Spring 2003 started all too quickly after a very rigorous Fall 2002.  My first portfolio review was over and I was anxious to get started taking a course in my minor.  Along with the minor course, EDUC 894, I was also taking an Educational Leadership course and a research course.  I found out very soon that I had to be extremely organized and stingy with my time for anything but studies.

       Before the review, I had visions of an inquisition on why I was in the program and whether I was up to the challenge of doing research and contribution to the knowledge base in my field.  I was braced for the worse.  Being a stammerer, I envisioned sitting in front of a panel and not being able to express anything other than 'good morning'.  But the atmosphere was very relaxed and what I found was a group of professionals who seemed to sincerely want to help me.  

     One valuable result of the review is that when I bounced around some ideas about research projects that I was interested in, all members of the committee stressed that I had to look at the whole picture of the project and not just the topic.  For example, when I talked about following a group of children who were in their first year of the dual language program through their education, one member asked if I was willing to wait 12 years or more to finish my degree!  The project seemed admirable to me but since I had not focused on research design or how to gather information, my idea was not practical.  The advice that I got was to look at a question that I could research in a relatively short period of time and could come to a conclusion during the scope of my doctoral program.  I would hear this again and again in the research courses but I hadn't taken any at that point.    

     I appreciated the portfolio review because it affirmed that I was on the right track in my courses and that I could hold my own with professionals in the field.  My committee was very supportive and seemed to look at me as more than just a student who has come for advice.  After the portfolio meeting, Jack approached me to teach for him in the FASTTRAIN program during the summer of 2003.  Little did I know that I would be selected for a Fulbright Exchange (that I hadn't not even known about or applied for!). I was flattered to be considered as an instructor for a GSE program and wanted to rise to the challenge.  

     I had to decide whether or not to take the Fulbright exchange or to stay here and take summer courses as well as teach.  But the chance to visit Uruguay and to give back in a small way to a country that had provided the setting for four wonderful years of my life, overrode the desire to keep taking courses.  I audited the course that my cohort had that summer because I was there for only one half of the classes.  In Uruguay I accessed Blackboard and communicated as much as I could.  I feel that because I had taken half of the classes and done the first of three assignments, I would be able to finish the course at a later date by independent study.  

     The spring courses were very rigorous, especially EDRS 811.  That was a course that needed to be taken by itself or with another course that can coordinate with it so that one supports the other.  I tried to make EDRS 811 and EDUC 894 connect by using the information from the study that I was doing in EDRS 811 to inform the research paper I was working on in EDUC 894.  The problem was that it was difficult to do a quantitative project and learn HOW to do it all in the same class.  I think that the professor did the best he could with a group of math-phobes but he had to devote a lot of one-on-one time with each of us to the detriment of the class as a whole.  We were a real challenge to him!

     The text for EDUC 894 (Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education by Banks and Banks)  cost over $100 and weighed 10 pounds! Running around with my bookbag and doing bicep curls with the text took the place of going to the gym some days in the spring of 2003.  I objected to paying so much for a heavy book that didn't have a cover attractive enough to use as a coffee table book, but I must say in retrospect that I have used that book in other classes and just to look up background information on multicultural education issues.  It is very complete and provides in depth resources for a multitude of topics.  It was a good investment.

     When I was taking three classes and working full time and trying to have a life when I came up for air, my time was budgeted to the minute.  I was also dealing with aging parents who needed me to dash out to Arizona on an hour's notice and with two adult children who still looked to 'mom' for advice and support when they were in crisis or just needed a parent's ear.  I had difficulty balancing the roles and all the demands.  What saved me was my job.  I was in a job that required me to travel once a month for training and then the rest of the time was unstructured.  So, I had flexibility in my daily schedule and I did not have any pressure or stress from my job.  That was a blessing.

     In the Fall of 2003 and Spring of 2004 I took just two classes each semester and in the Fall of 2004, just one. I didin't feel the intensity that I felt when taking three.  Now, with just one course in progress, I feel at times that it is easy to lose momentum in the program.  Maybe I am finding out that I work better in crisis mode when I know that I can't waste time.
This program has been interesting and insightful for me because I have learned not only about multicultural/bilingual education but also about myself.