Karen Rigdons Missed Classes while attending UMDs Creative Visions in Mexico

I attended UMDs art workshops in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico from February 27-March 13. San Miguel is 180 miles north of Mexico City and is warm year round. The town has been granted national historic monument status to preserve its colonial ambience. At a local art college, the Instituto, I studied drawing (with three other students for 3 hours a day for 2 weeks) under Robert Repinski, an instructor at UMD. In addition, I signed up for private instruction in Spanish language.

I watched the video from the Cohorts March 3rd class and was very impressed with the gentleman guest, Frank. The video was often difficult to hear but I was able to hear most of it. We should be taping more towards the front of the room to make the audio easier to hear. The following are a few quotes from Frank that I consider being gems.

 Get everything in writing.

 You need a regular faculty member to advocate for you.

 Mary Ann will review your project chapter by chapter.

 Dont be freaked out by this (the research project) its not a big deal!

 Just write it  just do it  nobodys going to read it!

 You need to know how to do research, know the process, know how to distinguish whats valid and whats not.

 I get about 100 e-mails a day.

 Am I being obnoxious?

Frank gave a lot great ideas to the individuals and groups on their budding research projects. He asked questions to get everyone thinking deeply. For example, What are the variables between kids who play sports and those who dont? What are you going to measure? Who do you have best access to? What are the outcomes you want a student to demonstrate after your new curriculum course? What elements make a choir outstanding? So when you got it, you know it. Frank encouraged the class to always tell why  were doing this because_____.

My research group was given numerous good suggestions including thinking twice about including brain research in our study because it is not to the point of applicability. Frank suggested that we look at the rationale that school districts have for including L2 curriculum in elementary schools. He said that it would be tough to do a survey. He also said to consider what we want to know beyond the initial question.

On March 10th, Mary Jean Menzel introduced the governance team and Tim Everson read notes about their last meeting. There was no video made that evening but I read Patty Ross summary on the Web site. She said that they spent time in the computer lab with ERIC in addition to meeting in groups for discussion time.

-- Anonymous, April 01, 1999