VITAL Survey

The project team for the Virtual Instructional Training for the Advancement of Literacy would like your feedback regarding our professional development website so that we might expand upon the content as a way of including specific content that meets the needs of each primary teacher in the Avalon West School Board and the Vista School Board. Once the findings are collated, various members of the project team will work on developing the requested professional development information, and this information will be included within the content of the VITAL Project website. The information from this survey will be held in the strictest confidentiality. All we request is that you submit which school district you currently work for, and the position that you hold with this district (e.g. resource teacher, primary or special education teacher, etc.).

We all thank you in advance for your time and consideration in filling out this short survey.

Just a little about yourself...

Please indicate where you are currently employed.

What best describes your current position?

Please assess the following statements.

	Strongly Disagree	Disagree	No Opinion	Agree	Strongly Agree
I feel that I have a strong literacy background that I can use in my classroom.

I use the Internet on a regular basis to find resources to use in my classroom.

I could use additional classroom strategies for teaching reading and writing.

I rarely use the Internet for work-related purposes.

I would like the opportunity to obtain professional development in the field of literacy instruction.

I have taken courses (e.g. university courses, professional development opportunities, etc.) through distance education in the past.

If I had the opportunity, I would upgrade my skills in literacy instruction.

I believe that I have adequate strategies to teach my students reading an writing in all curriculum areas.

I have taken courses (e.g. university courses, professional development opportunities, etc.) online in the past.

If provided the opportunity I would take advantage of a course (e.g. university course or professional development opportunity).

And what you thought of the Vital website....

After viewing the material on the Vital website (http://www.mun.ca/educ/vital), please rate each of the pages based upon how useful the content was to you in your own classroom teaching. Select "n/a" if you haven't viewed that page on the VITAL website.

	Not Useful At All	Not Really Useful	No Opinion	Somewhat Useful	Very Useful	n/a
The Learning of Language - by Dr Marc Glassman

The Integrated Thematic Curriculum - by Dr Marc Glassman

Professional Development Topics in Literacy - by Ms. Debbie Troope

Writing to Learn - by Dr Marc Glassman

Creative Expressive/Receptive Language Activities - by Dr Marc Glassman

Literature Response Activities - by Dr Marc Glassman

And your experience with discussion forums...

Please respond to the following questions.

	Yes	No
Would you find it useful if you had a forum to discuss issues and trade strategies with other primary teachers?

Have you participated in an online discussion forum in the past?

Have you every used Alta Vista Forum, SiteScape Forum, WebCT or any other online discussion forum before?

Do you feel comfortable in using an online discussion forum to discuss issues and trade strategies with other teachers?

Would you participate in such a literacy online discussion forum with other teachers in similar grade levels?

And what we really need to know...

Are there any other areas of literacy professional development that you would like to see on the Vital website?

Are there any situations in your classroom that you have faced for which you would like strategies on how to handle in the future? If yes, please describe the situation.