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. To learn more about professional development opportunities, please contact the RI AEPDC at (401) 456 -2838 or (401) 863-2839 June 18, 2008 Bulletin #272 Dear Colleagues, Calls for
participation, employment, funding,
and conference and workshop
opportunities, online
and other resources.
Janet Isserlis
classes
this
summer? If your program is offering classes and you’d like to
post information in this bulletin, please contact
janet_isserlis@brown.edu ESOL share Tuesday, August 5th at 2:00 pm, Genesis Center, 620 Potters Avenue, Providence. This is an open discussion group – practitioners with an interest in adult ESOL are all welcome. Do you work with families enrolled in the Family Independence Program (FIP)? Major changes have been made to FIP that will cause up to 4,000 children to lose their cash assistance as of August 1, 2008 . - Children are no longer entitled to cash assistance once their parents have reached their 5 year time limit. - Citizen children whose parents are not eligible for FIP because of immigration status are only entitled to receive FIP for 5 years. Attend our training to learn more! June 19, 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. at Casey Family Services, 1268 Eddy Street Providence Social service providers, case managers, community advocates, program supervisors, or anyone interested in learning more are encouraged to attend. To register contact Heidi Collins 456-2751 or email hcollins@ric.edu Mike Wood, an adult educator at Crossroads RI, has written this essay, posted on NPR's This I Believe site. Please read it: http://www.thisibelieve.org/dsp_ShowEssay.php?uid=42670&lastname=Wood&firstname=Mike&city=warwick&yval=0&start=0  practitioner share, Tuesday, JULY 1st (please note time change) at 3 pm, 3-5 at Crossroads RI, 160 Broad Street, Providence. Many practitioners struggle with helping adult learners stay engaged in learning. Family, work and other concerns can often make it difficult for learners to stay focused on educational programs. External constraints present challenges as well. Join classroom teachers and administrators considering these issues and share both concerns and possibilities. We've begun to consider solution and practices to support learning for all. On street parking is available; please contact lrri@brown.edu for more information - you'll need to be buzzed into the building. NAASLN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR ADULTS WITH SPECIAL LEARNING NEEDS Summer Webinar Asperger's Syndrome and the Adult Education Class June 24, 4:00 ET: With an increasing number of students with Asperger's Syndrome in adult education classrooms, we need to understand more about Asperger's and what we can do as an instructor to assist these students in our programs. In this webinar you will learn about the characteristics of Aspergers: poor affect, poor socialization skills, obsession on complex topics, difficulty understanding non-verbal cues, sensory overload. Discuss how these and comorbid conditions (depression, ADHD) manifest them selves in the classroom and learn interventions that you can use to assist your student in having a successful and positive learning experience. Presenter: Bevan Gibson, MS SpEd, is a current board member of the National Association for Adults with Special Learning Needs. She serves as the Director of the Southern Illinois Professional Development Center and is a state trainer for special learning needs in Illinois. In addition, she is a leader in the state's adult education special learning needs endeavors. to sign up: http://www.naasln.org/webinars.htm Questions: info@naasln.org RI World Refugee Day. Tuesday, June 24 from 3:30-5:30 p.m. The Alderman's Chambers Third Floor, City Hall, 25 Dorrance Street Providence The honorable William Twaddell, former US Ambassador to Liberia, Mauritania and Nigeria will serve as Master of Ceremonies. The program will feature profiles in refugee hope and courage told by individual refugees from around the globe along with musical and dance performances. Light refreshments will be served. Come celebrate the spirit and courage of the world’s refugees, giving them the support and respect they deserve. Your support will help continue the work of International Institute Rhode Island, who offers a strong helping hand to families and individuals upon their arrival to accelerate their transition to become self-sufficient and active community participants. For more information, please contact Sarah Parrott at 401.784.8634 or sparrott@iiri.org other RI Adult Education PDC events: http://www.ric.edu/aepdc/calendar.php RIRAL's TRANSITION TO COLLEGE - INFORMATION AND ASSESSMENT SESSIONS Saturday, June 21 at 9:00 am. Next Evening session begins in August. Weekend session begins in October. CALL TODAY TO RESERVE YOUR PLACE AND CHANGE YOUR LIFE!  Transition to College is part of the Rhode Island State Transition Initiative in partnership with the Community College of Rhode. The program is held at 175 Main Street Pawtucket, RI. For more information, contact MarieCrecca-Romero@riral.org, Program Director at 401. 