So, you got an IRB? Now what?

I truly thought that by now (it's February) I would be deep within my data collection. Wow. Was I wrong. First of all, how am I going to collect data when I'm not strong in my methodology? That doesn't even make sense--now. It doesn't make sense to go out and take extensive fieldnotes, interviews, observations, if you don't know what to make of them, or you don't get what your methodology recommends, now does it? Now that I've narrowed my focus, I feel better. Focusing on methodology and methods and only doing a couple of observations (and transcribing those fieldnotes) seems much more logical. Am I upset that I have an IRB? Absolutely not. Am I feeling ridiculously underprepared for what data collection and analyzing text really means? You bet. On another note, it's been a fight to get into the classrooms. It's "open season" for testing--and you just can't get in! I knew there were multitudes of tests, but I didn't realize that there were so many at every grade level. Frustrating. I will have to remember this next year when I'm writing "THE DISSERTATION" (Thanks, P&G) :)