Executive summary for blackberry types: 

What:  Benefit from predecessors' experience by looking at their comments before you unzip your next backpack

How:  Fill out a quickie form, See what others have submitted.

Why:  So the volunteer stepping in your footsteps can arm themselves with the benefit of your newfound wisdom. 

Resources:  web pages:

                                "Notes from the Pros" to read the gafitti left by those who've done your lesson.  

                                 Hit the back button or click here to "pay it forward" and share your wisdom about your most recent session with those who are following in your foot steps

The long-winded BUGSy version:

   It's a week into the new program and the trajectories of BUGS volunteers and students are starting to meet, class by class, in explosions of discovery and delight.  All too often, unfortunately, preceding the discovery and the joy comes volunteer anxiety and uncertainty.  We, being human, like to know what's coming next so we know how to handle it.  Unless you're a veteran teaching the same grade to a younger offspring, you'll be presenting each subject for the first time.

   I used to be an avid home improvement kind of guy.  I'd try to approach each project with the most appropriate tools I could muster, and learn how to do it from a book or magazine article.  I built a deck.  That deck still exhibits all the mistakes I made as I learned how to build it.  The deck works fine, but if I'd known more about deck building before I started I know I'd have done a better job.  All the instruction manuals in the world can't replace the hints and suggestions from someone who's done the job before, using the kind of tools you have, and the facing the same constraints and challenges.  Whether you're tiling your bathroom, cooking beef Wellington, or teaching the water cycle to 3^rd graders for the first and only time, having the help of experience can be a lifesaver. 

   This is a problem that seems to be off-putting for so many BUGS volunteers.  We have our trusty backpack.  We have our crusty lesson plan and supplies.  We don't have experience.  The lesson starts and the first group through gets to experience your unfamiliarity with the subject matter.  The second gets a pretty good run through.  By the time the third group of students cycles past you're an expert.  You've discovered how to pitch your subject to make it relevant.  You've worked out which book to read, or what props to use.  You've see

   Bill and I have been sucking on this lemony problem for a while and we've come up with something we'd like to try:  It's called "notes from the pros".  If you've taught a BUGS theme you've taught it 3 times already. You are the pro.   Now the key is to tease that experience out of you and share it with the next unwitting volunteer who's stalking up that path of wisdom; treading in your footsteps.  Using our handy dandy google site, we think we may have found a way to get this working.

   Please go to this page and take a look around .  On the right hand side of the page you'll see a question asking "how did your lesson go?".  It's a simple form you fill out.  Be anonymous if you want to.  The key is to state your lesson month, grade, and station, then write what you want in the text box.

   If you've got a lesson coming up and you'd like to learn more, then go to this page to find out what the pros did. 

• Early days yet, of course.  To make this work we need you to share what worked or didn't in your class.  If you had a total crack-up or gross-out moment, please do share it too.
• If you've done BUGS before and particularly remember an earlier lesson we strongly encourage that you share that too.  Just start the form over for each lesson.  Check out the lesson plans here  if you're not sure which the month was.
• Right now the "notes from the pros" is simply showing the raw data being entered as it arrives.  When we get more we'll maybe get fancy and link specific comments to specific lesson plans.
• This isn't limited to the theme part of the session.  Newbies and veterans will want to learn how you managed in the gardening department too.
• Please note:  this isn't intended as a discussion forum or a place to post questions.  If you have a question that needs resolving please address it to your room lead or a Bill.