Contact LR/RI
| The Rhode Island Adult Education Professional Development
Center produces a bulletin roughly every
two
to three weeks in order
to inform area practitioners of news, events, and calls for participation and also as a forum for posing questions, issues and discussion topics. The current bulletin is posted below. To read previous bulletins, go to Bulletin Archives. To receive the bulletin via email, contact LR/RI. August 3, 2007 Bulletin #246 Dear Colleagues, Calls for
participation, employment,
funding,
and conference and workshop
opportunities, online
and other resources. To post information, and/or to receive
the bulletin via email,
Janet Isserlis
Welcome to programs joining RIDE-funded adult education providers. This bulletin is sent electronically every two weeks or so – with more timely announcements sent as they arrive. Bulletins are also available online at http://www.brown.edu/lrri/bulletin.html In addition to this state-specific bulletin, there are a number of electronic discussion groups (list servs) covering adult education information and topics available at http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/discussions.html and http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/aaace-nla To learn more about professional development opportunities, please contact the RI AEPDC at (401) 863-2839 or (401)456 -2838 ESOL share - Tuesday, Tuesday, August 21st at 3:00, Genesis Center, 620 Potters Avenue, Providence. topic: ESOL literacy – working with learners with little to no literacy in their own language or in English. This is an open discussion group – all are welcome to attend. Information, advocacy – Campaign gives voice to migrants, an article from The Guardian describing efforts to inform and educate policy makers and funders about the need for ESOL services in the U.K. http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/story/0,,2132789,00.html online discussion: from Daphne Greenberg, moderator of the povertyracewomen discussion list: From August 15 – 29 , guest facilitators will be hosting a discussion on the state of adult literacy in New Orleans after Hurrican Katrina. The discussion will include a panel consisting of a representative from the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans, the YMCA Educational Services, the Hispanic Apostolate ESL Program, the now-defunct adult learner leadership group - ALIVE - Adult Learners Initiating Voices for Education, and the UNO Research Center for Multiculturalism and Counseling at University of New Orleans. To participate (or read archived postings): http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/povertyracewomen The Central Falls Public Library Literacy Program invites adult education and service agencies to conduct outreach and student registration at a Community Fair on the Library's grounds on August 24, from 4:00-8:00pm. The purpose of the fair is to: provide a fun summer evening for patrons, students and community members; offer centralized access to social service and educational opportunities for the fall, and raise funds for our Literacy Program which currently provides ESOL classes to 125 students. We invite adult education agencies interesting in recruiting students from Central Falls and surrounding areas to table at this event, recruit students, distribute information and network with others. We request a $25 contribution to the Literacy Program to cover overhead. A flyer for the event is available to distribute to students or anyone else you think might like to attend the fair, or other wise participate. (please contact lrri@brown.edu for the flyer via email) We are also in the process of facilitating an ESOL student-produced museum exhibit in the Flagg Museum (the building adjacent to the Library) called Our Central Falls, which we hope to open the evening of the fair. The exhibit is a collaborative effort on the part of our students and teachers to build a representation of CF’s recent history and its connection to students’ native countries, languages and cultures. If you wish to register for a table, please contact Literacy Coordinator Brady Dunklee at brady@cflibrary.org, or our director Laura Marlane at laura@cflibrary.org or 727-7440. We hope that this will be an excellent outreach opportunity for your agency, and that the Library can continue to facilitate resource-sharing and networking efforts in the adult education community. Thank you, and we wish you good luck as you gear up for your fall classes. The Learning Disabilities Work Group is in the process of collecting ideas for the successful teaching of adults who have low literacy skills. We welcome your ideas for strategies, materials, lesson plans and resources that have been useful to you in teaching adults who are reading in the EFL levels 1 and 2. Please send your ideas to Nancy Fritz at Nancy@gencenter.org and she will share them with the LD group. learning opportunities Teachers Unite in the Classroom! We invite educators to join this unique peer-to-peer professional development forum. Post or answer questions about your lessons, curricula or other classroom matters that deal with issues of justice, equity, liberation, representation or grassroots activism. Use this moderated listserv to pose questions, share experiences and recommend resources that build social justice teaching. Sign up at: https://lists.mayfirst.