PARTICIPANT ASSESSMENT FORM

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS WEEK AS A WHOLE?

WORTHWHILE: 145 NOT WORTHWHILE: 0

Five people indicated their assessment was somewhere between “worthwhile” and “not worthwhile”

WHY?

· We were able to come together as a team on views for discipline and good behavior.

· Our group was allowed to work on our pre-determined goals while having the availability of resources.

· Our team accomplished our goals – to create a plan to help with discipline and school climate.

· Great team work, very helpful facilitator, everyone was committed to succeed in producing a good product.

· We had the ability to do what we set out to do.

· We accomplished more than our goals. Much we are taking with us is implementable.

· It gave our team the opportunity to work together, outside of school.

· I came away with a lot of great resources and a multitude of ideas to implement in my classroom.

· A chance to spend five days working with colleagues.

· It was worthwhile because it gave us some time to get together with colleagues to work. Also, it gave us a chance to be exposed to human resources experts we normally would not have contact with during the year.

· Project orientated – learner driven.

· I learned about myself. I learned more about my peers. I learned even more about constructivism. And I like it all.

· I have learned a lot and gotten many ideas I will use in my class.

· The week here gave me time to work with colleagues when normally we would not have had that time to do so. I learned so much more about the constructivist practice and different strategies I can use in my room.

WHAT, IF ANY, CHANGES WILL YOU MAKE IN YOUR OWN DAY-TO-DAY WORK, AS A RESULT OF WHAT OCCURRED THIS WEEK?

• I will write out more rubrics and timelines instead of simply knowing what I would like in my head.

• I believe our outlook has improved – we will be cognizant of this as we proceed throughout the day.

• I will engage my students in the learning process more.

• I would like to change my whole style of teaching. I will have to take small steps, but I will get there someday.

• Incorporating strategies/activities that support constructivist theory.

• I am excited to try many of the constructivist ideas in my classroom. I also am excited to implement a new homework policy in my classroom.

• (influenced by Jerry) More cooperative grouping, changing my lesson plan format, amount/type of homework.

• Be more patient with the people I work with.

• I will incorporate collaboration on a daily basis in my class, in a variety of subject/content areas.

• I am going to relinquish some (a lot) of the control I have and allow the students to become more active.

• Interactive notebooks, focus on motivation.

• Front loading for reading.

• I will definitely utilize more constructivist approaches in my class.

• Focus more on engaging children in the learning process.

• The planning of lessons as learned in Jerry Peters’ presentation on homework.

• A better understanding of my curriculum will allow me to focus more on the constructivist ideas and engaging teaching strategies.

• I think I will rethink homework assignments.

• More thought about warm-up activities as intro to our trainings. Got some ideas from Paul.

• I will use more constructivist strategies in my classroom.

WHAT, IF ANY, CHANGES WILL YOU MAKE IN YOUR OWN DAY-TO-DAY WORK, AS A RESULT OF WHAT OCCURRED THIS WEEK? – cont.

• Different approaches to teachers and classroom visits hoping to improve pre/post visit learning (from the museum educators’ standpoint). Continued work with teachers for better instruction at museum.

• We will be meeting as a team every other day.

• We have scheduled two dates, one in November and a second in March, where we will reflect on how we are doing on our goals.

• Work more with the team.

• More group work.

• Change the way I assign some homework lessons.

• I now know what I do and do not want to do in my classroom and I am ready to work as a team.

• Reassure that what happens in my classroom is helping my students reach the standards.

• Allow more time for feedback on topics.

• I am going to let my students have more freedom of choice in instruction.

• I’m going to try an Action research project.

• Validates much of what I’m already doing.

• I have learned a lot and will utilize this knowledge throughout my whole career.

• Implementation of VTS strategies and constructivist “anticipatory sets” Ideally, relating learning goals to students prior knowledge.

• I will use suggested writing activities (from our group’s task) as I push in for writing instruction at the third and fourth grade levels impacting at least four classrooms.

• I’ll be more aware of our writing tasks and make sure my activities are grade appropriate.

• I would have had Critical Friends earlier than Thursday and Wednesday afternoon.

• Communication group to group.

• As a facilitator, I have learned to “walk away”, and I will do that more in the field.

• I will have a coke and candy break every afternoon. I will be more open to different learning styles and focus more on standards.

