FOR-PD Update

May 2003

Latest FOR-PD Numbers

2839 students
82 sections
54 participating districts
4 participating universities

FOR-PD Announces OPEN ENROLLMENT for Summer 2003!

We think summer is a great opportunity for busy teachers to take the FOR-PD course!

Participants may enroll beginning May 12, 2003 by going directly to the FOR-PD website and completing the online registration for Summer 2003. Sections will begin with every 30-50 participants and run up to 14 weeks. Open enrollment for Summer 2003 will close June 27th.

Please note: Not all districts will be participating in open enrollment. If your district chooses not to offer open enrollment at this time, traditional enrollment will still be available.

FOR-PD Tech Tools and Tips

At FOR-PD, we are excited about the role technology can play in professional development, of course, but also in classroom instruction, and particularly reading instruction. We've developed a new Terrific Technology Tips section for each classroom applications section to share some of the most exciting and relevant instructional tools with FOR-PD participants.

We've also identified tools to use with students to improve their reading, writing, and technology skills. We hope participants will use and share these resources back in their classrooms.

We're also creating some real-world examples of technology use for each lesson. We need your help to identify teachers to feature. We'd like to hear your feedback on these new tech tips as well! Please go to http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/techtools/ to see the current draft of these tech tips and to find directions on how to give feedback and nominate good teachers you know are using technology to help students achieve more.

New Lesson 7 Up for Review

Check out our preliminary redesign of Lesson 7 at http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/courseinfo/course_outline.html What's new? Shorter pages, more interactive activities, and a few more little things we hope add up to a lot more learning. Let us know what you think!

FOR-PD Facilitator Focus Group Meeting

As part of our continuing efforts to improve the FOR-PD course, we’ve invited all FOR-PD facilitators who have facilitated OR who are currently facilitating a section of FOR-PD to meet with us on Friday, May 30th in Orlando to discuss the FOR-PD course and their facilitator experiences. Thus far we have about 30 RSVPs and are looking forward to a lively and constructive discussion with our fantastic FOR-PD facilitators!

FOR-PD Promotional Mailing

We recently mailed out a packet of FOR-PD promotional materials to every district staff development office in the state. The packets included: FOR-PD flyers and brochures, a copy of the FOR-PD promotional video, as well as other FOR-PD goodies to distribute! If your district hasn’t received one or if you’d like one yourself to help spread the word about the FOR-PD project and course, please contact us and we’ll be happy to send one out to you! You can also download presentations and order promotional materials directly from our e-store.

Notable Quotable

Susan Horton, a facilitator from Highlands, recently posted this message in one of our discussion boards:

"Many of my participants have expressed feelings of excitement at learning these wonderful strategies to use in their classrooms. They are pleased with the course information and find it VERY helpful. They are grateful for the opportunity to learn so much about reading education. Some had been floundering in their classrooms, not knowing what to do for certain problems. This course has given them possible solutions and renewed feelings of hope.

This is a fabulous project. It certainly is worthwhile and beneficial to teachers and their students. I sincerely hope it will continue for the sake of Florida's children."

We do too, Susan! Thanks for sharing this information.

Do you have comments or news you'd like to share with us about the FOR-PD project or course? Please send them to us at forpd@mail.ucf.edu.