CTC Programming Reports

We sent a copy of CTC Programming Committee survey questions to the Communication Committee, along with a message for the newsletter about our committee.

We still have a very small response to our survey from CTEP members. We decided to email the survey directly to all members.

As we receive responses, we will analyze what the responders’ needs are and research answers for their needs.

We will begin our meetings with members at their sites in December. We will go first to the earliest responders to the survey.

Ian Sorlie will provide a copy of some handouts used at his site for training people in basic technology.

We discussed the possibility of getting a copy of Macromedia Captivate, or of getting training in Flash, to do some of our work. We may have to write a “proposal” to C-CAN for the money to buy Captivate.

Half of our committee was absent during the allotted committee time. Present: Donathan Williams and Rich Bergeron.

So, what we did was to go over the Core Training Topics List that Kate handed out and did some research on some topics.

Our topics were:

• Project and time management
• Collaboration and partnership building/finding expertise to meet your projects’ needs
• Effective evaluation – how to measure project progress/good documentation skills/reporting skills
• Learning styles
• Initiating new programs/gathering resources for new programs
• How to create and expand CTC programming: assessing community needs in terms of programming/working with staff to improve their work re: technology literacy/helping organizations support technology literacy as part of their mission/vision

Here are some web sites we found that we can use as jumping-off points for these topics:

Learning styles:

www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.mi.htm

www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

www.vark-learn.com/english/index.asp

Time management:

www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/success/time.html

http://counseling.uchicago.edu/resources/virtualpamphlets/time_management.shtml

www.mindtools.com/page5.html

Again we met during Corps Day. Today we formalized our committee expectations and developed our milestones.

Expectations

1. Our group dynamics and characteristics will be as informal as possible.
2. Each person will perform according to their interests and abilities.

Milestones

1. Be ready to visit CTCs in mid-December.
2. Develop, distribute, and analyze a Site Survey of programs used and needed.
3. Get responses by 10/20/06.
4. Create a “need sheet” from the survey.
5. Update the blog.
6. Establish a sign-up board and a process for determining when we visit each site.
7. Visit all CTCs at least once by May 1, 2007.
8. Respond to other needs brought up by CTCs.

Survey

Renee and Rasheed proceeded to create the survey questions.

1. What are the main programs that you implement currently at your site? (No more than five)

2. In what way can these programs be improved or become more accessible?

3. In what areas are these programs lacking? What supplements would be useful for improvement? (Materials, trainings, tools, curriculum, etc.)

4. What programming support would help achieve the goals at your site?

During Corps Day, we had our first committee meetings. Members of the 2006-07 CTC Programming Committee are: Donathan Williams, Rasheed Ali, Renee Kaplan, and Rich Bergeron.

We decided on this year’s Mission Statement, Goals, and Activites.

Mission Statement
Help CTEP AmeriCorps members run their site programs more easily and efficiently.

Goals

1. Help CTCs find programs to use to do their job.
2. Create sustainable programs to be used effectively in the community.
3. Discover more adult educational and multi-lingual resources.

Activities

1. Create materials on how to develop a curriculum.
2. Expand our inventory of soft skill/job acquisition resources.
3. Establish youth programs – continuing and special events.
4. Establish adult literacy programs, including technical literacy
5. Determine how to build effective programs
6. Learn how to assess a situation and decide what is needed
7. Establish a database of programs and tools for members to utilize
8. Research and make accessible any sources of information for members to use
9. Run/facilitate some of these programs
10. Research best practices for programming with adults, youth, new immigrants, and people needing to improve technical skills.

Programs
We already know we need to work with:

1. Adult-Ed and multi-lingual
2. GED
3. ESL
4. Job Search
5. Learning to use technology
6. Work experience programs
7. Certification programs for OSHA requirements, forklift operators, etc.

We also felt close to a few items the members had listed under “other” because CTEP does not have enough people to form many new committees. These action items include:

* Organize in-house or member-run workshops for CTC members to develop specific technology-related skills.

* Help members understand good teaching / training practices and curriculum planning for sites.

We plan to play to committee members special abilities and needs:
Renee was very interested in updating the CTEP Programs blog from last yearDonathan is most interested in researching.