5th CESTL Evaluations by EDI 15A students

5th CESTL Evaluations
By EDI 15A Psychological Perspective: Teaching & Learning
Long Island University, C.W.Post
Spring, 2009

At first I was really nervous about the CESTL. I was really anxious all day and especially when my friend was not answering his phone to make sure he was coming. But he did and I was so happy. I learned that I have some friends who would do anything for me. Then after watching a few students go, I started to relax.

I learned a lot from Scott and Gillian's presentations. I really did not know the dropout rate was so high. It really is alarming. I felt like I was very prepared for the conference because I really did a lot of research for this project. Thirty-two hours of observations and interviews is definitely thorough research. The challenges I had were having good eye contact and just trying to not look nervous. I was told that I did a very good job so that made me feel great.

My parents said I said "umm," a lot. I did not realize I was doing that and I think it was because I was trying to think of what I wanted to say next instead of having to read from my paper. I basically had my whole presentation memorized. I practiced it at home a few times.

I am really glad that Dr. Boyanton wanted us all to do the CESTL. I feel that it was a very rewarding experience and I am more confident in myself now than I ever was. I truly enjoyed this course with Dr. Boyanton and I would recommend this class to everyone and anyone who is majoring in education. I think I came to like this class because not only did I learn about education, but I learned about myself as well. I learned that I am self-motivated, strong-willed, and confident. I would have never thought these things about myself before taking this class. Thank you Dr. Boyanton!
(Nicole Larosa, 5/3/09)

Today I attended the CESTL conference and I felt that overall this was a great experience. I was both really excited and happy about being a part of this year’s conference. I believe that I have learned many things today. Also, I feel that I have gained a lot of information and some more knowledge about teaching from this conference.
When I first arrived at the conference, I was still a little bit nervous. But as the other students did their presentations, my nerves started to calm down and I did not feel nervous anymore and was ready to present the poster that I had done for my project. I feel that everyone did a great job with their presentations and I felt that our class did an excellent job with our projects as they showed that we had really worked hard on doing our research and doing the projects.
I also felt that all the guest speakers that were at the conference were all great people to have them speak at the conference. I learned many things just by listening to them tell their stories as well as how they answered questions they were asked.
Some advice that I would give to future students that take this course would be that I think they should definitely attend the CESTL conference because it is a great opportunity to learn many things about the field of education as well as becoming a teacher. Finally, if there was one thing that I had learned from taking this course, it would be that I learned that when I am teaching, I need to look at each student as an individual person because all students have their own learning styles and they all understanding things in different ways. (Christopher Lodise –May 2, 2009)
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I felt nervous and overwhelmed, but kind of excited because I wanted to do well on my project. I worked hard on it and was ready for any questions that anyone had about my poster. I was very prepared. I had my friends come over and made them ask questions as if they were at the CESTL. This would be a little warm up exercise.

I was very satisfied with my performance at the CESTL because I knew my poster inside and out. I had index cards with the information so I could read them to the people. I was ready to answer the questions.

I think the CESTL was a great learning experience because we had great speakers that answered everyone’s questions. I really liked Dr. Mark Birchette. I think he is a great speaker and a great role model for young/new teachers.

I believe Professor Boyanton did a great job this term. My suggestion for future students is not to be afraid of the work because it is not as bad as it seems. This will be one of the best classes and best professors they will have at C.W.Post. One thing that I learned this class was how to have a debate with others in a respectful manner. (Emanuel Messina 5/2/09)

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I was a little nervous about the CESTL conference at first, but once I got there and the poster presentations began, I was no longer overwhelmed. Although only a few people came over to my poster, I received positive feedback. People seemed to enjoy my research and found it worthwhile to study.
One woman in particular spoke with me for a few minutes and said she agreed with my findings and thought I did a great job. It was nice to get such great feedback from teachers and to begin networking with others. I was happy that I decided to present at the conference even though I was not going to initially.
One thing I think might help improve the conference in the future is to have a wider range of panel guests. I noticed that the students were all from pretty wealthy parts of Long Island. It might be cool to incorporate wealthy and poorer schools and to compare the different views students have and see how money affects education.
Also, since it took a while for the audience to think of questions, maybe everyone can be asked beforehand as a class assignment to prepare a question so that there are no lulls and so that we can make the most of the time we have with the panel. (Chelsea Winter, 5/3/09)

