A-STOP Wise as Serpents Curriculum
EVALUATION REPORT

Appendix 9: Open-Ended Responses to Teacher Training Questionnaire

WHAT DID YOU FIND MOST HELPFUL ABOUT THIS TRAINING?

• Heidi talking so freely, honestly; plus, the commitment of the staff is impressive.
• The overview; sense of direction; goal.
• I became better educated on the vulnerability and power that goes along with the whole problem. The honesty of Heidi and Mark was very striking and slaps the reality directly in my face. I can't ignore it anymore. It was exceptional being able to meet Heidi in person.
• Awareness of depth of problem; how it intersects with pornography, skewed view of sexuality; how it has power in its silence.
• Mock class, viewing all sessions of the video, questions/answers with Heidi.
• The time spent in Q&A with Heidi was really powerful.
• The feedback discussions.
• John Bucka's mock lesson; actual experience with videos/materials; theological reflections; class interaction; and, of course, Heidi's presence.
• The videos were the most helpful. I also enjoyed listening and talking with Heidi. She had some incredible insights and gave an incredible testimony.
• I found it most helpful to be able to meet Heidi, to visit with her. It seemed to really help with understanding the seriousness of this issue! It was also good to meet Pastor Erickson and to hear his story and involvement. Meeting and listening to "real" victims is good.
• Being able to hear first hand what God has done to help Heidi and her family. It does happen to small town USA people.
• The video.
• The perspective you shared in the church as caring community and the perspective you shared from the destruction aspects of the world.
• Heidi's personal experience; each lesson and just what to lead.
• Broadened awareness of sexual exploitation and methods of prevention.
• Allowing input from the class; excellent video.
• Group discussions; excellent handout/exercises.
• The small group discussions of Lesson 2 and John Bucka's insights.
• The discussions; each presenter's commitment to the topic; the curriculum and video are powerful; great food; the training done up here.
• Enjoyed John Bucka presentation, very dynamic, good explanation.
• Pastor Al and Amy presentations all complemented each other
• Crisp, moved smoothly.
• Enforced the motto, "It takes a village to raise a child."
• The knowledge of the Game as a whole; how the messages can be used in so many ways; the focus on the "Reality" of the subject matter and that it can effect any body at anytime; how we can all fall prey to the empowerment.
• Seeing how Lesson 2 was processed.
• Discussions.
• The ideas and exchange of thoughts broadened my perspective on this subject.
• Dialogue and material for teaching.
• The time spent with the video, and answering our morning questions.
• Having Heidi speak in person had the most effect for me, then hearing her on the video. Pastor Al and Pastor John were also very effective.
• Encouraged sharing by all; prompts memory; usage. The instructor present, but even more involving are the persons who were victimized by the system.
• Good materials and teachable lessons.
• I think the questions, video, and the small group settings are key ideas to help us bring this topic to a surface in the church.
• The knowledge of how this problem goes hand in hand with many other issues facing you.
• Whole day.
• Video and the discussions.
• Discussion times were good; good to view video in segments; concept of "who's home in the village?" need for church to be safe haven.
• All very helpful.
• Finding out how it can be used to cover larger areas -- it deals with emotions of fear, abandonment, self esteem -- all things kids deal with now! This program will be useful because it meets kids where they are.
• The world is not safe as I thought; there are traps, cons, and tricksters out there and we are all very vulnerable, especially our kids. The breaks in the video were also helpful.
• Al and Amy's humility; that A-STOP is primary to them.
• The video is well produced for impact and insight.
• I now understand better how to use printed program material.
• It gave me a greater understanding of the mission of A-STOP and how important it is for every youth to be exposed to this curriculum.
• The commitment of the leaders to this subject.
• Seeing script and catechetical base for curriculum; parent pieces.
• Opened my eyes to a deeper understanding of prostitution.
• The mock classroom time.
• Materials; bibliography; learning that the organization is progressing in helpfulness to churches.
• How to present materials to parents/students; what is confirmation/pivot point and parental comment after confirmation.
• The dialogue about theological/ethical/pastoral issues. Very integrative.
• The practical hands-on report from pastor who used the material; that really helped.
• Hearing it from the authors, producers, directors of the program made it even more authentic.
• I came "somewhat" committed to the program, but happy that my pastor would teach it. Now I am ready to teach the material and am eager to do so.
• Learning how to use the resources of the curriculum to bring faith to bear upon this real life and death issue for kids.
• Hands-on material -- good interactions with others in the group.
• Seeing the whole curriculum and viewing the video and especially the discussion and sharing.
• Most helpful how it is put across, straight to the point, starting and ending and still being able to have a good discussion.
• Going through the lessons and watching the video.

WHAT DID YOU FIND LEAST HELPFUL ABOUT THIS TRAINING?