WHAT, IF ANY, CHANGES WILL YOU MAKE IN YOUR OWN DAY-TO-DAY WORK, AS A RESULT OF WHAT OCCURRED THIS WEEK? – cont.

• Understanding good facilitation; working on different goals for ACP- we need to spread the word, get more involvement from schools in the Adirondacks.

• I will be using more challenges in my classroom.

• Immediate implementation of our idea and pilot program ’02-’03. The overall 3 year plan is now possible. Take-it-back-to-the-people.

• I will spend more time listening to those offering conversation. Understanding the need to incorporate more humanity into our lives.

• I plan to focus on daily assessment (Action research) as explained to us by Suzanne Miller.

• I will incorporate some of the materials I received as part of my interactions with others. (Bloom’s taxonomy, effective lesson planning.)

• Continue to find opportunities to teach in a student-centered manner.

• We will be working closely to bring change of climate to our building and really assessing instruction on a daily basis.
• Logistics will always be a concern.

• I will look closer that all the steps have been followed without skipping steps along the way.

• I will utilize the process that we used this week when adding a new assignment or task in the workplace.

• More group work- meetings and joint ventures with outside agencies.

• Development planning that I learned this week.

• I would like to act more like a facilitator instead of a traditional teacher role.

• Look for ways to give my students greater voice in how we learn the essential skills I attempt to guide them to and through.

• After learning more about how the brain processes and retains learning, I am changing the entire structure of my lesson planning. The brain research presented to me has sold me on Jerry Peters’ methodology and lesson planning template in my mathematics classroom.

• The work we began here (I hope) will bring about a much more collaborative style to my work.

WHAT, IF ANY, CHANGES WILL YOU MAKE IN YOUR OWN DAY-TO-DAY WORK, AS A RESULT OF WHAT OCCURRED THIS WEEK? – cont.

• Keep positive, Keep positive, Don’t give up!

• I am going to relinquish some (a lot) of the control I have and allow the students to become more active.

• Interactive notebooks, focus on motivation.

• A better understanding of my curriculum will allow me to focus more on the constructivist ideas and engaging teaching strategies.

• Can’t think of anything now, but I’ll probably be on the planning team again, so…

• I would bring more members for the team to integrate further.

• View myself as a constructivist.

• With the work my team & I accomplished, we will be doing a lot of team-teaching & co-assessment this year.

• More journaling – personally and professionally.

• More strategy.

• I think more communication, as well as more effective planning will occur.

• I plan to incorporate one strategy at a time.

• Our team was awesome. I think we need someone who can look at our plan and say their opinion and help us as much as possible.

• Better structured lessons.

• I will continue to weave the constructivist strategies into the classroom.

• Try Try Try a new activity and don’t give up!

• Think, think & think some more about what I’ve learned.

• I thought our group did a great job in this regard.

• Think more about individual learning styles.

WHAT, IF ANY, CHANGES WILL YOU MAKE IN YOUR OWN DAY-TO-DAY WORK, AS A RESULT OF WHAT OCCURRED THIS WEEK? – cont.

• Take back the info and use it in my classroom. The way in which I present material will be very different and be learning centered.

• My ways of assessing students’ progress/ how to become more effective as a teacher during cooperative learning/ being able to understand how parents can be involved without being there physically/ how much of an impact poverty has on my district.

• Renew my commitment to constructivist approaches.

• I’ll be more involved in the parent-teacher connection.

• As a mom, I hope to model hope. As a teacher, I hope to talk less and encourage the children to be self-driven learners. As a person, I hope to make great changes one small step at a time.

• May try to use some of the tools and approaches outlined here (i.e. rubrics, graphic organizers).

• Use of rubrics for non-education tasks.

• Make instructions and expectations clear.

• I am more aware of the career path I will choose.

• Not really- helps me be even more critical/empathetic towards various professors next year.

• Student-run activities/lessons, having a mentor teacher look at a rubric of mine.

• I’ll think about additional ways in which I can use parents in my classroom. I will be more aware of the feelings and apprehensions parents may bring to the classroom. I’ll help them feel comfortable and welcome and will include them in non-threatening ways. It has heightened my awareness in thinking/putting myself in their shoes.

• Try to be more organized.

• I will try to use more listening activities with my students.

• I will probably be more attentive to the needs of my kids.

• I will use Authentic task, Planning learning in chunks/units, and Exploration/discovery format.

