Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in
Science Teaching |
 Personalized Feedback Cards and Letters 
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| Don’t change anything! This was a wonderful meeting. Thank you for all the work that was done to provide terrific speakers, delicious food and very comfortable accommodations. This meeting gave me an opportunity to reflect upon all the wonderful opportunities that the collaborative has provided for me and the impact those opportunities have had on my students. I will go back and start a new school year ready to implement many of the great ideas that other participants shared during the meeting. I look forward to another year of growth for my students and will be back next year to share and learn. Again, thank you for all your hard work. |
| PDA training on computers for webpage creation—this was wonderful—[need] more hands-on—Cambridge Physics—Gears, Levers, Pulleys, Rollercoaster. |
| Assessment and evaluation expectations helped me to know what the Regional Collaborative expectations are for teachers next year. I also feel that they will give me directional guidance in writing a successful Exxon grant and other grant endeavors. Your enthusiasm is exciting. |
| I can’t understand why every science teacher in Texas is not actively involved in the collaborative. |
| Along with the gallery we should have an opportunity for the collaboratives to speak in front of the group and discuss what they are doing. This will give a chance for us to elaborate on what we have on our display. I also think we need smaller sessions in interest groups (i.e. elementary, middle, and high) to discuss (in a smaller setting) problems, ideas, etc… I really did not get anything from the business partners discussion. Suggestion: are you keeping track of the number of people attending each session? There were sessions that had many participants and some with very few. Overall, a great conference! Thanks so much for your support!! |
| Need some smaller sessions and feedback or debriefing sessions. Give topics/questions/outlines on agenda or as handouts, especially ESTT info handouts. We would like to see a 10-minute presentation from 5 to 7 of the collaboratives each year—highlight them—some others each year. Unless you highlight collaboratives individually in a session, we really don’t get time to see them all. Thanks! |
| I enjoyed the dialogues the most because I was able to find out what is happening. Thank you! Kamil—I love your enthusiasm. You’re contagious. More people need to be like you! Thank you for your love of education. |
| Suggestions: (1) Have teacher mentors/stories before partner panel (same day). The businesses need to hear this—it should set the stage. (2) We need new collaborative partners that can address the needs of rural and small districts or we need to help the current partners understand how rural or small districts may teach 2-5 preps, therefore the number of teachers reached may be small but the student impact may be big! This is the second year that this issue was a concern, but has not been addressed. Need a scientist with each collaborative teacher to work with and rub shoulders. Comments: Great conference! High level and quality staff to coordinate all the activities. Thank you Joel, Sandy and Alana for all your help and support—you did a great job!! Great balance and good positive recognition for all collaboratives! With each group being at a separate place, this is very important! Each team has great leadership, diversity and dedication. Thanks Jim and Kamil for your dedication, hard work and ability to continue year after year. |
| More hands-on activities—possibly given by teachers. [Need] peer evaluation. |
| Would like to see each Regional Collaborative demonstrate some of the things that they are doing. Maybe give each group about ten minutes to "show their stuff." |
| [Need] specifics on grant writing follow-up and assessment. HELP! [Need] ideas on recruiting and encouraging other teachers to come for mentoring without appearing boastful. |
| Great meeting! [Ideas]: Information on becoming certified in science shortage areas. University of Texas at Austin programs in science education. Using the Regional Collaboratives as a route to teacher certification/advanced degrees in science education. Certificates from program meeting/summer meetings to use as part of professional development portfolios/requirements. Workshop on portfolios. Informing school districts about teachers participating in the collaboratives. |
| Panel of mentors was OK but Stories of Success could be shared in smaller groups with members from various collaboratives in a more intimate setting where more could share in a shorter time. Some small group sharing is often very refreshing and more people can feel "heard" and renew a commitment to their goals. Maybe a session could be set up for some of this vital sharing. Thursday was a bit of a marathon! I would have been more refreshed and therefore more receptive to the presentations in the afternoon if an hour for regrouping, relaxing, etc. would have been built in just after lunch. It would be better to go a bit longer or start a bit earlier to allow a chance for lunch to settle and for us to get a second wind! Awards and incentives should certainly reward and recognize the efforts of those "old timers" who do so much for so many. How about a part of the program to recognize and encourage some of the excited and innovative new comers, as well! The major recognition could go to the deserving long-serving members, but maybe a certificate and small incentive recognizing contributions of relative new comers would go a long way in maintaining mentor-dedication and development. I believe the partners who support this recognition program would be willing to support this idea. This was a great conference with a lot of hard work and dedication quite evident! I am leaving with new commitment and lots of ideas. The timing is good—not at the end of the school year but just before we go back when we are fresher and more receptive to ideas. Thanks for everything. |
| Aside from the updates and awards and the sessions, please focus on one specific innovation that either one collaborative excels in and have a workshop for all of these or divide the teachers into their science field and have one collaborative assigned to handle this for one whole day. Involve companies like Casio or Apple or other book companies only in terms of the use of their technology and lectures, but have the workshop instructional planned-based and "implementable" in class. |
| [Need] opportunities to practice developing and presenting programs to collaborative partners. This is a great conference—good job! |
| Portfolios for teachers. How about an IBook for Project Directors? I thought that this was the best meeting of the 6! |
| Additional focus on teachers. Next year, focus/honor the teachers. Have exemplary master teachers serve as key speakers/moderators. Ask administrators to participate; focus on the school/teaching/learning—student achievement. |
| [Need] more of the [hands-on and technological] activities. |
| Great conference! |
| Great!!! Thanks for a great experience! Include more hands-on activities with handouts next year! |
| Thanks: Kamil, Sandy, Joel—for another great conference, your efforts are greatly appreciated as always. |
| Well done—as always—we always leave feeling like we can walk on water! It is like a revival. Thanks so much! |
| As usual, the three days was invigorating and rejuvenating. Thanks! |
| I would like to see break out sessions or 15-minute presentations from 3 collaboratives per day. This way we would have 9-10 informative, in-depth sessions with the collaboratives. Tom Hsu was great! |
| Smaller groups would be nice! More on web page creation. |
| Thanks! A valuable think-tank. Nice collaboration. Please allow a 30-45 minute break after lunch on Thursday. Our bodies need a break from sitting so long! I will return the next two years! |
| It may be good for a session where one or two "Success" stories with students from a region is presented to the Business Partners so partners can hear first-hand accounts [of] how our students directly benefit from what we teachers gain from collaborative participation. |
| [Need] more time and training on how to network with business, industry, and higher education. |
| More hands-on activities—maybe like a mini-Cast! Iniquity-based learning. Grant writing. TAAS testing at the 5th grade level. |
| All speakers should have handouts for participants to follow their slideshows. We need more "hands-on" instructions like Cambridge. Panels need to be done in small groups. Break groups according to "like" topics/title etc. |
| Kamil is a very energetic—dynamic—speaker. Enjoyed the conference very much. |
| Very excellent conference. |
| Schedule Stories of Success at a time when corporate sponsors are likely to be present. Address issue of small rural districts. |
| I would like much more time given to dialogue. I suggest some group sessions with members of other regional collaboratives to share more of problems and successes. |
| I found there were surprisingly few teachers from the Austin Independent School District and other area districts in attendance. What can the collaborative do to help improve this? |
| More hands-on demos from teachers. |
| Personalized Feedback Cards and Letters |
Kamil A. Jbeily, Ph.D. [email protected], Director
Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science Teaching
Dwight D. Eisenhower Science Professional Development
The University of Texas at Austin, Science Education Center SZB340, Austin, Texas
78712-1294
Phone: 512-471-9460 Fax: 512-471-9244