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The CESTL Conference was very interesting. I enjoyed listening to my classmates’ power point presentations. They were all very good because they all put in a lot of effort. I was at the conference for a long time which really advanced my intellect. Dr. Boyanton deserves a lot of credits for putting together such an awesome conference. I feel that every person there really enjoyed the conference.
The student panel provided me with a wealth of information regarding my research topic. I asked them different questions that pertained to substance abuse and text messaging during class. They provided us with excellent honest opinions. The teacher panel was also very good because they are all experts in the field of education. One of the educators described how he selected the teachers who he hired for jobs. It was interesting to hear his input because in three years I will be applying for a job. The first speaker from the Brooklyn campus provided us with a wealth of information. I enjoyed listening to his stories regarding his biology class and how he handles poor behavior.
The posters were great because the students really put in a lot of effort into making the posters. Our class is awesome and I am sad that the semester is over because we have had a fun time this semester. Overall this conference was really an awesome experience for me.
At around three I presented my work to the group. I was very nervous because I was following a great group of students. I feel that I did an awesome job because I had a lot of confidence in myself as a lecturer, and educator in the topic of behavior management. I feel that I deserve a real high grade for my presentation. I mentioned my observation hours and the interviews during the presentation. Dr. Boyanton seemed very impressed by my power point presentation. I appreciate the help that she gave me in order to develop the effective presentation. I also received around five questions at the end of my presentation. This was very impressive because this means that the people really enjoyed listening to my presentation. I received the most questions out of any of the power point presenters! I feel that the majority of the students there enjoyed listening to my presentation. There may have been a few who did not but it’s hard to get a 100% approval from everyone. I feel that I was limited by the time limits during the presentation.
A lot of people told me afterwards that I did an excellent job. Overall I feel that I have learned a lot about the topic of behavior management. I hope that the students apply the information from the conference into their work as teachers. Also I appreciate the education and data that Dr. Boyanton has provided us with this semester. I hope that I have her as a teacher in the future. Have a great summer! (Scott Fialkoff, 5/2/09)



The days leading up to the CESTL conference were accompanied by a lot of nerves and anxiety because I was unsure of what to expect from the conference. I knew that I had worked extremely hard on my poster and that I was prepared but at the same time I get nervous having to present my work in front of large groups of people. What if they didn’t like it or could not understand some of the information that was on the poster? What if I could not answer a question that somebody had for me? I worked hard on the poster and wanted to show everyone that I did a good job. Once I arrived at the CESTL on Saturday morning and saw a few of my classmates were also setting up their posters, it comforted me because I could tell that I was not the only person in the class that was nervous about the conference. I knew I was prepared which certainly helped calm my nerves.
I learned a lot of different things at the CESTL conference. For example, a classmate of mine did a presentation on misbehaviors, what they are, and what techniques teachers can use in order to prevent and stop these misbehaviors. Although some of the techniques I already knew, there were some things that were new to me, and I am glad that I attended the conference otherwise I never would have known some of them. All in all I felt that the CESTL conference was a great learning experience for me. I got to learn from peers of mine and it was very interesting hearing what young people have to say based on their research. Also, doing the research on my topic helped me to gain a lot of knowledge on inclusion classrooms and special education students in general. I really enjoyed the CESTL conference and thought that it was run very smoothly. (Josh Korder, 5/3/09)

All semester has lead to the completion of the CESTL conference, and that day had finally arrived yesterday. I was excited to present my research to professionals and my fellow classmates. I chose to do a power point presentation because I felt I had put so much effort into my research and my research paper, that to put together a poster wouldn’t satisfy me. I wanted to make sure people heard my findings from me, and seeing as not everyone saw every poster, I didn’t want mine to go unnoticed.
The days leading up to the conference were hectic. I prepared my power point the best I could. On the day that our class had practice presentations I found that my speech was five minutes too long, and had to be shortened. I thought this would be a simple task but it would not. Professor Boyanton’s feedback was probably the most helpful to completing my presentation. The reorganization of the slides made perfect sense and accentuated my findings. But, to my disappointment, when I attempted to present the slides in that format, I found that my presentation was twenty minutes long! Now it had been double shortened. I spent hours upon hours editing out what was not entirely necessary for my speech. I was up until 2:00 a.m. the night before practicing my speech, timing it, editing it, etc.
I woke up early and got to school by 9:30 a.m. and found my class to sit with. I enjoyed listening to everyone’s presentation. Lunch was good because we got pizza and little finger sandwich’s. As the time approached for me to present, I only became more and more nervous. When it was time for me to present I had too many butterflies in my stomach. As I went through my presentation it seemed all to be a blur, but according to everyone else including my parents (who arrived just in time to watch me present) said I did a great job. That made me relieved.
The CESTL experience was great and completely rewarding. I’ve gained confidence in myself that I can accomplish assignments that I had once thought I could never be able to do. Thank you, Professor Boyanton for providing me with this experience. The CESTL conference only makes me want to excel my academics much further than I had preconceived entering college, going for higher diplomas and doctrines, achieving higher GPAs, and conducting more research on my own. I really appreciated this experience, and I am also sad to leave your class. (Gillian Blitzer, May 4, 2009)

I have to say that when I got to the CESTL conference, all of my anxiety had gone away. As usual, I feel that when I hear Professor Boyanton talks she has a lot of passion in her voice. She talks about how much she loves to teach and her stories make me laugh and realize that you can have fun in your class and still have the students’ respect. When we later moved down to the poster presentations, I had gotten a huge ego boost. Not only did my boyfriend tell me how good my poster looked, I had a lot of different people come up to me and tell me how knowledgeable and enthusiastic I was about teaching. I think this is one quality that is going to make me a great teacher! Overall, the CESTL conference was great, I had a good time and it is something I would like to participate in again. I took my poster home, and since I was so proud of my accomplishment, I have it poster up right in my den for everyone to see! (Caroline Schipani, May 4, 2009)
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