (Henry VIII's daughter, not his sister for those of you who know Tudor lineage) and she said she did not need a thesis because she was going to research the "facts" and just write about "facts."

Friends, there are no facts when it comes to history. None! History is a synthesis of ideas and interpretations that historians have pieced together over the years based on collected documents from the past. (This is my own definition; feel free to disagree.) Since we cannot know for sure which documents ended up being doctored, skewed, copied, mistranslated, etc., all we can do is compile the pieces together and create our own educated guess about what happened during the event/era/place we've decided to research on. This is called The Thesis. Without your Thesis, you are simply making a list of things that may or may not have happened.

History is not done by historians alone. We rely on our brethren: the archaeologists, anthropologists, sociologists, economists, and geographers. For the sake of postmodernism, without these fine people history as we know it could not exist!

At the very least, it's basic middle-school English: When writing a proper essay (in any subject!) you must have a thesis and you must be able to defend it. This is especially true for all historians and those who aspire to be them.

Daily advice:

Do not forget your thesis, topic sentence, and/or proper grammar or else the results will be disastrous.

A(n) (Unorthodox?) Debate

To handwrite your notes or type your notes? That is the question.

As an undergraduate, I handwrote all of my notes for every single class I ever took. I remembered things better, I was able to jot down extra notes in the margins, draw arrows where needed to make things more organized, and list things properly. (Not to mention, it's quite nice to just doodle when the lecture gets boring.)

Now that I am well into my second year of graduate school, I have come to realize that handwriting my notes has become not only a bit of a waste of time, but also a waste of paper. For one thing, my classes consist of discussion, not lecture.* As a result, I have my notebook out, but I rarely write anything down at all. We're discussing the book, not taking notes so we have things to memorize for the midterms and finals that we do not take.

Another factor against handwriting my notes is my paper organization. My Atlantic History professor, Dr. M, suggested to me to gather notes pertaining to my paper topic from each book we read into a word document so I can easily access them later in the semester when the time comes to get writing. He said this is the easiest way to do it and so far, I'm pretty sold on this method.

This leads me to my next question: Are pen and paper dead or dying? I find that question to be somewhat discomforting and I'm afraid that the answer will frighten me. It's scary enough that the Amazon Kindle could very well replace books at some point in the near future. Should I contribute to the death of pen and paper and jump onto the technology bandwagon? Should I just say "Screw technology!" and continue with notebooks as always? Or should I start typing things and think of it as a noble effort to save trees and stop wasting all the untouched paper in my notebook? Please tell me your thoughts!

* Except for the classes I TA. Those are lecture-based courses so I take notes like an undergrad.

A Good Day

Friends, today I feel accomplished. In grad school, that is one of the best feelings you can have. Why do I feel accomplished? It's simple things really, but here are the top three reasons. (Okay, the only three reasons.)

3. I have picked and arranged the day I will give a lecture for the lovely class I TA.

2. I have picked my final paper topic for my Atlantic History course. A tricky but doable topic.

And....

.....

Are you ready?

........

1. I bit the bullet, presented my thesis topic idea to my advisor, and he likes it! And he enthusiastic about it!

This is probably the biggest weight off of my shoulders. I have been stressing over the topic for months and I was unsure if it would be considered doable. But my fears were laid to rest!

Now for a small list of things to do relating to my thesis:

1. Have Graduate Coordinator sign off on my Classified Status.*

2. Organize a thesis committee.

3. Turn in thesis proposal.

*I came into the program as an "Unclassified Student" because my undergraduate education was done at a private university where I did not have to take the

state-approved writing exam. My lovely State University said I had to take the Undergraduate Upper Division Writing Exam because it's required of all state

students, even if they're graduate students. In spring 2008 I gritted my teeth, took the exam, and got a perfect score. Boo-yah! Now that I have over 12 units

completed, I can finally get my status signed off on.

Daily Advice:

Take risks and go with your gut. Any topic is doable. You just need to find your voice.