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/teachersuniteclassroom Looking forward to the conversation. - Sally Lee, Executive Director, Teachers Unite The Power of Mindsets: Nurturing Motivation and Resilience in Students - Robert Brooks, Ph.D. Wednesday, August 22, 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 pm, Woonsocket High School Auditorium 777 Cass Avenue, Woonsocket Registration is $20; 3PDCs offered 8:00 – 8:30 Registration, continental breakfast, information tables 8:30 Welcome and Introductions 8:45 Lecture by Dr. Robert Brooks 11:30 Book signing complete information: http://www.dunninstitute.org/uploaded_docs/RobertBrooksAugustLecture.pdf or contact Contact Cathy Sanford at 401‐831‐7323 x17 or sanfordcw@aol.com funding opportunities - large and less large The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education, and the Workforce Strategy Center invite local adult basic education (ABE) programs across the country to apply for the ABE Career Connections project. Five sites will be selected to receive support in the development and implementation of new or improved approaches to build upon their current involvement in career pathways. The ABE Career Connections project will demonstrate how ABE programs can operate within career pathways to prepare students for postsecondary courses leading to a degree or occupational certificate targeted toward an industry important to a regional economy. Each winner will receive $75,000.00, technical assistance, and national recognition. To access the project overview and application, visit the Workforce Strategy Center Web site at <http://www.workforcestrategy.org/>. The applications are due September 5, 2007. Cheryl L. Keenan Director, Division of Adult Education and Literacy UPS Foundation Education Grants fund high impact philanthropic programs that raise the level of educational instruction, family learning opportunities, and school involvement projects. Maximum Award: varies. Eligibility: 501(c)(3) organizations. http://www.community.ups.com/philanthropy/grant.html - other grants from the Public Education Network: http://www.publiceducation.org/newsblast_grants.asp - The federal government's new one stop grant site:
http://www.grants.gov/
The Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC) announces another round of education reform grants in areas of social science research. PRACC is particularly interested in issues such as high classroom turnover/mobility and its disproportionate impact on low-income, minority, and farm worker students. However, other issues will be considered as well. To apply, send PRRAC a proposal outlining the planned research and methodology, the advocacy work it is designed to support, a budget, timeline, and qualifications of the researchers. Maximum grant: $10,000. No application deadline. http://www.prrac.org/grants.php Funding Solutions for Small Nonprofit Organizations A collection of resources to help small nonprofit organizations fundraise including ways to motivate your board, sample fundraising letters, phonathon advice, and tips to improve your direct mail solicitation. http://www.nonprofit-innovations.com/ employment opportunities The RI Family Literacy Initiative is seeking a Children's Teacher for an innovative family literacy class cluster providing ESL, community and school involvement instruction for parents, literacy enrichment and school readiness programming for their children, and whole group family learning activities. In active collaboration with Lead ESL Teacher, the Children's Teacher will plan, develop, and teach children's curriculum based on children's and families' goals and needs. Classes take place at library branches in Providence and surrounding communities. Please visit http://www.rifli.org/ for more information on our programs. BS/BA in Elementary Education or related field and previous experience working with children in an educational/classroom setting. Familiarity with curriculum and resource development. Strong oral and written communication, problem solving and organizational skills. Must be proficient with e-mail, computers, and the Internet. Must possess excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills. Commitment to family literacy and an interest in working with children and parents of diverse economic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds. Bilingual candidates preferred. 25 hour position with flexible schedule and some evening hours. $13.46/hour plus full benefits package including health and vacation/sick time. Please send resume and cover letter detailing teaching and lesson planning experience to Karisa Tashjian, RIFLI, Providence Public Library, 150 Empire Street, Providence, RI 02903 or ktashjian@provlib.org. Director, System for Adult Basic Education Support http://www.sabes.org/sabjob1.htm Employment opportunity: English for Action seeks a passionate, energetic and creative full-time executive director to provide leadership to the organization as it seeks to increase sustainability and community impact. Full description: http://www.idealist.org/en/job/211090-138 Substitute teaching: The Genesis Center is interested in adding to its substitute list. If you are an ESOL instructor who is interested in occasional work as a substitute, either day, evening or Saturday hours, please call Nancy Fritz or Pat Clarkin at 781-6110. Jobs in Literacy – nation wide postings on the National Institute for Literacy’s LINCS site: http://www.nifl.gov/cgi-bin/lincs/jobs/jobs.cgi Substitute list: if you would like your name added to the general list, please see contact LR/RI. The list needs to be updated so that it can function more usefully for teachers and programs hoping to work with them. (http://www.brown.edu/lrri/sub.html) Rhode Island Community Jobs (RICOMJOB) is a
public
e-mail announcement
list that seeks to raise the profile of meaningful work in Rhode Island
by helping non-profit and public interest To join the list as a job seeker or to post a job as an employer go to: http://www.ricommunityjobs.org Rhode Island Community Jobs is supported by the Swearer
Center
for Public
Service at Brown University and the Rhode Island Campus Compact.
