Open enrollment has already been responsible for the start of many new sections of FOR-PD! If you're a first-time facilitator this summer, welcome! If you're a returning (experienced?) facilitator, welcome back! Please drop by the For Facilitator Only discussions from time to time and offer some support for the newbies!

We enjoyed meeting and working with so many of you on May 30 at the Facilitator's Focus Group. We had 27 facilitators from around the state in attendance to share their experiences and insights on facilitating the FOR-PD course. Many of the attendees shared their impressions of the meeting on our facilitator discussion board. Here are just a few of their comments:

"I must say that for the first time I felt like I was a part of something worth while and that my opinion really did matter. I really liked the fact they were open to our suggestions and really listened to our concerns. More than that, it was refreshing to be a part of a group that didn't just sit around and whine... everyone there really was there for the benefit of the course."

"As with any new project, successful leaders value the venting as really constructive suggestions for improvements, from the practitioners, and use it to improve their product and/or service. FOR-PD has made a great investment in their first couple of rounds of facilitators and they are savvy enough to realize that our feedback is critical to the continued success of this course. Based upon their validation of our experiences, successes, and concerns, something that is already great is being made even better!"

"One thing that I took away was the idea that our input was desired and worthwhile. In looking at the direction that FOR-PD is going, it tells me that they are striving to keep improving the course for the participants, which in turn is going to benefit students, which is the business that we are all ultimately in. I was so psyched that I was volunteering to jump right into the fray."

Thanks to all who attended. We hope to be able get another group together in early fall. Meanwhile, keep the good ideas coming by participating in the Facilitator Only discussions.

Ruth Gumm-Shearon, Florida Reading Specialist with the DOE, will be our special guest on June 19th, 7pm in the General Chat for All Courses chat room. Please join us with your questions and comments for Ruth on reading instruction in our state.

"Each time we re-read a book we get more out of it because we put more into it; a different person is reading it, and therefore it is a different book." -- Murial Clark

 

We're looking at some optional review activities for FOR-PD course content and have developed a Flash "challenge game." Thanks to Lea Brice, Heather Bunker, and Vicky Zygouris-Coe of our staff for the content.

Give the first version a try!! http://webhome.crk.umn.edu/~dlim/itc/Flash/CategoryGames/CatGame_ReadingReview.html

(You'll need Macromedia Flash 6.0 to play. If you don't have it, you can download it from http://www.macromedia.com/) Let us know what you think! Will participants play the game? Enjoy it? Learn from it?

A student who recently completed the FOR-PD course for college credit recently emailed the FOR-PD office:

"Dr. Zygouris-Coe, I want to thank you so much for the FOR-PD course. It was wonderfully designed. It should win all kinds of awards for exemplary literacy online curriculum. If I had any power along those lines, you'd win hands down.

"I've just finished IDL 6543, the [UCF] course teaching us how to use WebCT to convert our face-to-face classes to online. Taking this class concurrently was one of the best ideas I've ever had. This gave me an idea of just how much work and how much creativity went into the design of this curriculum. Therefore, this is not meant as flattery. It is meant as: Whoa! This course is outstanding in every way. It is meant as sincere a compliment as I can proffer.

"I know, I know. I took the survey at the end. Somehow just marking everything 'Excellent' didn't convey what I really felt about the whole of the course.

"Thank you so much for such quality work."

 

Wondering what happens for participants when you tell us your course is over? Well, we notify district staff development offices of participant progress for all who have finished. We also survey those who registered but never logged in and those who started but did not finish the course. Latest statistics look promising:

• 81% say they just didn't have time to complete the course.
• 76% say they definitely or probably will try to take the course again at a later time.
• 60% say they would prefer to learn about reading methods in an online course compared to a face-to-face-course or workshop.

Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
-- P. J. O'Rourke

I have heard from some of the participants in my section that they are using many of the strategies learned in the FOR-PD course in their classrooms and that they can see differences already in the reading abilities of their students. This seems important! How can we let someone know that FOR-PD is having immediate impact in the classroom?

Sincerely,
U. R. Important

 

Dear U.,

We'd love to hear from those teachers. Please share the FOR-PD email address, phone number, fax number, mailing address, and carrier pigeon route with them. We like news like that! If they seem reluctant to share, please get the info and pass it on to us! We'd really appreciate it, and we'll share it with the FOR-PD Advisory Boards and Just Read, Florida! staff.

Yours, truly,
Felicity

Carlos Ibanez, Help Desk Supervisor, graduated from UCF in May. Congratulations, Carlos! And thanks for your patience and expert assistance to many who call (866) 863-READ or instant messenger forpdhelp on evenings and weekends!

Toni Christopher, FOR-PD Facilitator from Seminole County, joins the FOR-PD staff part-time this summer to help with course redesign and on a related project for the Southeast Regional Technology in Education Consortia (SEIR*TEC). Welcome, Toni!

Send us your success stories and good ideas you've tried. We'd also love to hear any stories about how teachers are using FOR-PD content and strategies in their classrooms. Do you have any "funny" stories from your FOR-PD classes? Send your contributions to fff@orion.itrc.ucf.edu.

 

Version 1.5 is currently online at /facilitators/manual.html

Return to FOR-PD Home Page
Last updated June 4, 2003
Contact us at forpd@mail.ucf.edu

A project of the Instructional Technology Resource Center at the University of Central Florida.
Funded by the Florida Department of Education and Just Read Florida!