IRB mon amour

hahahaha ok so i called the irb yesterday and the person i need to talk to wasn't there... said she'd call me back... called this morning while i was at work... and isn't there this afternoon... so i need to call tomorrow morning... but i work... so anyway, maybe i'll get the info i need before christmas...

pilot: ahhaahah i thought that if i asked 21 people to fill out my questionnaire i'd get at least 10 back... well, 10 days later i only have 6 back, 2 of which are not even completely filled out. this scares me. my FRIENDS and colleagues, people i KNOW, can't/won't help me with a little questionnaire that takes 30 minutes to fill out max, and i'm going to ask people i don't know, schools on the other side of the country, teachers i have never met, and students i've never seen, to participate and do a LOT MORE work for me. why would they do it?? this is very discouraging. i think i have always filled out questionnaires and stuff other people have asked me to fill to help them... and i'll do it even better from now on, because this is really frustrating!

i'm working hard on the questions and it's going ok. margie told me about a PICES item catalog, which is a list of items teachers/administrators can choose from for their evaluations, and some of their questions look like mine and help me reformulate my questions better. the list covers tons of different areas (course objectives, content, organization, teaching, discussions, materials, assignments, evaluations, etc.). margie also gave me some good feedback on those questions. so i had 48 questions, i have already eliminated 15 of them, rewritten half of them, and added 5. I want about 20 good questions in the end.

i'm working on the TIRF grant. this is super tough... but really worth it! not due until the end of may, though, so if i work on it a little every day i should be good. i MUST get that one!!!!