If you have questions about this service, please online / resources available Adult English Language Instruction in the United States: Determining Need and Investing Wisely, a new Migration Policy Institute report, finds that in order to reach a level of proficiency necessary for civic integration or to begin post-secondary education, approximately 5.8 million adult lawful permanent residents in the US will need about 277 million hours of English language instruction a year for 6 years. If only halfwere to participate in classroom English instruction and 10% of instruction could be done outside the classroom, the additional cost of meeting LPRs' English instruction needs would be about $200 million a year for six years, over and above the approximately $1 billion currently spent annually by the federal government and states. In order to remain in the US under the terms of the failed Senate immigration bill or to fully participate in civic life, approximately 6.4 million unauthorized immigrants will need about 319 million hours of English instruction a year for six years. In the event of a broad legalization program for today’s unauthorized population, total projected English instruction costs would increase $2.9 billion a year for six years. Developing the capacity to provide up to 660 hours of English instruction to immigrants would bring the United States in line with the language instruction provided to immigrants in a number of other developed countries. Authors Margie McHugh, Julia Gelatt, and Michael Fix use census-based estimates of the number, educational attainment and English skills of immigrants currently in the US, index immigrants’ needs to existing student performance levels, and provide direction on how to strategically expand instructional services to meet these needs. The authors note that investing in the human capital of immigrants leads to increased tax revenues, lower social welfare payments, and improved educational and workforce outcomes among immigrants and their child-ren. The report includes funding recommendations for meeting English instruction needs and maximizing this investment by setting benchmarks for success and deepening accountability. http://www.migrationpolicy.org/ttp://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/NCIIP_English_Instruction073107.pdf Scientific Evidence for Adult Literacy Educators The National Institute for Literacy is pleased to bring you QEd, a five-issue series for the adult education community-- literacy educators, paraprofessionals, program directors, and volunteers. QEd will bring ideas and information from the expanding scientific research base on how adults learn to read. This first issue tells the story of how researchers use the high quality, scientific standards that adult literacy deserves and demands. This issue also brings you news of Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults: First Steps for Teachers, which offers specific connections between the research and the classroom. In future issues, QEd will amplify the key literacy elements discussed in this book. We invite you to download a copy of the publication from the Institute's website. (PDF format (261KB), HTML (accessible format)) Other resources include our discussion lists, which continue to provide the adult education community with its most energetic, interactive resource. Adult educators have a cherished history of collaboration and camaraderie. Scientifically based research inspires and challenges us as we work together to understand its implications and the power of its findings. Please join us on this journey of reflection and renewal! Send your thoughts and ideas to us at info@nifl.gov. - Sandra L. Baxter, Ed.D., Director, National Institute for Literacy http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/news_events/07-12-07.html Skills for Disease Prevention and Screening By Rima E. Rudd, Lisa Soricone, and Jennie Maricel Santos The goal of this 15-hour study circle+ is to prepare participants to help their students develop basic skills needed for engaging in disease prevention and screening activities. These skills include decision-making, using graphs and charts, calculating percentages, and interpreting risks and probability. For more information and to download, go to: http://www.ncsall.net/?id=769#prevention Evidence-based Practice: A Workshop for Training Adult Basic Education, TANF and One Stop Practitioners and Program Administrators (May 2007) By Cristine Smith, Beth Bingman, Lennox McLendon, and John Comings The National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) and the National Adult Education Professional Development Consortium (NAEPDC), with funding from the National Institute for Literacy, created a one-day workshop to assist practitioners and administrators in adult basic education, TANF (Transitional Assistance for Needy Families) and One Stop programs to understand evidence-based practice and develop strategies for continuously accessing, understanding, judging and using research. For more information and to download, go to: http://www.ncsall.net/?id=769#ebp_train google literacy site: http://www.google.com/literacy/ outstanding resource: http://www.youthliteracy.ca/ - Youth Literacy work in Canada Shannon Gavin, a senior graduating from Brown this year, has developed a new website, as her capstone project in Middle East Studies, called Arab Perceptions of the United States: Video Interviews from Amman, Jordan and Damascus, Syria.You can view them, and supporting text