Evolution of the Project
"Do I use stories a lot in my teaching?" "Could I connect specific stories with specific ideas I want students to grasp?" "Does it matter if I tell a story about myself or about somebody else?"
Phil Venditti and Sally Gove from Clover Park Technical College started investigating these questions by checking carefully to see if their stories in class regularly caught people's attention. Sure enough, they seemed to. Then Phil and Sally found that not every story they told produced the outcome they wanted. A story had to be good, and it had to be relevant. So they began selecting stories carefully to introduce and reinforce ideas in their classes.
Within a year, after broaching their ideas to other educators at their college and other institutions in Washington State, Phil and Sally inaugurated the "Good Stories for Good Learning Project." The project has already collected more than 350 stories which teachers may eventually use to impart valuable concepts, skills, habits, and motivation to students. This website currently houses only a tiny fraction of all these stories, but it will continue to grow.
The GSGL project was supported in its first year, 2005-2006, by an Exceptional Faculty Award from the Clover Park Technical College Foundation. It has also received support from the Washington State Board for Community and Technical College's Office of Assessment, Teaching and Learning.
