The Evening Weekend News A Newsletter for Montgomery College Part-Time Faculty Produced by the Rockville Campus Evening-Weekend Office Charlotte Jacobsen, Editor March 2012, volume 2, Issue 10 Katie Torkashvan, Layout

Allyson Lima, Cookie Researcher Spanish - Rockville

When Spanish professor, Allyson Lima, is not at Montgom- ery College you can often find her in a large, sunny kitchen in Sil- ver Spring, baking hundreds of cookies. Allyson is the co-owner of CookieLand, a start-up business that caters and does special orders of handcrafted cookies. The idea for the business started by making cookies for holiday gifts and it took off from there. Friends and relatives loved the cookies and asked if they could get more. CookieLand now does corporate and private events and bakes large or small, personal special orders for pickup, or to mail.

Allyson loves the smells as the vanilla, eggs, butter, cinna- Allyson Lima mon, and nuts mix together in the bowl. Growing up, Allyson was the cookie specialist in her family while her mother was the pastry maker and they worked side by side in the family kitchen.

Prior to such holidays as Easter, Purim or Christmas, Allyson and her business part- ner, Martha Steinbock, are very busy. But during school breaks they often close up shop for several weeks to travel and do cookie re- search. So far they have visited Nicaragua, Argentina, France and Spain, and Martha will return to Paris to take a French macaroon class at the Cordon Bleu this spring. In addi- tion to specialty cookies, the team also pro- duces good old classics like chocolate chip and frosted cake brownies. What makes their cookies so special? They are all hand made,

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and baked in small batches. The business is expanding and CookieLand hopes to move into a larger space later this year. The team is also working on a website, but in the meantime if you would like to learn more or make an order, e-mail Allyson at [email protected] and she will send you their list of cookies.

Allyson is happy out of doors. She is originally from northern California and enjoys long walks and short jogs. However, now that she lives in Maryland, she pre- Recently Allyson has started tutoring. When fers indoor lap swimming in the winter. students first come for tutoring, “I’m lost!” is usually Allyson earned a master’s degree in Romance Lan- what she hears. Her approach is to demonstrate guages at the University of Oregon and taught at Oregon ways to organize the new material and sort it into State for 5 years. Teaching at MC for 3 years, she keeps parts. She finds it is much like making cookies, it’s students involved actively in the classroom. She creates important to organize the linguistic “ingredients” in group activities that incorporate learned skills with new order to produce the product (speech or essay). Pa- structures. As the students interact, they practice and tience is a huge part of the tutoring process. In or- perform real-life situations in Spanish. Working in pairs der for the student to overcome language-learning and groups creates a community of learners, is fun, and anxiety and absorb new material, she strives to cre- helps relieve the stress that some students feel about ate a relationship of trust and calm. Unlike baking temporarily losing their own language. cookies, she can’t set the timer on learning.

Allyson thinks, whether making cookies or speaking When asked if she has learned anything in Spanish, motivation and practice are the keys to learning. baking cookies that she has incorporated into teach- These activities share the same methods: they require ing Allyson replied, I think the most important thing patience and practice -- burned cookies or botched gram- in life is passion. Whether it is baking, teaching, or mar, you WILL make mistakes. But production of cookies tutoring, I put my whole self into it. When I bake, I or learning a foreign language creates an opportunity to am completely focused on the project. When I teach share something you love and to connect with others or tutor, I don't think about anything else. When I around the world. plan to travel, I am immersed in the map. It is all about being totally in the moment.

Editor’s note: I can personally attest to Allyson’s and Martha’s delicious cookies! She brought me a small white box tied with a red grosgrain ribbon filled with Mexican Wedding Cookies (also known as Pecan Puffs or Russian Tea Cakes), and I have to say they were the lightest I have ever eaten! Allyson worked for years un- til she found the secret for the perfect texture.

¡Buen provecho!”