at http://arabperceptions.wordpress.com Journal of Online Mathematics and its Applications offers articles, learning modules, "mathlets" (single-purpose learning tools), reviews of online resources, and a developers' area. Search contents of the journal by type of resource (e.g., article), by subject (e.g., number concepts, data presentation, plane geometry), or both. The journal makes extensive use of graphics, animations, video clips, and other media. Articles and other materials are peer reviewed. (Mathematical Association of America, National ScienceFoundation) http://free.ed.gov/resource.cfm?resource_id=1875 The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announces that the The U.S. Civics and Citizenship Online: Resource Center for Instructors is available online at: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=b36e663784bcd010VgnVCM100000d1f1d6a1RCRD&vgnextchannel=b36e663784bcd010VgnVCM100000d1f1d6a1RCRD The Verizon Foundation recently announced a $31 million investment to provide free online educational resources to teachers, students and community organizations through Thinkfinity.org, Verizon's comprehensive online portal to 50,000 standards- based, K-12 lesson plans, resources for adult and family literacy providers, and other educational resources. Read more at http://www.pr-inside.com/verizon-foundation-announces-31-million-r77817.htm This resource, provided at no cost to the public, is written and produce by some of the nation's leading educational organizations, such as the National Center for Family Literacy, ProLiteracy Worldwide, National Geographic Xpeditions, ArtsEdge, EconEdLink, EdSitement, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Read-Write-Think, Science NetLinks, and more. The $31 million commitment, which will be distributed over three years, will allow leading educational organizations to continue to produce and expand the number of interactives and other educational resources available at http://www.thinkfinity.org/. Resources from EdChange family of Web sites: A new Classism and Poverty Awareness Quiz http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/quizzes.html ; Newly designed Social Justice News Service site http://mail.socialjusticenews.net/mailman/listinfo/news_socialjusticenews.net- email-based news service, periodic email digests of links to articles related to equity, social justice, and multiculturalism from sources all over the world. New essays and links to essays http://www.edchange.org/publications.html New essays in the Multicultural Education Research Room http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers.html CAELA's online resource collection,Working with Literacy-Level Adult English Language Learners. is now available at http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/collections/literacy.html The collection includes links and annotations to many resources related to working with adult English language learners, who have had limited access to formal education. - Lynda Terrill, Center for Adult English Language Acquisition, Center for Applied Linguistics, 4646 40th St, NW, Washington, DC 20016 lterrill@cal.org MIT's OpenCourseWare: a free and open educational resource for educators, students, and self-learners around the world is a publication of MIT course materials which does not require registration; is not a degree-granting or certificate-granting activity, and does not provide access to MIT faculty. "OpenCourseWare expresses in an immediate and far-reaching way MIT's goal of advancing education around the world. Through MIT OCW, educators and students everywhere can benefit from the academic activities of our faculty and join a global learning community in which knowledge and ideas are shared openly and freely for the benefit of all." - Susan Hockfield, MIT - http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/index.htm from the Office of Adult and Vocational Education’s Thursday notes, July 19 and July 31: Maine Legislature Funds Adult Ed-to- College Transition: Maine’s legislature approved $500,000 for adult education-to-college transition programs this year and identified $600,000 for next year for these transitions. Maine conducted seven adult education-to-college demonstration programs funded by $200,000 in state dollars and $55,000 from Nellie Mae. The state’s goal is to generate 10,000 new community college graduates over the next 10 years. Tennessee Pays GED Fees for Eligible Students Tennessee’s legislature recently approved a $2.5 million education appropriation, including $1.2 million to pay GED fees for adult learners. Learners must score a total of 480 on the practice test, with no sub-score below 430, to get the free tests, starting July 1. The bill also provided $1.3 million to boost adult education teachers’ pay, resulting in part-time adult education teachers making a minimum of $18 per hour. The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development contributed $500,000 to the plan for testing fees for a total commitment to adult education of $3 million. More information is available from state director Phil White. phil.white@state.tn The Verizon Foundation donated $150,000 in technology for ESL instruction to seven nonprofit organizations in Massachusetts. The providers will use broadband and video technologies to expand ESL services throughout the state. http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/NYM13509072007-1.htm OVAE Offers Funds For College Transition Demonstrations – a new competition for