Ideas and Inspiration

Today was the first official class discussion in Atlantic History, which made for some marvelous times...as marvelous as a seminar can be, at least.

Let me recap you:

Thanks to ye glorious budget cuts, there are less graduate classes available and since Dr. A got a lovely research grant he cancelled his world history class. The result: those grad students needing a world history credit are overflowing the Atlantic History class. Cap is over by two! This means that it is harder to contribute to the discussion as there are more people to compete with. Ugh.

As someone who has always been a tad bit on the shy side of class participation, I was rather put out at times when I would have my hand raised multiple times to say something and not get called on. That sounds so elementary, I know. Why didn't I just call out and say it? Because Dr. M expects a certain level of decorum and wants us to act like the grown-ups we are.

There was one comment that I was desperate to rebuttal and never got the chance! One student, N, said something along the lines of this: You cannot look at Boston in Colonial America without treating it like European history because it's ONLY European history because it's inhabitants were all from Europe. Readers, I disagree! While, yes, inhabitants of Colonial Boston were either early generation Colonists or directly from Europe, I believe that once they crossed the Atlantic, entered, and formed communities in the "New World," they created new collective identities and therefor you cannot treat Colonial Boston (or America) as European history.

Well, since I never got to say it in class, I have been inspired to make this my class paper topic. Changing identities in the Atlantic World!

Daily Advice:

If you have a grand idea in class that you do not articulate for whatever reason, keep it in mind because it can turn into a nifty paper topic for your advantage.

Week 1: Accomplished!

Now that I have finished my first week of the semester, I can accurately assess how things will be.

My TA-ship will be a bit busy, but not too bad. It has a lot more reading that I must keep up with than Western Civ (the class I TAed last semester), but much of the reading cross-lists with my Atlantic history course so not all is lost. I will get more out of it. Every Thursday Dr. M gives a weekly quiz, which I will grade in his office after class each week. The first set only took me about 20 minutes. Best news of all, I still get to give a lecture despite the furlough days. I was thinking that Dr. M might not want to give up a day to teach when he might have to give up a few, but nope! Any topic I want is mine, mine, mine.

Overall, my classes should be lively. Southern History only meets periodically while Atlantic History meets weekly. Lots of reading is involved, but that's the lot of a graduate student.

On another side....

THE THESISTHESISTHESISTHESISTHESIS

It forever haunts me! While I was grading quizzes in Dr. M's office a fellow student of mine came in to discuss her academic plan with him. Although we're both set to graduate and apply to Ph.D. programs at the same time, she seems so much more together than I. She knows her paper topic for the class and her exact thesis topic. While I pretty much know my paper topic, I have yet to bring a thesis topic to fruition. Where's my muse?! Inspiration, hath thou forsaken me?

The only topic I have come up with in detail is to explore why pirates were glorified throughout the Atlantic World. Now how they were glorified, but why. I need to run that by Dr. M. I think that could be feasible. My other interests are gender and medicine so I am contemplating something along the lines of midwifery. My obstacle is coming up with an actual topic through that, so we'll see. It can get rather disheartening at times.

Daily Advice

Concerning theses? I have none. So all I have to say is DO YOUR READING!

First Day Post!

My apologies for not posting in the last week, dear readers. I have had many things going on and plus it was still summer break so there was not much graduate school stuff to post about.

However! Today is the first day of classes for me so I can happily announce that my postings shall become more regular. Also, at the bottom of my postings will be some daily graduate student/school advice.

My schedule at my lovely budget-deprived State University:
Tuesday/Thursdays: Early America and the Atlantic World (I'm a TA)
Tuesday: Colloquium of the US South
Wednesday: Atlantic History

As I obviously pointed out, I am indeed a TA for an upper-division course this semester. In my experience, TA's are kind of a non-entity. We exist in the classroom, keep up on the reading, grade all assignments, and give a lecture if we are lucky enough to do so. It looks great on the C.V./resume/Ph.D. applications. I am hoping to give a lecture, but now I'm not sure because of the budget crisis.

