Transcendent Practices/W04                                Final Self Evaluation

Your Name:					Seminar Group:

Background Documents 

Get copies of the following documents:

•	The W04 Syllabus and Program Description, 
•	Your work logs and seminar papers
•	Anything else that records your process (journals, sketchbooks, notebooks, etc.) 

Work through the following working outline for your final self-evaluation.  Don’t bog down writing prose, just make lists in the spaces provided.

Working Outline

Material for your opening paragraph:
1.	Describe your experience, hopes and learning goals at the start of this program this term. 

2.	Describe your performance in the program to date. (How was your attendance?  Did you attend fully?  Were you fully engaged? Did you complete the work assigned?  Did you work hard?  Did your effort reflect your abilities?

Material to draw from for your central paragraphs:
Here is a list of the major program activities.  Try numbering them in the order of their significance to you, and then address them in that order.   Characterize your learning in each and what you feel were especially significant experiences and insights for you.  

•	All Program Activities (Monday AM Yoga, Yoga Nidra and Pranayama practices, Monday PM guest lecture/workshops, Tai Ji Workshop, Middle Eastern Arts Workshop, peer group meetings, Body & Earth Chapter Project, InDesign skills, Trail Guide to the Body work, work logs, Interview Project…Describe your efforts)

•	Your Integrative Projects #’s 1 & 2 (Poetry, Yoga, Sculpture, a personal practice, collaborative efforts.  How’d it all come together for each one?  Again, describe your efforts)

•	Sculpture (making body part casts with plaster/gauze strips; cutting, bending and welding light steel rod;  your working process; grounding and gravity; scale; sculptural “skin;” wood as a material, the process of carving and shaping a surface with a gouge, lessons from materials and processes; drawing work, tools …)

•	Poetry (concept of revision, role of imagery and narrative in poems, impact of regular writing on poetry quality, breath & poetic concepts of meter and line, evocation of emotion through imagery, close observation of detail, Language Poetry, and prose poems.  Also, readings, writing assignments, language and concepts for talking about poetry, personal ideas of what poetry is…)

•	Seminar (How’s your ability to explore ideas in dialogue?  Did you make progress?  What insights came out of the discussions for you?  What books did you find most useful or provocative?

•	Writing (Journal entries, work logs, note-taking, interview papers, position papers, poetry… What kind of writing can you do now? Improvements? Changes in your thinking about writing?)

•	Integrative Thinking and Responses (Critical thinking-insight into your own and other’s work, integrative thinking-making connections between ideas, investigations, methods, etc.  Here are some questions to consider:
•	How did your efforts in All Program Yoga, Body and Earth, and Trail Guide relate to one another?
•	Do you see connections between Yoga Nidra and its emphasis on the 5 body sheaths (koshas) and your poetry or sculpture?  
•	What did the work logs and self-interview teach you?  
•	Do you see connections between breath practices and your poetry and sculpture?
•	Did you genuinely stick to a practice?  Why or why not?  To what effect?
•	What does the word flow mean to you now?

Material for your final paragraph(s):

•	How would you characterize your grasp of the skills and ideas presented?  Passing?  Fair? Very Good?  Excellent?  Detailed or general? 

•	What “light bulb” have you had? (Discoveries, realizations, career ideas…)

•	Briefly characterize how your perception of yoga, sculpture and poetry changed.  How has your understanding of the terms transcendence, practice and flow changed?  How about consciousness and breath?

•	What progress did you make toward the goals you listed above?  What have you learned about yourself?

•	What will your next steps be? (Next term? Long term? New hopes? New goals?)

Your Final Self Evaluation-Instructions

1.	Write your first draft. Try using the simple Introduction/Body/Conclusion format suggested in the Working Outline.  Edit this for gross errors, and spell check. Maximum length is two pages, double spaced with one inch margins.  Use 11 Point Arial or Times New Roman type font.  Print three copies.  The question to keep in mind is this: How would you summarize your learning for someone unfamiliar with your efforts in the program?

2.	At the Self Evaluation Workshop, get together with two other students and have them critique your draft. Be fearless in offering constructive criticism. This is a very important step. You, in turn, should review the drafts of two other students.  Sign each draft that you review.

3.	Revise your own draft  final self evaluation.

4.	Save the Word document on a disc and/or e-mail it to yourself.

5.	Turn in your final double-spaced draft and two edited copies by the end of the final self-evaluation workshop.  That is Monday, March 8, 2004. Your seminar leader will review this draft.  If we think it needs more work, we’ll turn it back to you by Thursday of Week 10 for another revision.  Next steps:

6.	 Make three copies on the official form. (One for your seminar leader, one for yourself and one for your transcript.)

7.	Turn in one final copy, on the official form, to your Seminar Leader’s mailbox by 12 Noon on Monday, March 15, 2004.  

One more note:

Consider the voice you use.  Does what you say about your work sound vague? Pompous? Overly personal? Defensive? Obsequious? Apologetic?  Strive to write clear, well-crafted prose.  Note your accomplishments without over-inflation.  Tie generalities back to your own experience.  Be objective.  Consider quoting yourself or your own writing in regard to personal and heartfelt work.