discretionary grants to assist states and local adult education programs in increasing the attainment of a high school credential and documenting college readiness for out-of-school youths. OVAE anticipates awarding 4 grants totaling $2 million over two years. Successful demonstration projects must identify, demonstrate, and document, in at least four existing adult secondary education programs funded under Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA), practices that improve the ability of out-of-school youths to transition to postsecondary opportunities. http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/announcements/2007-3/072707a.html OVAE Calls for Papers on Community College Issues OVAE is calling for commissioned papers for the June 2008 National Community College Symposium. The symposium supports recommendations from the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education, which offered an action plan for a 21st-century higher education system. Commissioned papers must be evidence-based and written specifically for this symposium. Conferees will give reactions to the papers, assess how the findings can improve institutional practice, and recommend areas for further study. Community college leaders nationwide will have the oppor-tunity to respond to the authors via a webcast and discuss the papers’ implications for institutional practice. http://www.sei2003.com/OVAE/; (factsheet: http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/actionplan-factsheet.pdf) Florida Community College Certifies Online Instructors Polk Community College in Winter Haven, Fla., won a 2007 award from the League for Innovation in the Community College for developing a three-tiered certification program for online educators. The new certification promotes high-quality, consistent approaches to online instruction. Teachers can earn all levels of certification using blended or face-to-face approaches. All the 2007 award winners listed here: http://www.league.org/publication/showcase/edition.cfm?id=1051 Radical Math is a resource for educators interested in integrating issues of social, political, and economic justice into math curriculum and classes… RadicalMath.org has the goals of raising mathematic literacy and simultaneously developing ways to address a range of community issues. The website supports educators to teach many different types of math within the context of studying social, political, and economic justice issues. RadicalMath.org also contains teaching materials on important financial topics for youth such as owning a credit card, paying for college, and avoiding subprime lenders, as well as materials on Ethnomathematics. Visit http://www.radicalmath.org/ for more or email info@radicalmath.org Google Scholar enables searches for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as articles available across the web. Google Scholar orders search results by how relevant they are to your query, so the most useful references should appear at the top of the page. This relevance ranking takes into account the full text of each article as well as the article's author, the publication in which the article appeared and how often it has been cited in scholarly literature. Google Scholar automatically analyzes and extracts citations and presents them as separate results, even if the documents they refer to are not online. This means your search results may include citations of older works and seminal articles that appear only in books or other offline publications. http://scholar.google.com/ Living in Poverty slideshow does the math: what does it take to live at the poverty level. http://www.nccbuscc.org/cchd/povertyusa/tour2.htm RI Foundation online scholarship directory - searchable by city/town, intended field of study, current high school, and more. http://scholarship.rifoundation.org/ YouthBuild USA Learning Network has links to Web sites and full-text documents, and includes a section on "Authentic Materials/Engaged Learning/Constructivism/Contextual Learning/Project-based Learning." http://www.youthbuild.org/learningnetwork/professionaldev.html Providence Community Resource Network (PCRN) http://www.provplan.org/pcrn Spanish language version of PCRN is up and running. You can access the site from the PCRN home page, http://www.provplan.org/pcrn, or go to http://www.provplan.org/pcrnespa. The Web pages, online instructions, and the content of the database have all been translated. conferences and workshops - conferences and workshops are listed chronologically and are updated with each bulletin Rhode Island - Training/events around employment issues for people with disabilities http://www.ric.edu/uap/training.html REGISTER FOR SCALE'S 2007 READ.WRITE.ACT. CONFERENCE! OCTOBER 26 - 27. http://readwriteact.org/rwa/rwaconference.html Join us for two days of workshops on Effective Transitions in Adult Education, November 8-9, 2007 in Providence, RI. Our keynote speaker, Dr. JoAnn Crandall, will kick off the event with a discussion of transition for English language learners. For more details, http://www.collegetransition.org/novconference.html Cynthia Zafft, Director, National College Transition Network at World Education nctn@worlded.org other events and conferences http://www.nifl.gov/cgi-bin/Calendar/calendar_world.cgi TESOL worldwide calendar of events http://www.tesol.org/isaffil/calendar/index.html
breathe - everyday yoga at your desk. http://www.mydailyyoga.com/yoga/everyday_yoga.html
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