TESTIMONIALS
SETS: Student Evaluation & Tracking System Testimonials
Venturing Together Testimonials
Partners in Art - Play by Heart & Draw on Experience Testimonials
Testimonials for SETS: Student Evaluation & Tracking System (Software)
SETS is a very straightforward program. As we grow from a small grassroots program, we see the need to formalize our evaluation processes. We see SETS as being a great tool for us as we move forward.
- Rosa Garza Moore, Director, The Garage Community and Youth Center, Kennett Square, PA
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It’s easy to learn with your sandbox database – with everything filled out like that, because it gives you an idea of what to be looking for – it kind of opens your mind – it’s a huge help. Also, I love keeping all of the teacher information and data in one place, in the same place as student information – so we’re tracking teachers while we track students. We do teacher evaluations already, and we could put our comments in here.
The evaluations are a real time saver too – I don’t have to print, make copies, staple, and give to the teachers like I used to. So it’s going green, too!
- Veronica Jenkins, Administrative Manager, Chester County Family Academy, West Chester, PA (charter school)
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I have always known that better organization will make me more focused, but I didn’t realize until actually sitting down to fill out the SETS assessment that it would dramatically clarify my work with students and show me that I have already discovered how each individual learns most effectively. Essentially, I finally broke a cycle of repeating less effective techniques over and over again.
I soon became aware of how tracking an individuals’ learning curves and triggers that lead to counterproductive behavior can lead to me working smarter as a teacher, not necessarily harder.
I began to notice that my classes started running more smoothly because I was more in tune with the students’ needs and again, more material was being covered and retained.
I read once that writing things down logs them into the long term memory. I can only say that student evaluations make my life easier and make me a better teacher.
- Dawn Mehan, Yoga and African Dance Teacher, Philadelphia
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SETS has actually made my job easier! SETS has changed my perception of evaluation tools, as I believe it will for any organization that uses it.
- Thomasina Winslow, Fine Arts Program Director, St. Anne Institute, Albany, NY
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Remember - we guarantee SETS 100%. Why? Because we want you to try SETS and discover for yourself how effective, easy to use, and friendly it really is!
Click Here for SETS Pricing and Purchase Information!
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Testimonials for Venturing Together: Empowering Students to Succeed
By providing the tools to reach a person's underlying spirit, or essence, Bill Rossi's approach enables teachers to bring forth aspects of students' being that truly humanize them. This volume is well worth reading.
- Wander de C. Braga, MD, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Albany, NY
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People in the world today are searching for answers, and one of the answers is in this book.
Venturing Together is about putting all of the pieces together, which we so badly need to do right now. We’ve done the intellectual piece really, really well, but the heart of the child is too often forgotten. To engage the heart we have to be completely there for the student - then our children will be learning in this country.
This is one of the best books I’ve read because it brings all of the pieces together. We are venturing together where it’s a whole circle, with the student in the center. Bill Rossi has become an authority – what he’s offering for children through the arts, that’s the story we need to hear about.
Venturing Together is a special book that anyone can pick up and read and become a more hands-on involved, excited, energetic person.
Lorraine Andersen, Founder and Head of the Chester County Family Academy, West Chester, PA, one of Pennsylvania’s first charter schools.
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This volume provides valuable, specific tools for anyone wanting to creatively enhance their ability to teach or mentor. Bill’s approach is very effective, and will contribute to educational and social reform.
– Kathryn Gerbino, Ph.D., Assistant District Superintendent of Instruction, Capital Region BOCES, NY
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Bill Rossi's book, Venturing Together, Empowering Students to Succeed, is an inspiring work that reveals the importance of the creative arts used in mentoring and education. Within this volume, Book One indicates the psychological and social need for alternative-learning and at-risk students to become engaged and find emotional resonance. A favorite quote: "The arts entrain, resonate, vibrate, and synchronize.", Rossi, 2004, p. 47, Book One.
In Book Two, Rossi illustrates how to develop strengths-based teaching. For instance, he discusses how to create an atmosphere of inclusion; how a teacher's honesty and vulnerability contribute to trust and belongingness for students; and how to compare strengths-based and standards-based education. A most important quote: "Good art contains an energy about it that makes it alive - it communicates life. ... The end product will contain this energy if the priority of the human condition remains the priority.", Rossi, 2004, p. 59, Book Two.
Highly recommended!
- Paula Skutnick-Henley, M.Ed., Licensed Psychologist, Piano and Composition Instructor, Ragtime, Blues, Jazz, Classical Pianist
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Bill Rossi reminds us that young people cannot grow up complete unless art, music and creativity are part of their lives, and demonstrates how to bring out the best in students with specific instructional approaches encouraging mentoring, strength-based teaching, motivation, and putting students first.
What he demonstrates is that effective education is … about encouraging young people’s innate love of learning.
- James Harvey, Senior Fellow, Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington; co-author, A Legacy of Learning
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Venturing Together was amazing, for me. It was inspirational and has a huge out-of-the-box focus. Here in our educational system it’s like we’re in a bubble – everyone’s inside a bubble – and what Bill Rossi is doing is outside the box. It’s a huge vision! I loved that book so much I read it twice – I think he should write a second book!
- Veronica Jenkins, Administrative Manager, Chester County Family Academy, West Chester, PA (Pennsylvania Charter School)
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So many of our young people, as well as many others, feel they don’t belong in the mainstream of society. Well, they do. We all do, and even if we are different, we are valuable. As a matter of fact, these differences add value rather than marginalization in the whole fabric of our humanity.
The arts are universal, and involvement with the creative process brings self esteem and dimension to all of us who reach inside to find our individual voices. But how can we as teachers and mentors implement the diversity of voices and stories to make a better world?
Bill Rossi shows us how to make the creative processes in the arts a valuable contribution to both the artist himself/herself and to the community in which we live. Bill’s book Venturing Together provides an intelligent guide to aiding those who may feel like they don’t belong to realize the energy and power of their own creative spirits.
Some of us who are mentors in the arts do not have an academic background in teaching. Instead we are artists who know our crafts of music, drawing, writing, acting, singing, poetry and other artistic forms. Some of our students have been so traumatized that finding their authentic voices takes sensitivity, strength and risk-taking.
In this invaluable book, Bill Rossi shows us how to proceed. There are no quick fixes here, only hard work, compassion, and believing in the goodness of the human spirit. All of a sudden, something really connects with one of our charges, and all the hard work pays off. The transformation begins of someone who feels like an outsider into a valuable, contributing member of society.
- Erica Fitz Mears, writing coach and instructor of theater arts
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Testimonials for Partners in Art
Draw on Experience (Visual Arts Curriculum)
"Draw on Experience" provides the ground for the child and her partner to work and play together, and serves as a springboard to understanding and experiencing the child's emotional and social world. In this context, art represents communication as symbolic language, giving visible form to feelings and thoughts.
What's really important is that the purpose of this curriculum is not just to create satisfying art, but also to develop relationship and companionship. This makes it ideal for educational, artistic, and therapeutic purposes.
- Marika Cutler Moore, MSW, Co-Author, Developmental Play Therapy in Clinical Social Work
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Play by Heart (Drumset Curriculum)
As a teacher of students who play a variety of instruments, I always look for method books that will give them a comprehensive look at what they need to know. These exercises fit the bill.
- Clarence Acox, Band Director/Teacher of the award winning Garfield High School Jazz Band in Seattle, WA
Click here for Pricing and Purchase Information for
Draw on Experience and Play by Heart
