Moving on Up!

Over Christmas break, Murad and I sold the first home we purchased. Our decision to sell was fueled by the proposal of an indoor gun range near Joely's elementary school. However, the truth is we have really outgrown our house. Luckily, the gun range didn't pass, so we decided to rent a slightly larger home for the next two years. We are moving just a little more west, but Joely will still be able to attend the same elementary school---this was really important to us, as we cannot imagine a more supportive environment for our son.

In two years, Lena will also be able to attend the same elementary school as Joely. At that time, both kids will be grandfathered into that elementary school, so obtaining a transfer won't be as hard. Then, we plan to buy a house near Wells Elementary school. Joel has soccer practice there, and we really love the large ranch homes and beautiful two story homes. Even though Wells is just two blocks north of where we live now, the middle school is different than what Joely would attend. This is something we prefer as we are not big fans of the middle school for which we are currently zoned.  Fortunately, both of the middle schools will feed into Vines High School and Plano Senior High School, so he'll be able to reconnect with those friends in high school. Stability and consistency is such a big thing for us. We really do not want to have a bunch of unnecessary moves for our kiddos, nor switching schools a bunch.

We know we could probably get a McMansion if we moved north of 121 or south of I-30 or east of 78, but we are so vested in Plano. We go to church in Plano, our kids (and Murad) play sports at Plano Sports

 Authority, and in less than two years Abi will attend Collin College here in Plano prior to transferring to a university. Murad works in McKinney and I work in Richardson, so Plano is a great middle ground  for us. 

Selling our home is very bittersweet. We bought this home almost nine years ago, and we've weathered many storms here as well. It's also the home where we brought home our babies from the hospital. It's the place where we've become a family. We started out as a married couple with two dogs, and now we're a family of five + two dogs!

If you didn't get our holiday card, the link below shows the pictures we took in December. We took these photos in our front yard. I'll treasure these photos forever.  I also included a picture of our house when it was listed for sale back in January 2010. 

The Campbell Family

Family Updates

In case you didn't get our holiday card, visit our online holiday card. Campbell Holiday 2018.

These are some wonderful pictures taken by my brother-in-law. These were actually taken in front of our wonderful home (our neighbor's home is in the background). I love this pic of Murad and me. We will celebrate 10 years of marriage in March 2019.

I absolutely love these three children. Abigail Lynn (17), Joel Tariq (7.5), & Lena Elise (3.75-- 4 in February).

New Year

I don't really do New Year's resolutions, but I do have overall goals for the New Year. On the 26th day of 2019, I'll turn 37. Let that sink in. I feel like I'm closer and closer to the woman I want to be, but still have a ways to go before I hit 40. Here are some of my goals:

Become Financially Secure
Last year, my husband worked a great job financially. Instead of saving like we should've, we pretty much blew right through it. Then my husband lost his job in August and we went into major debt. Like we're having to dig ourselves out of huge hole. He makes more money than I do, so it was hard to shoulder all the expenses for the past five months. Luckily, my husband is now gainfully employed, but we will spend the first part of 2019 paying off debt and saving.

Travel
That  being said, I do hope we get to travel this summer. We'll go to Colorado at the end of July for my final summer seminar in my doctoral program. Abi and I are taking a service trip with the UU Youth in June. Usually, they go to New Orleans, but I think this year we may go to Houston. UU GA is also this summer in Spokane, Washington, but I'm not sure if I'll get to go. I'm really, really hoping we can spring another summer trip to Disneyland. I know we won't be able to stay on site like we did two summers ago (prices have jumped), but I so wanna go! That was hands-down the best vacation we've taken as a family. Now that we're a family of five, I'd really for Abi to go.

Live Healthier
I need to get back on the healthy eating and exercise train. I know what I need to do, but I just need to do it. It's so hard being a doctoral student, mom, full-time worker, wife, etc. As I inch closer to 40, I need to take my health into consideration.

And those are my major goals. What are you looking forward to in 2019? What are you dreading?

MLK + UU

Over the break, I've made time to read for pleasure, but mostly to learn more of the history of the UU faith and the church's relationship with African-American's.

I bought a book on Kindle called Darkening the Doorways: Black Trailblazers and Missed Opportunities in Unitarian Universalism by Mark Morrison-Reed. It's interesting to read about early Black UUs (Unitarians, prior to becoming UU) and how this liberal religion has consistently missed the mark in creating a truly multicultural community. However, I do have hope for a more inclusive future. I think as we close the achievement gap, we'll see more diversity within the UU church.

I read this article that examined the possibility of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a UU. In fact, Dr. King and Coretta Scott King both thought of becoming UU, but noted that, it would not help to build the Civil Rights Movement. "What surprised and saddened me most was what she said next. Though I am paraphrasing, the gist of it was this: 'We gave a lot of thought to becoming Unitarian at one time, but Martin and I realized we could never build a mass movement of black people if we were Unitarian.'"

As I mentioned before, UU intrigued me because of its open support of Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ rights. However, as I learn more about the church, I realize that it is full of issues that mirror any other church or house of worship. I do think that the more we look to the past in our search for truth, we'll be able to make the church a diverse place. Murad and I are starting the path to membership for our current church. We are excited for our family to officially become UU members. 

Anyways, here's a link to the article about MLK + UU.