2 Reflections from the Rockville Vice President and Provost Judy E. Ackerman

Each spring when we return from winter break there is a certain ex- citement since it is still early in the new calendar year, our New Year’s resolu- tions are still fresh, and of course there is the anticipation of the new semes- ter. This year is no exception, and I look forward to continuing to work with students in the Rockville MA 94 lab.

I have long believed that good teachers periodically need to experi- ence what it is like to be a student.. It really doesn’t matter whether you en- roll in a course in your discipline or take a recreational class. In fact, it may be even more informative if you are studying something that does not come easily to you. An “aha” moment that I had regarding learning came when I took an introduction to cross country ski class with my family. After a couple Dr. Ackerman of hours, the rest of the family had mastered the basics and headed out to the trails, but I wasn’t ready to do so. My instructor kept asking me to try the same thing over and over again in the same way even though I wasn’t making any progress. Finally, I suggested a different, more incremental approach to what he was trying to teach me and eventually, I mastered enough so that I could join the rest of my family. In order to do this I had to take responsi- bility for my learning and get the instructor to try a different approach.

One of the online blogs from The Chronicle of Higher Education that I enjoy reading is “Casting Out Nines” by Robert Talbert, a mathematics professor at Grand Valley University in Michigan. Although he often writes about mathematics and mathematics teaching, his topics go well beyond these two topics. On January 3, 2012 he wrote about his experience taking a short intensive course on discrete and computational geometry at a professional con- ference. In the blog1 he talks about re-learning three things about being a student based on his experience in this short course. First, he addresses the “physical component to learning.” He describes the change in his energy level after a full day of the course and points out that he revived a bit when there was more activity. That leads to his second observation, “Learning works best when it is active.” From this he concludes that the learning experience needs to be structured so that it is active. Finally, he observes that “The fear of looking like an idiot is real, and it prevents learning.” From my experience, it certainly was a lot easier to work with the ski instructor when the rest of the family was not there. I hope that each of you can look to your own challenging learning situations and derive some takeaways that you can use to help your students.

Now that the Maryland General Assembly has convened and the governor has released his budget, budget advocacy moves into high gear. The capital budget priorities for FY 2013 are funding the design of a new Rockville Student Services Center and the renovation of and addition to the Sciences and Applied Studies building at the Germantown Campus. There is also a request to the County for a parking garage for the Rockville campus.

Students from all three campuses get involved in advocacy when they go to Annapolis for Student Advocacy Day which this year is on February 9. They will have the opportunity to meet with our state senators and delegates and tell them about the impact that Montgomery College makes in their lives.

During the Rockville Campus opening meeting this semester we gained a better understanding of the issues that our student veterans face after we viewed the excellent video produced by Dr. Esther Schwartz-McKinzie, In Their Own Words – Montgomery College Student Veterans. If you missed it, you can view it at http://youtu.be/bXIeI20tpSA. We were also fortunate to have Mr. Chris Buser, Clinical Director for Post Deploy- ment Reintegration Programs for the Veterans Administration, speak briefly about his experience working with re- turning veterans and answer questions. Following each war or conflict, veterans have faced challenges as they

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return from war and go to school. Some of the issues that confront today’s student veterans include adjusting to the removal of absolute structures, dealing with life after injuries, learning to trust, PTSD, and the loss of friends. Veterans at Montgomery College have benefited from our Combat2College program, a program that provides aca- demic and social opportunities as well as support services for veterans and active/reserve service members. For additional information about Combat2College, please contact Jason Franklin, Joanna Starling, or Professor Rose Sachs.

Although we all hope that it is never necessary to implement the College’s Emergency Plan and procedures, it is important that each of us reviews them at least once a semester so that in the event of an emergency we are better prepared to respond appropriately. Here’s the link, http://cms.montgomerycollege.edu/EDU/Plain2.aspx? id=4087. It is also a good idea to review the information that is posted in each classroom about emergency evacua- tion areas.

