So, I’ve been trying to get my degree plan set up and approved since it is the first of three hoops that I have to jump through to prepare for being a full-fledged “Doctoral Candidate.” I say three, but if you count completing coursework, then there are four.

So yesterday I sat down with the prof that has, essentially, gotten me where I am today. Well, in addition to verbally approving my degree plan (with a few minor changes) we got to have a nice chat about my dissertation topic. Unfortunately, at this point, it’s rather broad. “I want to do something with First Year Composition and New Media” is not exactly a focused topic. But he’s all over the idea to the extent that he’s agreed (verbally) to be on my committee and made some recommendations for other committee members. Now, we think along the same lines, but he’s also given me several other rather good recommendations. He’s even agreed to help me get our department chair to approve a tenure track prof as my chair since our ideas align so well. (WOW!)

And as though that isn’t enough, my face to face students this semester seem right on target already (though I’m not holding my breath). I have a much smaller class (technically about 16 on the roster and only 8 showing up), so I have the opportunity to do a lot more class discussion and a lot less lecturing (which I love).

The classes I’m taking this semester are already seeming like hurdles. I know that Advanced Grammar is going to make me a better writer, but the Bakhtin/Dostoevsky class is going to be the one that monopolizes my reading time. Ah, but it feels like it’s going to be one interesting class.

Then there are the THREE conferences this semester. The local Federation Rhetoric Symposium is hosted at my university this semester, so it’s not too much long term preparation. We got our panel accepted to the Conference of College Teachers of English, so I need to put that together. Yet, the biggest bragging right so far is that Maggie and I were accepted to the National Pop Culture Conference in the Rhetoric and Pop Culture section. (YEAH!) I’ll keep you posted.