My week 11 of 2019
A week I work the hardest this year (I think). Although the week started out beautiful with a rainbow when I was on the road to work. Can you see it?
The weekend is almost gone and I am still tired. What happened last week?
As I was surfing the internet I came across a social account of a Ph. D. student. She said that If she knew this before, she would have done it from the start of her road to Ph. D. It is something my medical doctor told me also I should be doing for my health. Do you have an idea what it is? It is to exercise/train at least 4 times a week for at least 1 hour each time.
I trained 4 times this week, but not yet an hour each. 2x I did fitness in combination with Commando Krav Maga and 2x table tennis. The coming week there will be a table tennis tournament for 50+. My first time in this category. But do not think that this is an easy group. There are a lot of players in this group that still play at the highest level and they have a lot of experience.
Experience is also something that comes handy when you teach and when you venture into the academic world.
This week I visited two 4th-year students for their performance assessment. Always again I realize that this is a good way to see what the curriculum of the teacher training is missing. Right now that is class management. I hope there will come a day that I can say, I am seeing what we are teaching.
I like the visits because I then have a chance to visit real schools and see how things are in real life. I visited Joan Maurits College and St. Paulus College this week.
On Wednesday the research center of the University of Curacao organized one of his meetings to inspire, inform all the Ph. D. candidates of our university. It started with information from Dr. Margo Groenewoud. She talked about how to be in the social media of academics. Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin are popular social media platforms, but Academia and Researchgate are not that known to the public. I already knew about them because when I published the article of Dr. Groenewoud and reading some other things she had written I had to use these platforms. I already now have an account from Academia (http://uoc-cw.academia.edu/MaryAnnMacLeod). I made one at ResearchGate too, but the made me a recruiter. Why?? I have to sort things out with their support team.
Marco La Cruz and Melissa Koeiman talked about their research. Marco is more at the beginning. His theme is about corruption in the public sector in the Dutch Caribbean and Surinam. 
Melissa is preparing for her first paper. Part of her research looks a lot like what I will be doing. The big difference will be that my research will be focussed on math and not on reading. Her study is on the development of bilingualism, literacy and school success on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. She looks at how the personal variation of the child in ‘reading to learn’ develops from grade 4 to grade 6 as the result of the instruction-order (Papiamentu to Dutch or Dutch to Papiamentu). She also looks at how the student,-family- and school characteristics influence the reading development of the child.
I asked her about the Ethics Commission. It is a necessary thing. If you do not do this your research will not be considered of a high standard. You submit the petition digitally. There will be questions for you to answer later. This can happen a few times.
After that day I realized that a lot of work has to be done before you can make a proposal. Then I am back at my question from a few weeks ago. Where do I get the time? I know I have to get the time and not wait for someone to hand me time.