722.9800. learning opportunity: The Extending Mathematical Power (EMPower) curriculum and professional development opportunities were created specifically with adult numeracy teachers and their diverse student populations in mind. The curriculum fosters a pedagogy of learning for understanding and challenges students and teachers to extend their ideas of what it means to do math. It also promotes a learning community in which students are encouraged to work collaboratively, explore open-ended investigations, and share multiple ways for solving real-world problems. (see, e.g. http://www.keypress.com/documents/ALookInside/EMPower/EMPower_SeekingPatternsSB.pdf) Our hands-on trainings, based on the EMPower series, introduce teachers to effective ways of developing an understanding of all math strands at all levels. This year, TERC is pleased to announce two EMPower Professional Development - In Louisville, KY on July 17 & 18 Topics: Data and Graphs and Proportional Reasoning - In Cambridge, MA at TERC on August 14 &15 Topics: Number and Operation Sense and Algebraic Thinking The cost for attending the Institutes is $150 per participant per day. All materials will be provided—including the EMPower teacher and student book for each of the topics covered (a retail value of $83.80). Both trainings will be presented by EMPower co-author Mary Jane Schmitt. For more details and a registration form, please email Sherry_Soares@terc.edu or visit: http://adultnumeracy.terc.edu/EMP_SumInst2008.html. Alternatively, your program may choose to host a professional development training (open to groups of 25+) at your location, which can be customized to best meet the needs of your staff and student population. For details, please see our EMPower Workshop Inquiry form http://adultnumeracy.dev.terc.edu/EMP_wkshp_inquiry.cfm . Please note that these offerings are not part of the Teachers Investigating Adult Numeracy (TIAN) initiative; they are additional opportunities. - Sherry Soares, EMPower Workshop Coordinator (note to RI educators – if your program would like to participate, but needs to find additional practitioners, please contact janet_isserlis@brown.edu so that we can announce your interest and let others know). from Thursday notes, June 5: States Get Help in ELL Professional Development http://www.cal.org/caelanetwork/pd_resources/framework.html The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), under a contract with OVAE, has selected 12 states to receive help in planning and delivering quality professional development for teachers of adult English language learners. They are: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. CAL will work with states to use its recently released Framework for Quality Professional Development to assess states’ needs and customize technical assistance. CAL staff will provide assistance including on-site trainings, mentoring programs, study groups, conference calls, and online discussions. States will be able to expand the depth of professional development content and breadth of professional development activities. States not participating in the project can access the tools and products that CAL will use, including the Framework for Quality Professional Development, at CAL’s Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA) Network. Several States Using Fee-for-Service Workforce Development Iowa’s community college One Source initiative provides a single point of entry into community college contract training programs for employers with multiple locations, as well as for employers based out of state with multiple plants in Iowa. The colleges agreed to a common pricing structure for workforce development and allowed the community college closest to the employer to deliver training. New Jersey’s community colleges have a statewide consortium working with the state’s largest employer association to make community college training available to all businesses statewide. A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report indicates that, although the amount colleges receive from such training typically is less than 5 percent of total revenue, initiatives provide a range of training services to businesses. Twenty colleges in six states—Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington—visited by the GAO in 2006-2007 offered from five to 155 employers 21 to 3,691 contract training courses, depending on the state. Thursday notes, June 12: Community College Symposium to Think Through Transition The Department’s National Community College Symposium focusing on postsecondary transitions will convene on June 19; the OVAE initiated meeting will provide a forum for noted panelists to describe practices that appear to improve student transitions and offer strategies for building a better understanding of how to create successful student transitions. You may view the symposium as it occurs June 19 between 9 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and 2 to 4:30 p.m. A summary of the meeting will be posted in July. http://www.sei2003.com/OVAE/Webcast/ Connecticut Uses Incentive Grant For Workers' Basic Skills The Connecticut State Department of Education is using $400,000 of incentive grant funds to extend, improve and sustain Developing Tomorrow's Professionals (DTP), a basic academic skills, college transition and career options program for low-skilled adults. DTP provides year-round training, assessment and support services that prepare young African-American and Latino men for matriculation in a four-year college. The state also is investing $76,670 of incentive funds in its Incumbent Worker Education and Training for Low-Wage, Low-Skilled Workers Development project. This effort provides intensive, contextualized instruction for low-wage, low-skilled incumbent workers in demand-driven occupations. More information on Connecticut’s investments is available from Maureen Wagner. http://www.cael.org/adultlearninginfocus.htm States, Employers Help Adults Pay for College http://www.cael.org/adultlearninginfocus.htm States and employers are helping adult students, largely part-timers, address financial barriers to college transition, according to Adult Learning in Focus, a new study by the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) and National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHMES). http://www.cael.org/adultlearninginfocus.htm. Nine states devote between 10 and 20% of need-based postsecondary aid to part-time students, and six states commit more than one fifth of their need-based aid to part-timers, the study found. 