Dr. Z-Coe's Corner

ABC's of Facilitation

• Reflection on Spring 2006
• Before the Course Begins
• Facilitator Responsibilities-Beginning of the Course
• Facilitation Resource of the Month

Information Update

• Summer and Fall Registration Dates
• Celebration!!

Chatterbox

• Dear Felicity
• Community Comments
• Facilitator Only Chats

Dr. Z-Coe's Corner

Dear FOR-PD Facilitator:

Greetings! Summer is here and soon we will be starting new FOR-PD sections in July. As always, thank you for all you do to help Florida's preK-12 teachers complete Competency 2 of the Florida Reading Endorsement/Certification. Thank you for continuing to communicate with us and with the teachers in your section. Thank you for continuing to encourage them to keep up with the course schedule. Lastly, thank you for sharing your experiences and knowledge with your class.

This month we are focusing on core reminders about effective facilitation. The following are standard "must dos" that will help you communicate effectively with participants:

• Inform learners of your expectations for how FOR-PD communication and course tools will be used as part of the course.
  
• Send a welcome message on the discussion list. Tell the students a bit about yourself and/or the course. Encourage students to do the same. Your use of the tool models an appropriate use of it and provides students with the initial prompt to begin a discussion. This exercise will also reveal if students are having difficulty understanding how to post or reply to a message and will also help build community.
  
• Focus your discussions by carefully preparing questions to discuss with your participants in advance.
  
• Provide discussion board participation guidelines to students, including instructor expectations, goals, and rules of conduct.
  
• Monitor the discussion to keep learners focused on the topic.
  
• Monitor the quality and regularity of the postings . If learners appear to post late (when you have already gone on to another posting), communicate with that student privately.
  
• Consider asking students to facilitate discussions in specific content areas where they may have particular expertise or where expertise needs to be developed. Having a student lead the discussion can lead to the student preparing in advance with relevant issues and information.

We wish you a successful summer and look forward to continued collaboration. Thank you for your time, efforts, and leadership with the FOR-PD course. Please feel free to contact me in case you have any comments or questions at vzygouri@mail.ucf.edu or (407) 207-7296.

Regards,
Vicky Zygouris-Coe, Ph.D.
Principle Investigator, FOR-PD
vzygouri@mail.ucf.edu

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Reflection on Spring 2006

Our staff discussion emphasized that FOR-PD has areas of needed improvement but many things to celebrate! It is important that facilitators are aware that we appreciate your hard work because, as mentioned before, we would not be a successful project without excellent facilitators. We wanted to share this information with you so that you were aware of the areas that we can grow as an entire team. By improving upon these areas, we will be able to uphold and strengthen the professional development and online experience that we provide. Thank you for being a part of the FOR-PD team!

Before the Course Begins

The summer sections of FOR-PD will begin on July 10, 2006. Facilitators chosen to facilitate these sections will be notified on June 27 and will be provided access to their course on July 3rd. Just as you would prepare your classroom for your students, facilitators must prepare their course for their participants. There are several items that you are expected to post within your course prior to the Monday start date for your participants. FOR-PD will provide you a week in order to prepare your course, this is a change for the summer 2006 sections. Please take the time to review this list to ensure that your course will be ready to open July 10 th.

Course Schedule: Participants are expected to complete one lesson a week. This means that they should read the lesson and complete the literacy log, discussion, and quiz required for that lesson. Please follow the schedule below for the summer sections.

Facilitator Responsiblities - Beginning of the Course

First Week of the Course

This is the critical period when some participants will log on and get overwhelmed with the course. Your primary responsibility during this week is to ease fears and start creating a sense of community. All facilitators are expected to do the following:

1. Login at least once a day.
   
2. Respond to EVERYONE'S "Meet Me Here" message so they feel welcome.
   Ask questions so they are comfortable responding back to you in the discussion area. This helps set the tone for what you expect throughout the course.
   
3. Try to respond to messages within 24 hours.
   
4. Promptly grade all assignments posted within 24 hours of the due date (you should grade weekly). Post grades in the gradebook. Send private feedback to students who did not achieve the required 80%.
   
5. Email participants who have not logged in (using outside email). After a few days to make sure they get on board-let them know you are available to assist them in any way you can. Things to remember:

• If participants inform you that they have to drop the course, try once more to keep them involved by letting them know the value of the information
• If the participants still cannot commit to the course, send their names to Richard Scott at Richard@orion.irtc.ucf.edu
• DO NOT DELETE THEM FROM THE COURSE! No student record should ever be deleted from the FOR-PD course.

Your role is transitioning to the motivator. You must continue to do some activities from week 1, but move into more of a coaching/motivational role to keep your participants involved. This is also the first week of actual course material (week 1 was an overview of the technology and the course structure), so you should do the following:

1. Contact any students (again-perhaps using phone) who have not responded to your email inquiring about their lack of participation in week 1. If students indicate that they must drop after you attempt to get them involved, send their names to the FOR-PD office. Do NOT delete students from your gradebook.
   
2. Log in at least once a day.
   
3. Respond to participant postings by asking probing questions. Get them to think critically about the material. Encourage others to respond also by asking questions like, "What do the rest of you think?" Comment on their discussions.
   
4. Grade assignments at the end of the week and post grades promptly. Send private feedback to any students who did not achieve the required 80%.
   
5. Review and respond to participants' literacy log posting each week. A simple "log ok" will be sufficient. Check to see if any logs need to be force graded. Remember to check out the Literacy Log Tutorial.
   
