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Lake Alfred Elementary

Office of the Principal
Eileen T. Castle


January 27, 2000


To Whom It May Concern,

Our school has been involved in training in and implementing of Kagan Cooperative Learning strategies since June, 1999. In June, 1999 our Assistant Principal, Barbara Stephens and I took a week of training with Laurie Kagan in the Kagan Cooperative Learning structures. We were so impressed with the training and the implications for learning for our students that we both took two more weeks of training with the Kagans last summer. One week of this training was the next level of cooperative learning training and one week was called Win-Win Discipline. We also were able to have two of our teachers trained in cooperative learning.

On the first Saturday after the first week of school we were able to have all but two of our teachers trained with Laurie Kagan in a one day introduction to the Kagan structures. Our teachers were very impressed with the training and most of them began implementing what they learned almost immediately.

We have training scheduled and presented twice a month at our school by Mrs. Stephens and myself. We have been using Kagan Cooperative Learning structures in our training both to communicate the information and to teach our teachers additional structures. Our goal is to introduce one new structure a month.

From our experience, we have found that the Kagan Cooperative Learning structures are very teacher and student friendly. These structures are very effective at team and class building, developing communication skills, and reinforcing for mastery.

We have 16 teachers signed up to take a week of Kagan Cooperative Learning training this summer with Laurie Kagan. Our goal is to eventually have our teachers trained in the Kagan structures.

Sincerely,

Eileen T. Castle
Principal


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