Sustainability Curriculum Program

The following are selected comments received as part of a regular survey effort following each Sustainability Curriculum Program event and also as unsolicited letters.

1995 Sustainability Curriculum Workshop:

From the Surveys:

Did the workshop improve your knowledge about sustainability?

• 100% repsonded yes.
  

What do community members need to know before they visit your classroom:

• Grade level appropriate language.
• Ways to get across ideas in other than words (e.g. demonstrations) due to language difficulties.
• Listen to the students-value their contribution.
• Kids would love true debates; give them an opportunity to take a viewpoint they don't now hold.
• Enthusiasm is contagious.

What would help you most, as a teacher?

• Intensive training in science and social science subjects relevent to sustainability.
• Collection of Tahoe-specific data for use with existing curriculum.
• Practicing use of learner-based teaching methods.

"Once again thank you for your organization and efforts toward Friday's program. I am very excited to see this take place at the Lake and hope I can be of assistance in the future in a variety of ways toward reaching the group's goals."

1995 Community Leaders in Classrooms Training:

From the Surveys:

How helpful was the workshop in improving your understanding of how to interact with students of different age groups (on a scale of 1-low to 5-high)?

• 100% of the respondants answered 4 or 5.

What would improve this workshop?

• More direct work on presentation techniques.
• Feedback from the teachers on effectiveness of individual techniques.

1996 Sustainability Curriculum Planning Workshop:

From the Surveys:

Did the workshop improve your knowledge about sustainability?

• 100% repsonded yes.

How helpful was the workshop in developing a sustainability project (on a scale of 1-low to 5-high)?

• 100% responded 5.

What specific things can the Tahoe Center provide to you to help make your projects a success?

• Make contacts with resource people.
• Help with equipment acquisition.
• Field methods training.
• Helping to set goals and achieve them.
• Training in use of other sustainability tools (dialogue, technology).

What was most beneficial about the workshop?

• Business people's presentation; I don't get a chance to examine these issues very often
• Interaction with other teachers working on holistic learning and similar projects.
• The experts were great, especially Dr. Goldman.
• Time to work on developing specific projects.

What could make this workshop better?

• Getting our resource person to attend.
• Holding it during the school year.

General Comments:

"I am very impressed with the progress from Fall, 1995 to now and the development of real projects. You've done a lot of work and I think it will pay off."

"I would love more time to develop projects and suggest the Tahoe Center develop a funding source to pay for release days to give me time to work with other teachers."

Other Sources:

"I attended a workshop for teachers interested in sustainability curriculum. The workshop was well planned and presented. ... Making contact with local resources while planning the project was invaluable. The Tahoe Center for a Sustainable Future is making it possible to bring the community into the classroom and the classroom into the community. I feel that my sutdents will benefit tremendously from the project I am planning with the organizations and individuals I worked with at the workshop."