MAACCE MATTERS

Board of Directors

Heather Ritchie President

Gusman Edouard Vice-President

Joseph Jameson Treasurer

Jim Younger Secretary

Todd Elliott Past President

Directors

Shelly Alter Ellen Beattie

Cynthia Campbell Barbara Edwards Michael Elonge Cindy Fischer LeAnn Lorenz Diana Siemer

Jacqui Walpole Doug Weimer Jay Willetts

Melissa Zervos

Sonia Socha Advocacy Chair

MAACCE Coordinator

Laurie Askins

Summer 2015

Volume 15, Issue II

Notes from the President Summer 2015

Dear MAACCE Members,

This newsletter is a wonderful celebration of the 2015 MAACCE annual conference.

This year, we had another exceptional group of presenters, speakers and attendees.

Presenters came from local programs all the way to national groups. Craig Boykin, the

keynote, shared his insight and helped us reflect on what our students might be

experiencing. Representatives from state and national levels took the time to share their

insights and plans for the future. We had more attendees than last year, almost 400,

with people coming from all counties in Maryland and out-of-state. Peruse the photos

and see if you or a colleague were captured on camera. We look forward to seeing you

again next year!

Looking forward, the 2014-2015 MAACCE board will meet one more time this year,

and we will be finalizing the strategic plan at that meeting with feedback from the

members. We look forward to implementing the plan in the coming years and

welcoming any ideas or volunteer time from the members – for those who signed up

for committees at the conference, we will be calling on you soon. With much gratitude

and a little sadness, we will also be saying goodbye to our outgoing board members

and wishing them well in their future endeavors: Melinda Brown, Barbara Denman,

and Emma Ostendorp.

MAACCE is also pleased to welcome our new board members for the upcoming 2015-

2016 year. Please say congratulations when you see these people around – Shelley

Alter, Ellen Beattie, Barbara Edwards, Jacqui Walpole, and Doug Weimer. During our

summer retreat, MAACCE board members will be working on planning the 2016

conference, building up committees and generating new ideas for how to celebrate

National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week, which will happen in September.

It is not too early to start planning – what will you do to celebrate your learners and our

work? Please email us at maacce@gmail.com with questions, thoughts or comments.

Wishing you a wonderful summer,

Heather Ritchie

MAACCE 2015 Conference

“Climbing the Ladder of Learning”

Keynote: Craig J. Boykin

Student Awards

Professional Awards

Workshop

Presenters

Attendees

Special Guests

Familiar Faces

HCLS Project Literacy Graduation and Awards Ceremony 2015

Emma Ostendorp - Howard County Library System

More than two hundred people were present to witness the graduation of Howard

County Library System (HCLS) Project Literacy Class of 2015, to celebrate the

exceptional accomplishments by many students, and to give recognition to their

dedicated tutors and instructors. It was a moving ceremony full of heartwarming stories

and cherished memories to last a lifetime. It was also a perfect way to end a very busy

and productive year at HCLS Project Literacy

The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the Class of 2015. Each graduate

was gracious and the stories inspirational. Depending on their individual situations,

they studied with HCLS Project Literacy anywhere from eighteen months to nine years

before reaching their goals. They spent an average of four hours a week with their

tutors to prepare for the rigors of the diploma program while balancing the demands

from family and work at the same time. It is understandable that their arduous paths

were made more complicated because of life’s frequent interruptions. Still they

persevered. We want to congratulate these students and others like them for never

giving up on themselves and their education. “This (the graduation) is only the

beginning,” said graduate Nelser Avelar Fuentes. Indeed, since completing the NEDP

just a few weeks ago, Nelser has already registered for more classes at the community

college. Everyone at HCLS Project Literacy wants to wish all the graduates continued

success as they move on to the next chapter of their studies.