17 states provide no need-based financial assistance to part-time college students. More than half the students in vocational/technical diploma programs get financial help from their employers, the study reported. Adults make up an increasing proportion of total postsecondary enrollment. Over 40 percent of students in community colleges by 2004 were adults, and the number of adults that enrolled part time in community colleges had jumped from 17 percent in 1970 to more than a quarter of all students by 2002, the study showed. Individual state profiles and recommendations from CAEL for state policymakers based on the study are available online. http://www.cael.org/adultlearninginfocus_map.htm learning opportunities National Priorities Project analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent. Numeracy, critical thinking and technology: have a look http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home funding opportunities - large and less large Verizon Foundation -- Education, Literacy and Health Grants The Verizon Foundation aims to help people increase their literacy and educational achievement; avoid being an abuser or a victim of domestic violence; and achieve and sustain their health and safety. To achieve this goal, the Foundation funds programs in the following areas of interest: education, literacy, domestic violence prevention, healthcare and accessibility and Internet safety. Eligible applicants are nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status. Proposals will also be considered from elementary and secondary schools that are registered with the National Center for Education Statistics. Deadline: November 1, 2008 Contact the Verizon Foundation directly for complete program information and application guidelines: http://foundation.verizon.com/grant/guidelines.shtml - 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 employment opportunities are generally sent as they arrive via email; if you would like to receive this bulletin, and those updates by email please contact janet_isserlis@brown.edu. 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. employment opportunities at Bristol Community College: http://www.bristolcc.edu/administration/human_resources/jobListing.cfm 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 The Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy at Penn State has published two new research briefs examining (1) the social support family literacy programs provide for women in poverty and (2) the Parent Education Profile, a an instrument that assesses parents' support for children's literacy development. Summaries and links are included below. The Importance of Social Interaction and Support for Women Learners: Evidence from Family Literacy Programs (Esther Prins, Blaire Willson Toso, and Kai Schafft)* *The full article will be published in Adult Education Quarterly. http://www.ed.psu.edu/goodlinginstitute/pdf/Research_Brief_2_Final.pdf Key Findings Although many women value and benefit from social interaction in adult education and family literacy, these social dimensions are often treated as tangential or inconsequential. Utilizing data from two studies of family literacy programs in Pennsylvania, this study examined how family literacy programs provide a supportive social space for women in poverty. We found that many learners had limited social support and social ties with people outside their program and few opportunities for recreation. As such, family literacy programs fulfilled important social functions by enabling women to leave the house, enjoy social contact and support, engage in informal counseling, pursue self-discovery and development, and establish supportive relationships with teachers. In sum, adult education and family literacy programs play an important role in helping women in poverty receive social support and, in turn, enhance their psychosocial well-being. Key Implications While federal and state policies have increasingly focused on instrumental, standardized outcomes such as test scores, we must also acknowledge that adult education and family literacy programs serve important psychosocial needs. Staff members should recognize that participants have multiple purposes for participation, including the desire for friendship, social distraction, and the like. Provision of emotional and mental health support and opportunities for learners to develop friendships and interdependence is also crucial. Although home-based programs provide access to adult education and family literacy, center-based programs appear to provide greater social support. Finally, staff, administrators, and policy makers can advocate for inclusion of outcomes relating to personal development, social support systems, and social networks. Program evaluations could include qualitative and quantitative data about these measures. Parenting for Literacy Development and Educational Success: An Examination of the Parent Education Profile (Esther Prins and Blaire Willson Toso)* *The