• I will continue to explore this learning plan for my own students.

• Try to use more “constructivist” theories.

• If I am confused and a task seems too large to accomplish, focus on something else, don’t just give up.

• The way I look at education as a whole.

• I liked the process; brainstorming, prioritizing, etc.

• I will reflect and keep the light on when I feel the end is not all it could be or we want it to be.

• It was a very productive week for our team.

• I will try to look outside the middle income box.

• I will make a lot of changes only in the way I deal with parents.

• Communications with parents; open house ideas; constant parental involvement

• As a parent I will be more involved with my school.

AT WHAT MOMENT DURING THIS WEEK DID YOU FEEL MOST ENGAGED IN WHAT WAS HAPPENING?

• When we were working on our graphic organizer and behavior and how to change things for more positive results.

• Any time my group was engaged in brainstorming, especially when we were designing our rubric.

• We worked steadily every day; Wednesday we accomplished products.

• 2^nd and 4^th day felt less scattered and more focused.

• Planning together with the TEAM.

• The mornings I felt were when we were most engaged. They just flew by.

• I felt engaged all week.

• I felt most engaged on Wednesday during our critical review.

• Working with my colleagues in the afternoons.

• Working with my colleagues and sharing ideas with them.

• When discussing lesson plan format with Jerry Peters and critical friends.

• Monday afternoon.

• I was working with my team trying to decide exactly how to organize the info we want to work with.

• When I was working with my teammates on our goals.

• Wed – when we were working on specific strategies for the classroom.

• Thursday, finalizing the part of the project that we have the most control over.

• When we were working towards our goal.

WHAT ABOUT THIS WEEK SURPRISED YOU THE MOST?

• That we were able to work together with the same feelings on our team.

• I was overwhelmed by the number of groups participating and how much was accomplished in so many different areas.

• We worked hard and found our time was not wasted. We will definitely use our plans.

• The progress made and the positive cooperative environment.

• The State Ed. Statistics.

• We accomplished so much and were left alone to do so.

• The wonderful presentations.

• Amazing: everyone here had common purpose; - become better teachers for our students.

• How some people “jumped right into work,” even on the first day.

• The complete immersion of participants in the learning process.

• That I could do these practices in my room because they are easy enough to begin.

• What we created – the product.

• That we got as much done as we did.

• The quality of presenters. Great communications.

• The fast rate at which the critical friends signed up.

• The amount of work I was able to get done.
• Everyone focused on sessions and discussions were involving all team members K-12.
• I was surprised by how much useful work a dedicated group of teachers could produce.
• I was surprised about the passion that many of my colleagues possess.
• The most amazing piece of this week was that we worked through all phases of the constructivist theory and survived.
• How hard everyone worked and how focused everyone was.

• The number of new faces – after having come 5 years and repeated teams, there were many new teams!

• The days passed quickly!

• The process produces a product.

WHAT ACTION THAT ANYONE TOOK DURING THE WEEK DID YOU FIND MOST AFFIRMING AND HELPFUL?

• Our facilitator allowed us to work on our goals without creating stress, while keeping us on task.

• Our facilitator, Charla Jennings, helped our committee the most with her questions and invaluable information.

• Visit of Superintendent to reaffirm the progress of the project.

• Jerry Peters brain research confirming this theory.

• Critical Friends.

• Learning about the way the brain works was very meaningful.

• I don’t think there was just one action that was most affirming and helpful. Everything combined was helpful.

• Everyone really worked to stay on task.

• Our facilitator, Kevin Hulburt, did a wonderful job keeping us focused, moving, positive…

• Many of the presentations provided information that was invaluable.

• The Critical Friends segment was very helpful in both affirming our work and in giving helpful suggestions.

• Discussing with different groups led us to believe that we were right on.

• All the kudos and interest in my workshops and the nice comments my team gave me.

• Our facilitator was very encouraging and resourceful. He made the week relaxing, enjoyable, and workable.

• Everyone was great. People were very helpful and open to meet my needs.

• Debriefing sessions were always helpful! (Those led by our facilitator)

• Our team survived brief chaos and disconnectedness by problem solving, clearly redefining our goals, and hard work.

• Planning school plan.

• I felt when we each made our goals and they were all very similar it was most affirming.

• When the Assistant Superintendent from Salmon River said “Trust Yourself”

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE AS THE NEXT STEPS TO ENSURE FOLLOW-THROUGH ON THIS WEEK’S WORK?