What it means to be UU

As many of you know, Murad and I attend a UU church. Most people are not quite sure what to make of UU, but for us it makes perfect sense. Murad was raised Muslim and I was raised Protestant (Lutheran). Neither one of those faiths worked for us, and for Murad it was important that remained Muslim. I maintained my Lutheran identity and even had my children baptized as Lutheran. However, as I became a mother, I didn't feel comfortable raising them Lutheran or Muslim. My car accident really changed my perception of religion, and so I visited a UU church periodically. I typically attended alone, but I started bringing Murad and the children. When Abi moved in with us in March, I knew that we had to be part of the UU church. We are now going through the membership process and our children are actively involved in Religious Education. I'm so happy my children will be 1st generation UUs, and I hope that if they have children, they will raise them as UUs.

Murad and I recently became involved with a growing organization called BLUU (Black Lives of UU). We completed a living history project in which we detailed our journey into UU. I won't share the project here, but I am so proud of how it turned out. Through it all, it helped me to solidify my beliefs and my hopes for my little family.

• We desire for our family members to be loving, accepting, compassionate individuals who seek truth and light.
• We desire to develop, maintain, and share our pride in our Blackness and our UU faith.
• We desire to connect with other Black UUs.
  

I'm including a link to a great article on visiting a UU church.

Looking for more: Why visiting a Unitarian Universalist church matters

Fall Semester 2018 is done!

I got straight A's again!

This semester was great and I'm excited by the work I produced. Click here to see my completed projects: Recent Projects. 

• In my Qualitative Case Study course, I worked on a group project with three other members of my cohort. We examined writing in mathematics. We are now looking to publish our study, Multiple Case Study Examining Teacher Application and Perceptions of Incorporating Writing Strategies in Mathematics, in a refereed journal.
• In my Social Justice in Education course, I completed a staff development project on School Social Workers. I also wrote a paper on the concerns of Muslim students in American schools.

During the school year I also worked as a GRA for Dr. Ku. I mostly edited drafts that he prepared to submit for publication. However, I just started working on a literature review with him and a colleague on teacher quality.

Next semester, I'll have Dr. Ku for a technology in education course, and I will also take a literacy as social practice course. This doctoral journey has been pretty amazing so far. I feel like I'm learning so much, and able to apply it to my job as a program specialist. In turn, my job as a program specialist guides my research. I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to my dissertation topic too. I'm excited as it combines my current work in SEL with Womanist theory. More on that later as I still have a whole year before I take comps and submit my dissertation proposal.

It's been a long time...

I shouldn't have left you...

My first year of doctoral study is officially under my belt. Woo-hoo! As you can tell, I spent most of the year busy with classes, being a wife, and mother of 3. Yes 3! More on that later! Here are some of the highs and the lows of 2017-18!

Summer 2017
In July of 2017, we went to Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Immediately after we got back to Texas, we hopped in the car and headed to Loveland, Colorado for my first doctoral seminar. The seminar was great. The first day as a student, we met one of the professors in the program. We would be our professor for the rest of the week. We also attended a library orientation and new doctoral student orientation. In the afternoon, we watched the cohort ahead of us present their History of Education Reform poster project and the cohort two years ahead of us present their Curriculum Theorist projects. The rest of the week, our cohort worked on research article critiques.
The highlight of the week was bonding of with my cohort. We have a great group and we all really support each other. I definitely could not have gotten through the program without them!

Fall 2017
I took Introduction to Research Literature and Statistical Methods I online. Statistics kicked my butt, but I made it out with a B, so I'm fine with that! Research Literature was an interesting course. I was able to make a literature review on multiracial students and their educational experiences.

Spring 2018
I took Philosophical Foundations of Education and Qualitative Research Methods online. I really enjoyed my philosophy class as the readings caused me to think outside of the box in regards to education and reform. I also had to create a school based on the theories of a philosopher of education. For my qualitative research course, I conducted a research study with three of the other members of my cohort on code-switching among upper elementary students. Although, we got an A on the project, our professor didn't think that we really examined code-switching (which was ironic, since he said he'd never heard of code-switching prior to our study). Nevertheless, we are going to submit our study for publication in our department's journal.

During this spring, my stepdaughter testified against her mother in court and asked to come live with us. So, in March she came to live with us permanently. We've adjusted very well to having a 16 year old (yes 16!). Honestly, I can't imagine life without her!

Summer 2018
This summer, we spent our summer vacation in New Jersey. We took the kids to Sesame Place in Pennsylvania and to the Jersey Shore (Ocean City). This year we had two weeks instead of two days from our vacation until traveling to Loveland again.
This summer I took Social Theories of Learning and Organizational Change (Sociology of Education) and History of Education Reform. It was a lot to cram into 6 weeks of class, but I thoroughly enjoyed the readings for the class. The final project for my History of Education Reform class was a poster presentation during our doctoral seminar. The format for the doctoral seminar was pretty much the same as last summer, except this summer my cohort presented our posters.
One cool thing our cohort did was create t-shirts based on our time together last summer. We wore them on our last day of the seminar. It really was so good for us all to be together again! During this time, I got to meet my mentor for my graduate research assistant. I also decided to add a doctoral minor in Applied Statistics & Research Methods (Qualitative Methods).

Fall 2018
What's in store for Fall 2018?
I have a Graduate Research Assistantship with a professor in the Educational Technology department. the assistantship pays for 1/2 of my tuition and a stipend. I'm hoping to look at online learning and social-emotional learning.
I'm taking Social Justice in Education Reform and Qualitative Case Study this fall online. For my qualitative case study class I hope to investigate math teachers who use writing to learn methods and how they perceive themselves as writers.
The AATC (American Association for Teaching and Curriculum) conference will be in Dallas this October. Two of my cohort members are presenting their research from our Qualitative Research Methods course.

Projects
To view any of the research projects mentioned here. Please visit my website Ashlea Campbell Writing - Recent Work