Montgomery College ALERT is one of the tools that we use to notify our college community if there is a po- tential or immediate threat to the health and safety of the College community. It is also used to provide informa- tion about College closures or delayed openings due to inclement weather or other emergencies. In the case of in- clement weather in the morning, normally decisions are made by 5 a.m. and are posted on the college’s web page in addition to going out through MC ALERT and through email. It’s a good idea to remind your students to enroll in MCALERT and to tell them how you will communicate with them in the event that classes need to be cancelled for several days in the event of really bad winter weather.

I invite you to keep up with what is going on at the college and get involved. With the new governance sys- tem, there will be opportunities to participate. It’s up to each of us to ensure that even when we have different opinions we can engage one another with civility. I appreciate what each of you do to empower our students to change their lives. My best wishes for a productive and satisfying semester.

1 Talbert, R. (2012, January 03). Casting out nines: Three things I learned about teaching by taking a short course. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines.

Meet Gabriel Daniel New Student Aide EWO Rockville

Gabriel Daniel is a proud national of Guyana, the land of many waters, the only English speaking South American country. It has an irresistible combination of fascinating and breathtaking natural beauty; pristine Amazonian rainforests, immense waterfalls, amazing wildlife, blended with a vi- brant indigenous culture, rich heritage and the most hospitable and friendly people in the world. Gabriel states that “I believe that the way of life in Guyana, how simple it is greatly helps one en- joy Guyana.”

Gabriel is pursuing an A.A in General Studies at Montgomery College with the intention of trans- ferring to a four year university to pursue a degree in Marketing. He has also attended college in Gabriel Daniel Guyana and studied business.

Gabriel enjoys working with others and has lots of experience as he grew up in small family oriented community, where the values of team work and respect for others were instilled at a young age. His willingness to work with others is exhibited in his pleasant dis- position and friendly approachable attitude.

In his spare time he enjoys playing board games such as scrabble and monopoly and a work-out at the gym and he “likes to get out and visit the various places that this amazing place has to offer. He has not yet been indoctrinated into American sports but enjoys a good game of cricket.

Gabriel enjoys the dynamic atmosphere in the Evening Weekend Office, the constant flow of people and the multiple tasks. He truly likes to work and started doing so immediately after high school.

4 Collaboration Counts Dr. Clarice Somersall Special Assistant to the Senior Vice Presidents for Academic Affairs and Student Services

I’m thrilled to announce that a workgroup has been created to develop a uniform orientation and information sharing process for part-time faculty teaching at Mont- gomery College. This initiative has grown out of a recom- mendation made in the Implementation Plan of the 2011 Employee Engagement Survey which called for developing and implementing a comprehensive orientation plan for new and returning part-time faculty. I was charged by Paula Matuskey, the Interim Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, with investigating the feasibility of developing a strategy for standardizing our approach to offering orientation/information sharing sessions. This workgroup will work with me and others throughout the Dr. Somersall College to accomplish this goal.

Co-chaired by Don Smith and Dan Moskowitz, this workgroup will look at current activities that exist to orient new and returning adjunct faculty on each campus and research best practices at other institutions which could be adopted by Montgomery College. The overarching goal is to provide standard- ized, core information to adjunct faculty before the start of both the spring and fall semesters during each academic year. This essential information will allow all adjunct faculty, particularly those new to teaching and/or to MC, to function as effectively and efficiently as possible as each semester begins. Moreover, it will acquaint them with the particular processes of each campus and Workforce Development & Continuing Education facilities and direct them to the vast reservoir of materials that exist for contin- ued professional development. When appropriate, the information will be available in hard copy and elec- tronically.

Don and Dan will lead a workgroup comprised of representative part-time faculty, full- time fac- ulty, staff and administrators. As a result of the efforts of this nuclear group, current and acquired best practices will be replicated across the three campuses and Workforce Development & Continuing Educa- tion.