full article will be published in American Educational Research Journal. http://www.ed.psu.edu/goodlinginstitute/pdf/Research_Brief_3_Final.pdf Key Findings The Parent Education Profile (PEP) is an instrument that rates parents’ support for children’s literacy development. This study examined how the PEP portrays the ideal parent, its assumptions about parenting and education, and the values and ideals it promotes. In sum, many aspects of the PEP evaluate parents by the mainstream (White, middle-class) parenting style. Although the PEP uses the language of scientific research to support this model, it presents no information about reliability or validity. The PEP tends to assume that a universal set of parenting practices best supports children’s literacy development, without fully considering cultural and economic differences. It also implies that parents, particularly mothers, are mainly responsible for their children’s academic success. In order to follow some of the PEP practices, parents need access to resources often unavailable to poor families; yet, the PEP does not seem to encourage recognition of mitigating circumstances (e.g., poverty) that might lower parents’ ratings. Finally, while the PEP encourages staff to ask for parents’ perspectives, it gives parents little say in assessing themselves. In conclusion, caution and cultural sensitivity are needed when using instruments that prescribe, monitor, and rate parental support for education and literacy. Key Implications The PEP should be tested with economically and culturally diverse parents for reliability and validity and class, cultural, and gender bias, and then revised to mitigate any biases. Until then, states should reconsider mandating the PEP or using it as a program performance indicator. The PEP supplementary materials could frame literacy development as a complex process influenced by numerous factors, including but not limited to parental beliefs and practices. When using the PEP, professionals should always tell parents they are being observed and rated and obtain their consent. Additionally, staff should identify their own beliefs about child rearing and literacy, especially if they do not share participants’ social class or racial/ethnic background. It would also be useful to discuss with parents extenuating circumstances that may prevent them from engaging in specific PEP activities. Programs can involve parents in assessing themselves, discussing their views of parenting and literacy, and deciding which parenting practices they wish to maintain or change. If a specific parenting or literacy practice is inconsistent with parents’ cultural norms, alternative strategies can be identified to achieve the desired outcome. - Esther Prins, Assistant Professor and Co-Director Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy http://www.ed.psu.edu/goodlinginstitute Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy http://www.ed.psu.edu/isal The new issue of Focus on Basics (Volume 9, Issue A) is now available at http://www.ncsall.net/?id=31. Published by World Education, the theme is Numeracy. Articles include: using part-whole thinking in math; the importance of numeracy in adult basic education; designing instruction that addresses all of the components of numeracy; techniques for introducing new types of activities into the math classrooml the cultural aspects of mathematics teaching algebraic thinking in lower level mathematics classes, and TIAN: a professional learning model for ABE math teachers. from EdInfo: Teaching with Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum provides modules that help students build spreadsheets to solve mathematical problems in the context of their courses. Topics include compound interest, chemical equilibrium, budgets, medication dosages, mortgage payments, consumer price index, rock density, carbon sequestration in trees, accounting data, radioactive decay, earthquakes, modeling a healthier weight, and others. http://free.ed.gov/resource.cfm?resource_id=2042 more on EdInfo: http://www.ed.gov/MailingLists/EDInfo/ twentyfour and a half minutes really, really well spent: please watch this video http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/233 and learn yet more: The Learning First Alliance recently interviewed best-selling author Dave Eggers about the urban tutoring centers he has helped establish in 7 major cities nationwide. Those centers focus on student writing for children aged 6 to 18, and they also work with teachers to promote better writing instruction in schools. Eggers describes the centers' success in engaging communities in public education. The centers operate behind storefronts that draw people off the streets and help program directors recruit volunteer tutors -- who now number in the thousands. The centers also encourage strong family involvement. Eggers describes his new site -- http://www.onceuponaschool.org -- which encourages people to tell their stories of successful community involvement in public schools. Eggers also describes his forthcoming documentary on the challengesfaced by public school teachers. http://www.publicschoolinsights.org/?storyId=20374 Educating the Public and Elected Officials about Adult Education: Report on Adult Education Advocacy Efforts in New England by the New England Literacy Resource Center at World Education This new report takes stock of the program, policy and legislative context for adult education in each of the six New England states. It discusses local and statewide advocacy strategies by adult educators. The findings