• Mock class. It was awkward and not a particularly good use of time. I am referring to trying to answer the questions-not the video portion.
• Mock class was good, but maybe could have been shortened. I got the picture easily.
• How to help present this to and train our teachers.
• Worksheets -- kids hat to write.
• Can't think of any.
• A break midway into video might have been helpful.
• The last section about implementing the series and handling parental concerns.
• More time would be helpful to walk through more of the curriculum and yet I appreciate the one day conference.
• I cannot think of any.
• None
• A lot of material.
• Although it was nice to be in small groups, going through the questionnaire was a bit difficult. Explain more the point of the lessons.
• Too short.
• Could it be further condensed?
• Probably just specifically how I may use this curriculum, but that needs to be tailored anyway to individual programs.
• Too much time spent on our expectations; would have liked to get into lessons and have more time in them.
• A little too much time spent with introductions and expectations at the beginning.
• It seems like the time could be cut slightly.
• Better equipment.
• Did not look much at other resources, but bibliography very helpful.
• None.
• Too much time on report about how test congregation experience was.
• Like I said, some of the comments about the language-the code language-it seemed that John passed that question by and didn't acknowledge a concern for the language being part of the youth culture.
• The mock class: composition of the group not talkative; not the approach; was OK but least helpful.
• Sex, drugs, and the fast lane, Melhein, gift of sexuality, abuse of sexuality.
• Nothing.

PLEASE INCLUDE ANY OTHER COMMENTS OR SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT BELOW.

• It was a gift-grace-that Heidi was present.
• More group time; spend together going through course lessons, as leaders.
• Thanks for ministering in this.
• I appreciated the mock class-more time looking at a session layout in the manual would have been helpful. Thanks for your flexibility-showing the 20/20 video and conversations with Heidi!
• Commercial sexual exploitation-I do not understand all of its complexities, but a great start.
• Please keep working on the parent part!
• Better up-front overview of purpose, use, and materials; perhaps aanleness (handwriting?) of most participants cut this overview short.
• Thank you for the hospitality and food.
• The setting, the food, the hospitality was wonderful. Thank you to Sharon Lutheran and to AAL!
• I feel quite confident to go ahead and use this curriculum this fall. It was very helpful to have Heidi at the session.
• I will continue to pray for your program and for the people involved. God's blessing!
• I think that it is very beneficial for you to have Heidi with you. I would love to see her speak to our youth at senior high gatherings! You all know your stuff!!!
• You could include more information about commercial sexual exploitation and how it intersects our students; it moved me again today. My commitment to youth not being exploited has been strong-this reinforces it.
• I find this so overwhelming I can't think of suggestions.
• I liked the examples to discuss; the trainers kept on schedule; on the whole very good.
• Thank you for your commitment to this task.
• Please continue the work!
• To help find a way for correlation to federally funded secular groups (such as MCASA) without losing spirituality aspects (a daunting task!).
• I'm glad I came. Thanks.
• Will look forward to the 20-20 presentation. Pray it will give a complete picture of the Wise as Serpents Study.
• Have video in the middle; the end was fine; I would have loved to be able to incorporate the video into small discussions in between; the video is wonderful and well done.
• I would suggest an encapsulated parent overview video. You (and we) are dealing with an emotionally charged material.
• Very good and extremely helpful.
• Very fine.
• We need to find better ways to speak clearly about these matters. I applaud your work; this is a fine tool. Thank you!
• More time would be helpful to have more dialogue of material; very good! Thank you.
• Having Heidi along was such a gift. She is a blessing to this project. The discussion time was very effective, as far as preparation for leading the programs.
• Consider an overview of the "sex industry;" many don't have a clue. What else can we do to help.
• A worthwhile experience.
• Thanks for involving me. Keep up the good work!
• Internet: this is key in the lives of teems and young adults. Get a parent program together - without their knowledge and understanding the effectiveness of the program softens.
• As a whole the training is very good.
• Thank you for all the work Al and Amy!
• The training was a good run through; I recommend you take the video one section at a time like you did. No complaints about instructor's preparedness; plenty of time for questions.
• Try to have a better VCR and TV (realizing that you are at the mercy of the host church). You can't bring a TV, but maybe bring a VCR if the church you are going to has one as bad as ours.
• Thank you for helping us to get a starting ground for discussing in issues that our youth may have heard more about than us. We need to be able to discuss these important issues boldly.
• Thanks; excellent.
• Thanks and God bless.
• Very informative.
• Would be good to encourage viewing video, but training could be shortened an little I think; a whole day does get to be long, but it was worth it.
• Very helpful; with such a small group it is easy to get off on a tangent, but the leaders kept focused and used tangents to better the training.
• Would like to have reviewed leading the curriculum a little more.
• Was not excited at first about coming to this training session, but now I am glad that I did; very helpful information.
• I thought the day went fine; there is just a lot of things to cover in one day (and I didn't review the material enough before hand).
• I am still learning how sexual exploitation intersects with the lives of my students.
• Seems there is a lot of work in these sessions to help build self-esteem. I really appreciate that. Why we as children of God can resist and fight against these influences.
• Thanks for a very worthwhile day!
• Thanks for all your work on this material! You are a gift from God.
• Thanks for the time-line Amy.
• Good but got a little bogged down with the Lutheran debate with the clergy (John Bucka).
• Variety of presenters made good use of the variety of skills and styles of instruction.
• Very satisfying.
• Sorry I wasn't here for all of it
• I would like to see this approach expanded to other issues impacting teens in a negative way, i.e. drugs, depression, materialism, etc. This not only reaches the kids where they are at, but it equips them to deal with real issues. It helps make faith work for them.
• Good resource people -- insights.
• Thank you for sharing your knowledge and enthusiasm for this mission that should be a mission we all share in.
• Good material; good teacher.
• Gave me insight on how to be a leader, again as teacher, because of being away from it for a while.
• I would have to say it was one of the most helpful workshops I've attended in a long time. Perhaps it is because the information was not new to me and I was able to build on previous experience.

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