   

Facilitation Resource of the Month

As you know, the facilitator and the role he/she plays in the course is the key to providing a successful online experience to our FOR-PD participants. We at FOR-PD see the role of facilitator as more than just facilitation, we see your role as that of an online literacy coach. This month we will begin exploring the role of a literacy coach and look to make connections to what you do as FOR-PD Facilitators.

This month's resource, Coaching, A Continuum of Professional Development, developed by Florida Literacy and Reading Excellence (FLaRE), provides a good introduction to the role of the literacy coach. According to Susan Polinco, coaching is, "a form of inquiry-based learning characterized by collaboration between individuals or groups of teachers and more accomplished peers." This type of inquiry-based approach leads to significant improvement in student learning. The professional paper then goes into charactersitics of coaches who catalyze this type of improvement: knowledge, ability to form strong interpersonal relationships, adaptability and flexibility, and being a staff developer. We know from our own data that you as facilitators do have an impact on the learning of teachers who take the FOR-PD course. We also have data that shows FOR-PD is having an impact on teacher instruction (see May's newsletter).

Read this month's resource and think about the characteristics discussed in Coaching, A Continuum of Professional Development. Then answer the questions below.

• How do you share your knowledge of reading with your FOR-PD participants? Include a specific example in your response.
• How do you help your FOR-PD participants make connections between their instruction and what they are learning in the FOR-PD course?
• How do you help your FOR-PD participants reflect on their learning and practice?
• How do you build a relationship with your participants? Include specifc examples in your response.

After reading this month's resource, post your thoughts about the article and the preceding questions on the facilitator discussion board under the heading, Coaching, A Continuum of Professional Development, in the FFF Discussions topic.

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FOR-PD Summer and Fall Registration Dates for 2006

Summer 2006 Open Enrollment & District Sections

Open Registration Begins	May 8, 2006
Open Registration Ends	June 26, 2006
Summer Classes Begin	July 10, 2006
Summer Classes End	October 16, 2006

Fall 2006

OPEN ENROLLMENT		DISTRICT ENROLLMENT
Open Registration Begins	July 10, 2006	FOR-PD Begins Accepting District Registration Files	July 10, 2006
Open Registration Ends	August 7, 2006	Last Day to Submit District Registration Files	August 12, 2006
Fall OE Courses Begin	August 21, 2006	Fall District Courses Begin	August 28, 2006
Fall OE Courses End	November 27, 2006	Fall District Courses End	December 4, 2006

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Its time to celebrate your accomplishments again! We know that our facilitators you do many things to keep participants involved and successful. We would like to acknowledge those facilitators who had a completion rate of 80% or above for the spring 2006 semester.

Anjeanette Alexander-Smith Patricia Allegar Joellen Anderson Janet Bavonese Kristen Bazley Lou Ann Bigsby Connie Blanchard Kathlyne Boslet Patricia Brustad Nancy Case Vivian Castelli

Michelle Clark Ginger Cruze Cathy Denman Laura Frey Catherine Glass Leona Hunt Nanci Hunt David Jackson Lynn Johnson Patricia Lapinsky Mary Leonard

Hayley McDonald Ashley Navarro Violet Noyes Kathleen Pack Christine Peacock Kim Pearson Laura Renfroe Janet Robinson Sherri Robinson Bill Sarazen Inga Smith

Jayna Snyder Leslie Eloise Summers Lisa Tait Marcia Truitt Cynthia Vanderpool Ruth Wassather Cathern Wildey Rebecca Wilhelm Lynda Williams Shelia Windom Michele Wolf Heather Zielke

Jayna Snyder

Additionally, a large round of applause goes to those facilitators who achieved a 100% completion rate!!

Susan Phillips

Jean Salamon

Jayna Snyder

Cynthia Vanderpool

Dorothy Zyblotsky

Excellent job! Thank you to all of our facilitators for your efforts to support and motivate your participants during the course. Your hard work helps in making both your participants and FOR-PD a success. Our overall completion rate for the spring term was 77%. Keep up the good work for the upcoming courses!

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Dear Felicity,

Dear Felicity,

At the beginning of each semester I always get worried that I am going to forget to complete one of the facilitator requirements. I have so many different things going on that I feel a little bit overwhelmed!  Could you please remind me of what is expected of facilitators at the beginning of the course?

Sincerely, Overwhelmed

Dear Overwhelmed,

There are many different tasks that go into a course beginning so I can understand how it can be difficult to remember everything. The course opening requirements are as follows:

1. Post a Meet Me Here Message
2. Post a Welcome Message in the Facilitator Announcements are of the discussion board
3. Post a course calendar that includes the course start date, dates that lessons are due, course ending date, and the date that participants will be denied access
4. Respond to participants’ posting. Please do not forget that facilitators are required to respond to all participants in lesson one.
5. Be up-to-date on grading

Also, please be sure to review the facilitator expectations document that is included in the Facilitators Only course or on the FOR-PD website. Good luck with your course!

-Felicity

COMMUNITY COMMENTS

Do you have comments about the course? Have you received any comments from participants? We always look for feedback so send it our way. Email forpdfac@mail.ucf.edu with your stories.

Facilitator Only Chats

There will be two facilitator chats in July. These chats will go over key information you need to facilitate this summer as well as a chance to ask questions and receive answers.

Chat 1
WHEN: July 18, 2006
TIME: 7:30pm - 8:30pm EST
WHERE: For Facilitator Only Course Chat Area, Room 1
WHO: Facilitators
TOPIC: Course Information, Technology Support, Literacy Logs, Question and Answer session

Chat 2
WHEN: July 20, 2006
TIME: 7pm - 8pm EST
WHERE: For Facilitator Only Course Chat Area, Room 1
WHO: Facilitators
TOPIC: Course Information, Technology Support, Literacy Logs, Question and Answer session