• Meet with superintendent and Board of Education to get OK to put in place.

• We are planning to continue meeting as a group.

• Creating a committee to oversee that the plan is continued.

• Continued meeting of the team to refine the project

• Administrative support – follow through.

• We need to continue our group meetings.

• Sharing with colleagues and continued staff development.

• Getting together again with my colleagues to continue our progress on our plan. Also, having Don and/or Jerry come to our school to address the rest of the faculty and to demonstrate teaching strategies.

• Quick, easy survey in 6 months per use of constructivism. Also, the number of people “we” have brought the constructivist theory to.

• A visit to our school district from one of the presenters would help remind me of the things I could still try in my class. A bonus would be other staff would be exposed to these concepts.

• Time during the year to meet with the group again.

• Principal and Superintendent support, time to develop the overlying ideas.

• To reflect, share and work with my team again.

• Work with the team over the next year to meet the goals. Continuous evaluation, planning and revision.

• Other members of our district curriculum teams adapting our work to theirs.

• Our district has already committed itself to revamping our curriculum.

• I would like to share the work we did with my team of 5^th grade teachers and our administration.

• Follow up meeting to share with the rest of our crew for further feedback before we finalize our products.

HAS YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE TERM “STANDARDS” CHANGED AS A RESULT OF YOUR WORK THIS WEEK?

• I always thought that standards were different for each person, but found out that our team feels the same, responsibility, respect, and appropriate behavior are high on the list of standards.

• “Standards” are simply guidelines and goals to strive for which will help students attain a good grasp of subject matter.

• I feel comfortable with my understanding of “standards.”

• Positive interactions.

• I, personally, learned how to improve myself as a teacher to help my students become more successful.

• When I think of the term “standard” after this week, I think of how I am going to change my standard of teaching. By doing so, I hope to achieve higher standards for my students.

• My standards of teaching have personally changed in what, how and why I teacher and the style.

• I feel I have been well versed in the standards, however, I now feel I can relate constructivism to those standards.

• I was very aware of the standards before I arrived here.

• Standards are common objectives that demonstrate a level of performance. There are many ways to meet a standard.

• The standards have always been known and adhered to in our planning.

• They were talked about, but never discussed in any of my interactions.

• We have all done so much work with aligning & professional development in this area that this was important but not the main focus. We just used them to align math & science.

• Not sure if it has changed – reinforced importance of having them and referring to them continually.

• Standards can be top down (State, America’s Choice), but empty and meaningless. Teacher, student, and parent standards are constructivist by nature, thereby alerting us to paths for integration of the former with the latter.

• I am more aware of what they are in other areas outside my own content area.

HAS YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORD “CONSTRUCTIVIST” CHANGED AS A RESULT OF YOUR WORK THIS WEEK?

• Before this week I had never heard the word. Now I understand what it is and how to use it.

• I now realize that much of what I do can be easily understood and repeated if I simply make a written copy of the steps I used.

• I was given the opportunity to “see” constructivism as the workshop continued.

• It’s my first constructivist conference and I haven’t mastered the concept.

• Play dough exercise.

• I didn’t have a good understanding before coming here. Now, I feel I understand but need to further my knowledge with readings and more conferences.

• I now know what constructivism means and how to implement the ideas in my classroom.
• I had no idea what constructivism was while I want to do more reading, I feel that I have a foundation form which to work.

• I have a better understanding of the activities and how to use them in my room.

• I understand it more clearly and am looking forward to applying the practices within my classroom.

• I am now much more familiar with it.

• I learned about more types of activities I could use in my class and got a more thorough meaning of constructivism, but the meaning itself didn’t change.
• Will do more of it because it works!
• It has reinvigorated me and tweaked the meaning. Don’s comment about changing slowly takes the pressure off.
• Not sure my understanding has changed but had a number of dialogues about it with a variety of different groups of people.

• 2 phases of a constructivist lesson. Additional sources on the brain and more ways to connect this information to training/teaching/learning of teachers.

• My understanding of constructivism has been good. I feel I gained ideas and quality work time to implement more constructivism teaching in my classroom.

• Yes, because of the great informative work and actual modeling of and participation in constructivist strategies.

• I feel like I really really know what it means because of our group work. Now I’m ready to carry the torch!