show that adult education advocacy efforts in New England are multi-faceted, and growing in sophistication and reach. The report discusses the principal challenges and related promising strategies revealed through interviews with leading adult education advocates in New England. They are grouped into four areas: 1) Visibility; 2) Framing the Message; 3) Student Involvement; and 4) Increasing and Sustaining Advocacy Efforts. Available for downloading (as a PDF file): http://www.nelrc.org/expertise/civic.html#educating (For a word doc version, please contact janet_isserlis@brown.edu) Building Basics - ESOL Toolkit for General Construction, Landscaping, Painting, and Plumbing Building Basics is a multilevel curriculum for teaching students that have expressed a need to learn English within the context of the construction trades. It has been organized into four modules which can be downloaded separately: General Construction, Curb Appeal (Landscaping), Painting, and Plumbing. The lessons provide a facilitator guide with step-by-step instructions for implementation, facilitator materials, and learner handouts. http://www.valrc.org/publications/buildingbasics/ - Nancy R. Faux, ESOL Specialist, Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center The new LINCS Resource Collections are online subject-oriented collections of high quality instructional resources, including multi-media resources, informed by research, especially scientifically based and other rigorous research, for use by adult education and literacy educators. To access the National Institute for Literacy's Resource Collections: http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/resourcecollections/resource_collections.html The Basic Skills Resource Collection contains resources on reading, writing, and mathematics and numeracy. The Program Planning Resource Collection contains resources on assessment, learning disabilities, and program improvement. The Workforce Competitiveness Resource Collection contains resources on workforce basic skills education, English language acquisition, and technology. Catalyst, the National Institute for Literacy’s first newsletter in more than a decade, is here! The inaugural issue is packed with news and information about the Institute's programs, people, and publications. http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/publications/Catalyst5-08.pdf NIFL launched an e-news and announcements to share information about its people, programs, publications, projects, and more. Subscribe at http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/announce <http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/announce> to receive news and updates from NIFL. This is an announcement only list. Seven habits and more: a recent online discussion about reading and ESOL (and English speaking) learners, led to a number of resources being shared, including Heide Spruck Wrigley's Seven Habits of Successful Readers, http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/7Habits.pdf. To follow the entire conversation, go to http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/englishlanguage/2008/date.html and follow the conversation thread that begins on May 12th (you’ll need to scroll down the page). The UK's Open University course, 'Who counts as a refugee' considers the interrelationships between citizenship, identity and belonging, personal lives and social policy for people who have fled their country of origin seeking asylum in the UK, and includes useful information about refugee status and related issues for those living in other countries: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=3490 UK National Curricula for ESOL, Literacy and Numeracy, with associated material and support for teachers, including the competencies for each skill at each level. As well, a significant number of resources for working with people with a range of disabilities. (See, for example): http://www.dfes.gov.uk/curriculum_literacy/access/workwith/principles/ http://www.dfes.gov.uk/curriculum_esol/ http://www.dfes.gov.uk/curriculum_literacy/ http://www.dfes.gov.uk/curriculum_numeracy/ Workplace Essential Skills and GED Connection series Now Available Through VIDEO-ON-DEMAND The adult learning series Workplace Essential Skills and GED Connection are available online through the Rhode Island PBS video streaming portal. In 25 half-hour segments, the Workplace Essential Skills series presents refreshers in fundamental reading, writing, and math skills as they relate to getting, keeping, or advancing in a job. Lessons also cover job applications, resume writing, and job interviews. An orientation segment touches upon the use of the different components included in this series. Lessons are written at a pre-GED level, and can help prepare adults for the GED tests. Four workbooks accompany the series. In 39 half-hour programs, the GED Connection helps learners prepare for the GED exam. Episodes cover subjects and skills related to work, community, and home life. Practice tests help learners know what to expect, see which skills they need to strengthen, and build confidence. Access to Workplace Essential Skills and GED Connection series through RI PBS video streaming is free. Users access VOD through an account and passcode, available by email request to Education@ RIpbs.org or by calling Education Services at 401-222-3636 x 211. Video streaming, also known as video on demand (VOD), allows users the convenience of watching lessons at any time from an Internet-connected computer. VOD is also flexible, allowing users