ASHE Paper Presentation

I love ASHE...the Association for the Study of higher education.  It's an organization that is geared toward... well, the study of higher education.  :)  I went to my first conference last year and LOVED it.  I walked away with notes on things to read about and think about.  I was thoroughly looking forward to this years conference...with some anticipation and some nervousness as I was presenting a paper I wrote about faculty-student interactions.

So in November, I presented in my first paper presentation.  Now, I've presented at many conferences over the last 9 years in higher education, but never a paper presentation.  These presentations are a bit different than other conference presentations.  It goes like this...

Roughly three people/presenters send a paper of original research to a discussant (someone who is generally an expert in the topic) weeks in advance
On the day of the presentation, the three people get 10 minutes each to discuss their research
The discussant then gets 15 minutes to give feedback, publicly, on each of the papers

Although I was a nervous wreck, it was a good feeling to get the first one out of the way!  Moreover, I received some good feedback on my paper.

Glad it's over...but already looking forward to ASHE next year.

New Toy

I got a new (to me) iPad!  I've been looking longingly at them for months and months, about 24 months to be exact.  Now, the wait is over.

With the new iPad 3, the iPad 2s were a much more reasonable price.  Moreover, I decided to go for a refurbished one, which meant an extra 20% off the reduced rate.  Anyway, after becoming a candidate and after stalking the apple website for a little over a month, I purchased my new toy.

I'm excited about it and have enjoyed playing with the new toy!  Woohoo, what a fun gift for candidacy!