If you have ideas that you would like to share with Don and Dan, please contact them via e-mail. Montgomery College needs everyone working together for the betterment of our student body. Collec- tively, we will craft an orientation and information sharing process for adjuncts that will be beneficial for all members of the Montgomery College community.

5 John Nicholson President of the Rockville Business & Economics Club

Business & Economics Club

As President of the Business & Economics Club for the 2011 fall semester at Montgomery College Rockville campus, I felt it was my duty to give our members a unique and unforgettable experience. Upon brainstorming with the club officers Avneet Kohli (VP Opera- tions), Marleny Estevez (VP Social Affairs), Angelica Joya (Treasurer), and Daniel (Secretary) on trip ideas, we decided New York was perfect. After investigating the different opportunities New York had to offer the Wall Street Insider Tour seemed to be an ideal program that met our didactic goals.

Once the financial data had been organized into budget form which included cost of transportation, refreshments and the cost of the tour itself, I presented our research to the Office of Student Life’s Budget Panel. In a few days we had gained approval for our trip. Thereafter the necessary liability waivers were collected and submitted to our Student Life Specialist. The members of the Business & Economics Club were delighted to be notified that they were indeed going to New York City to see the Wall Street In- sider tour. Despite the obstacles involved during this process, I am pleased that the Business & Economics Club has achieved their goals for the fall 2011 semester.

We could not go without a sponsor and to our delight Arlene Chun, Part-time Professor of Business, Accounting and Finance in Ger- mantown and Rockville, and Charlotte Jacobsen, Professor Business and Economics, Rockville, joined us on the Wall Street Tour a few days before break. Some met at the Shady Grove Metro at 6:30 a.m. and the remainder met at Union Station at 7:15 a.m. where we caught the 8:00 a.m. Moose Bus to New York City.

On the educational walking tour, we explored New York's financial district. The behind-the-scenes tour, created by a former em- ployee of Goldman Sachs, provided an insider view of Wall Street. We learned about the culture and lifestyle of a Wall Street trader as well as gaining insightful tips about the New York Stock Exchange. The tour included the New York Stock Exchange (outside as the Exchange is now closed to visitors), Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank where the 'captains of in- dustry' live and work.

My fellow club members have voted me in as president for the spring 2012 semester. I am looking forward to continuing to bring financial awareness to the students at Montgomery College. To inquire, volunteer, or join the Business & Economics Club at MC Rock- ville Campus e-mail us at [email protected].

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Germantown News

Starbucks Coffee for Twenty-Five Cents??? The Germantown campus now has fresh Starbucks coffee available for 25 cents for the part- time faculty in the part-time faculty office HT416. The pot is always on! Grab a free cookie at the same time. The only request is that you make a fresh pot if you pour the last cup. A swipe key is necessary to gain access – go to HT314 for swipe key.

Save the Date –

Germantown Part-time Faculty Reception

Tuesday, April 24 2012 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.

IMPORTANT DATES

March 12-18 Spring Recess

March 26 Mid-term grades due

April 24 Germantown Part-time Faculty Reception 4:00-6:00 p.m.

Rockville Part-time Faculty Reception 4:30-6:00 p.m.

May 7-13 Exam Week/Final Week of Classes

May 18 Official end of spring semester

May 28 Memorial Day/College closed

May 29 Summer Session I begins

June 18 Midsummer session classes begin

July 4 Independence Day observed

July 9 Summer session II classes begin

August 24 Official end of summer sessions

M B I Café

7 Student Record Privacy : Do you know FERPA?

Catherine Mund, College Registrar

FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, is a federal law that protects the privacy of stu- dents’ education records by requiring that personally identifiable information only be released to parties with a legitimate educational interest. Once a student sits in his or her first Montgomery College course, their person- ally identifiable information is protected by FERPA, regardless of his or her age. Students have four rights un- der FERPA: To inspect and review their education records, to request amendment of their education records, to limit disclosure of “personally identifiable information” known as “directory information,” and to file a com- plaint with the Department of Education concerning an alleged failure by the institution to comply with FERPA.

