So not only am I a mommy, a wife, and a professor; but I am also going to be the Acting Director of the Child Development Center on campus (a.k.a. RJ's school) while the director is on maternity leave. I'm barely juggling my other responsibilities, but in a moment of ambition and dreaming, and apparent insanity, I volunteered to take this on without being asked. Why?
First, it is exactly the type of job that I've wanted since I was an undergrad. My honors thesis advisor, Dr. Sharon Carver was the director of The Children's School at Carnegie Mellon, in addition to her appointment as a Professor in the Psychology Department, for which the school was a laboratory. The Children's School was the laboratory preschool and kindergarten on campus in the Margaret Morrison building where I worked as a work study student during my undergrad years. I loved that she could run the school and get to teach at the college level. Her research was based on the learning environment - and it was her research that got me interested in pursuing a research-based PhD rather than a clinical PhD.
Second, I was really interested in helping Jennifer (the current, very pregnant director of RJ's school) improve the Child Development Center in terms of its thematic curriculum (one of my research interests) and making the school easier to conduct research in.
and Third, who wouldn't want to be in charge of her son's school?
I saw Jennifer's pregnancy and maternity leave as an opportunity to get a taste of what my "dream job" was like for a semester, without making the long-term commitment. So in addition to teaching two classes (Human Development I and Early Social & Emotional Development), I will also be taking over as director when Jennifer goes into labor or the first week in April, whichever comes first! Starting on Wednesday (the first week of the Spring Semester), I will be transitioning in as she is transitioning out.
Stay tuned for more thoughts as my experience unfolds... hopefully I'll have time to blog!
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