to watch several episodes in one sitting, or repeat lessons as often as desired. Both the Workplace Essential Skills and the GED Connection series are also broadcast on RI PBS LEARN, digital 36.2 and Verizon 787. The Workplace Essential Skills broadcasts Fridays at 12:30 PM and the GED Connection series broadcasts Mondays, Tuesdays, and Sundays at 12:30 PM. For Workplace Essential Skills and the GED Connection broadcast dates please visit: http://www.pbs.org/tvschedules/ For information about RIPBS Education Services please visit out web pages at http://www.ripbs.org/Education/ - Dr. María D. Velásquez de Tondreau Education Director Rhode Island PBS 50 Park Lane Providence, RI 02907 Phone: (401) 222-3636, ext. 211 Fax: (401) 222-3407 Education@RIpbs.org great online resource: http://www.nrdc.org.uk/index.asp National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy, dedicated to conducting research and development projects to improve literacy, numeracy, language and related skills and knowledge. On this site you will find information on all our activities, including: Research and development projects <http://www.nrdc.org.uk/projects.asp> Creative routes to specialist teacher qualifications <http://www.nrdc.org.uk/creativeroutes> The Voices on the Page storybank is now live! Read all of the 640 stories here <http://www.nrdc.org.uk/voicesonthepage.asp> Research reports and reviews <http://www.nrdc.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=329> Latest e- newsletter <http://www.nrdc.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=671> News and events <http://www.nrdc.org.uk/news.asp> While the work originates in the U.K., much of it has usefulness and validity for work in this country. online: STATE OF WORKING RI 2007 The Poverty Institute's biennial study documenting trends in wages, occupations, unemployment, and the state's workforce. The report points out that the state's labor force of 578,000 is more diverse, older and better educated than it was two decades ago but workers face a triple whammy – slowing job growth, eroding wages and benefits, and growing inequality. http://www.povertyinstitute.org/matriarch/documents/State%20of%20Working%20RI%202007.pdf 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 The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) - 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 U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), Assisting Refugees with Disabilities Program : Resource Guide for Serving Refugees with Disabilities available at http://www.refugees.org/DisabilityGuide The guide, written for refugee case managers and those serving refugees with disabilities, includes 139 pages of information about resources for serving adults and children with disabilities, housing for refugees with disabilities, assistive technology, medical resources, citizenship and disability, benefits for refugees with disabilities and more. If you have any questions or technical assistance needs, please contact Xuan Nguyen, Director of USCRI Health and Human Services at xnguyen@uscridc.org or at 202-347-3507 ext 3056. 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 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 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 Effective Transitions in Adult Education to be held on November 17-18, 2008 in Providence, RI Registration for the conference in now open: http://collegetransition.org/conference08/registration.html For more information, contact Priyanka Sharma psharma@worlded.org or call (617) 385-3788. – A Declaration of Numeracy: Empowering Adults through Mathematics Education, 15th International Conference 2008 June 30th - July 3rd Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia ALM is an international research forum that brings together those engaged and interested in research and developments in the field of adult mathematics/numeracy teaching and learning. The ALM conference has not met in the United States since 2000 and offers American educators a unique opportunity to meet colleagues from around the world who share their interest in adult mathematics education. http://www.alm-online.net/ 2008 National Refugee and Immigrant Conference: Issues and Innovations September 25-26, Chicago, IL The 2008 Refugee and Immigrant Conference offers groups and individuals assisting refugee and immigrant children and their families an opportunity to network and learn about issues affecting refugee and immigrant children and their families, schools, health, and health care, along with the challenges of cultural adjustment. Information and the Call for Conference Workshop Proposals http://www.thecenterweb.org/alrc/refugee.html - questions, please contact Lynn Osheff (losheff@thecenterweb.org). ProLiteracyWorldwide's 2008 annual conference at the Peabody, Little Rock, AR October 2 - 4: http://www.proliteracy.org/conference/ Eleventh Annual Multicultural Conference and Curriculum Resource Fair Presented by the RIC Dialogue on Diversity Committee November 1st, theme: Teaching for Change: Privilege, Power and Possibilities Program includes: Workshops on promising practices in multicultural education; A curriculum fair, including curriculum resources, books, software, and videos; Keynote address by Dr. Peggy McIntosh, "Youth Hour" - a round table dialogue with keynote speaker and college and high school students. Workshop proposals due July 1st. http://www.ric.edu/promisingPractices/workshops.php  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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