Access to education records in most cases is limited to: The individual student

A parents providing a copy of his or her most recent 1040 listing the student as a tax dependent

State auditors

A school official with a legitimate educational interest in order to perform a task specified in your position description or contract

Other higher education institutions in which the student is seeking to enroll

Court orders/subpoenas

Organizations conducting research

Third-party vendors

Should Montgomery College or any entity its behalf be found to violate FERPA, the College may lose its abil- ity to award students federal financial aid. As a custodian of student information, do understand and apply FERPA best practices when working with student information:

Do:

Lock your workstation” (“Windows” key + L) when not in use.

Remind students to log-off computers before leaving the classroom.

Cover all personally identifiable information when someone walks over to your workstation.

Secure all personally identifiable information before leaving your desk or office.

Shred all personally identifiable information when it is no longer needed.

Review the FERPA Policy before responding to a request.

Ask to see photo identification before granting access to student records.

When responding to a student via phone, authenticate the user by his or her schedule of classes from a prior semester, his or her MC student e-mail address, or a factoid that only the student would know.

Explain to a student, colleague, etc. why you are unable to provide information, if a legitimate edu- cational interest does not exist.

Obtain signed, written permission from a student before sharing information with anyone OTHER than the student. This is especially true when writing a letter of recommendation. Written permis- sion must:

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 Be dated and signed by the student  Specify the information to be disclosed (such as GPA or grades)  Specify the reason for the disclosure  Specify the name of person or entity to be given information Delete all information that is not need to know, including M-number, before sending an e-mail. Keep M-numbers and student names out of the Subject: line! Use College e-mail only to send and receive FERPA protected information. Only send FERPA pro- tected information to students via their MC e-mail addresses. Include FERPA disclaimer in all student information disclosures, including your e-mail signature: This document may contain personal information from a student’s education records. It is protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. 1232g) and may not be released to parties in- side Montgomery College without a legitimate educational interest or to parties outside of Montgomery College without consent of the eligible student. Engage in peer grading; this practice was upheld in a recent Dept. of Ed. finding. The work becomes part of the student record when collected by the faculty member or entered into “the grade book.” Keep student information out of social networking sites. Consult a registrar before releasing information; you may do this by e-mailing [email protected]. Refer all subpoenas, summons or other legal process requests to the director of admissions and en- rollment management. Immediately contact Safety and Security if you have information (confidential or otherwise) that a stu- dent may cause harm to himself/herself or others. Do NOT: Do not leave information FERPA protected information unattended/accessible to others. Release the grades of individual students to another student, even if you do not distinguish who re- ceived which grade. Release a calculated class average instead of a grade distribution, particularly in courses with small enrollment. Leave graded work on a table in a full classroom. Instead, hand work directly back to each student. Provide anyone with student schedule information or assist anyone other than a College employee in finding a student on campus; refer requests to Safety and Security. Post student information in a public place on which names, SSNs, Student IDs, or other personal iden- tifiers are displayed; this includes sign-in sheets! Release grades over the phone, even if you know the student. Refer students to My MC for grade in- formation. Give confidential information to a student’s friend or parent to bring to the student. Instead, mail the student his or her information, or if you receive an e-mail from the student’s MC e-mail address giv- ing a third party permission to take the work: Put work in a sealed envelope, ask for a picture ID of “courier,” and keep a copy of the e-mail!

Remember… When in doubt, DO NOT give it out! You can find more information about FERPA: On page 59 of College Catalog under “Student Cumulative Records” Online at www.montgomerycollege.edu/FERPA or in the College’s Policies and Procedures manual at www.montgomerycollege.edu/verified/pnp/41003.doc By e-mailing questions to [email protected]

Everything you ever wanted to know about the EWO! Check out our website. http:cms.motgomerycollege.edu/EDU/Department.aspx?id=7699

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