Budget crisis? It's everywhere! The worst part of it at my lovely State University are the furlough days where all services and (some) classes are closed to save money. No one is happy and it's all a huge mess. Less classes, less professors, same amount of students. I, myself, remain unaffected as none of my classes were cancelled but many students are not in such a lucky boat as I. It truly is a pity and the state should be more than appropriately ashamed of itself.

Daily Advice:
Thank your lucky stars that you're a grad student and therefore may have some seniority/importance protection against cancelled classes.

Note: I originally put the times of my classes, but as Mitch pointed out in the comments, it probably wasn't a good idea so I have removed that information.

It's Never a Waste

Tonight's blog entry is geared towards the general student population rather than just graduate students. Some of you might even think this is a waste of an entry to plan, type, and read but that's why this is my blog - not yours.

Sometimes in school, you want to get ahead of the game. For social science/humanities grad students, this usually entails getting a jump start on the reading. I was a good girl. I had my Atlantic History syllabus as early as the end of last semester and was emailed my Southern History book list at the beginning of July. Being the good girl (as I just stated) I am, I ordered all my books over a month ago. However, I found out today that my AH syllabus was updated, which meant that I own one book I do not need and have to order a book that I do not have.

I could have been annoyed. I could have felt like I had wasted a bit of money. But I did not. On the contrary, actually. Why???

Student of all levels, take heart! There is no such thing as a waste of money when you buy the wrong book in your subject, for it may prove to help you eventually.* It never hurts to have one extra book lying around. It might even hold the key to your undecided thesis topic.

*This statement is, of course, null and void if you are studying something that requires a massive "for reals" textbook. When you accidentally buy the wrong edition of a book that costs nearly a hundred dollars, that always hurts no matter how hard you try to justify it. As a former biology major, I know this particular brand of pain,

Some Introspection...

I got an email from one of my professors this afternoon that started out: "I hope you've had a productive and enjoyable summer..."

Well, my summer certainly has been enjoyable but can I honestly say it's been productive? No...

No, I cannot say that my summer has been productive unless you count one single day of research and daily ponderings of a thesis topic that have yet come to fruition. My only excuse is that I am just a lowly MA student rather than a grand Ph.D. student. Okay, I admit it - that's a shitty excuse.

I imagine that Ph.D. students spend their summers being immensely productive. I cannot speak for my fellow MA students, but I know that once I have a thesis topic rolling I will not feel the slight twinge of guilt when I get the inevitable end-of-summer email from a professor that includes the phrase "productive summer."

Unless of course she simply meant "doing stuff" in a noncommittal tone....

A Graduatory Introduction

Is "graduatory" even a word? Well, it is now because that's the first rule of graduate school: improvise.

This blog of mine is brand new and my intention is to appraise, cheerlead, and (eventually) complain about my graduate school experience. All the while I shall impart my endless amounts of bountiful experience and wisdom that I have gained over the past three (US) semesters as a Master's student:

1. How to read (or skim) hundreds and hundreds of pages of academic text in 5 days.

-I say 5 days because unless you're exceptionally diligent little-to-no reading will done the day of class. However, this statement is null and void if you

are desperately behind and were foolish enough to save the reading for the night before and the day of. Don't lie - we've all done it.

2. How to make ample time for independent research needed for those long end-of-semester papers that we all look forward to and dread at the same time while reading two books a week.

3. How to make ample time for the extra-curricular activities needed to pad the C.V./resume to prove our accomplishments for job searches and Ph.D. applications while reading at least two books a week.

4. How to make ample time for socialization while reading at least two books a week.

This list will undoubtedly grow as the semester wears on. I hope my posts can be relatable and advisable to you other graduate students, but I must state right away that since my focus is history my posts may be geared more towards the humanities/social science folk.

Classes start in 10 days. Until then, it's time for preparation.

More to come!