Additional photos of the event can be seen at:

https://goo.gl/1M3SQg

The New Boy is Lost! An ESL Book Review by Susanne Gardner, ESL Instructor, MCI-J

The New Boy is Lost! by Elizabeth Claire (Eardley Publications, 2004) is a wonderful addition

to our classroom library at the Maryland Correctional Institution at Jessup (MCI-J). It is an ESL

picture-novel written mostly in the past tense, with colorful images and cartoon-style photos. It is the

story of an immigrant Japanese student who gets lost in New York City on his way home from school.

The story uses humor and common immigrant experiences as it documents Taro’s new life in a strange

city. I used this book in both of my classes: ESL Beginning Literacy and ESL Low Intermediate. The

students enjoyed the story immensely.

In the ESL Low Intermediate class, where students had been introduced to the English past

tense, the book served as a wonderful review of common verbs they had already learned (was, made,

said, took, came, and thought). Students were able to read it in class during “reading time,” and

because I had ordered 15 copies, each student had their own book to read independently at their own

pace. There are 15 short chapters in the book with common ESL themes such as giving personal

information, asking directions, introductions, school subjects, giving descriptions, safety, and time.

The book is a nice size for adults, 8 ½ x 11, with four to five brightly-colored pictures in sequence per

page. Each picture has a one-sentence caption, and both sentences and sketches kept students

interested and motivated to continue reading to the end. For any new vocabulary, students were

instructed to look in their dictionaries, and keep a list of not more than ten vocabulary words. It took

most students between an hour and an hour and a half to finish the book, reading at a leisurely pace.

When finished, they were instructed to make a list of past tense verbs they recognized. Later, we

talked about the story, reviewed new words for pronunciation and meaning, and surveyed the lists of

verbs noted.

In my ESL Beginning Literacy class, we read the book out loud in small groups, with inmate

tutors facilitating. Students read more slowly, and needed to discuss some of the word meanings, but

with the pictures, they were able to figure out a lot of the content themselves. Students thoroughly

enjoyed the process as they read their first book in English, all the while reviewing high-frequency

words such as colors, numbers, family members, and weather vocabulary. We had one student who

was a new arrival at school, with no English reading history, and he too, was able to follow the story

very well with minimal Spanish translations. This group read the book over a period of two days.

One unexpected outcome of using this text was the spontaneous conversation it provoked after

reading the story. As I discovered, many ESL students have wonderfully-funny accounts of how they

were lost for hours in the U.S. Their stories provided oral practice with the past tense amidst varied

vocabulary, and students were able to laugh about their own misadventures; they really identified with

the main character, Taro. These student adventures could also be used for writing practice, comparing

and contrasting their own events with Taro’s story, sequence and order, and cause and effect. I

thoroughly recommend this text as an asset to any classroom library as it is fun, easy to follow, and

contains relevant content material for the multicultural classroom.

Few subjects are more popular right now than that of ‘Technology in the Classroom.’ If you’ve

been around the field of education block enough times to have heard buzzwords like NCLB, Common

Core, Learning Styles and a bazillion others, then you might be wondering what there is to recommend

this newcomer. It may seem like just another hurdle you’re expected to jump over, even though your

shoelaces feel like they’re tied together. The reality of the situation is better than that, hopefully, but,

even if it isn’t, you’ve got to figure out how to live with it. The fact of the matter is: technology is part

of our daily lives and it will, barring catastrophic change, continue to change and grow and become

even more prevalent. As teachers, it is our duty to prepare our students for the world as it is and as it

will become even more so. We must help our students learn the integral role that technology plays in

our world by growing our technological knowledge, integrating that knowledge into our lessons, and

fostering a thirst for that knowledge in our students.

Thankfully, of all the technological advances our world makes, the ones we use in the

classroom are (mostly) the least scary. Educational apps, games, videos, blogs, vlogs, etc. saturate the

marketplace, making accessing this content fairly easy, across all platforms. Hardware advances make

devices like tablets, smart phones, toys and games, printers, projectors, smart boards and computers

easier and easier to use all the time. Teachers are expected to learn about new technologies and learn

how to use them so that they can teach students about them. But, who teaches the teachers? The

biggest gap in this cycle is that between these advances and the teachers; there is a paucity of

instruction for us, and this needs to change. We need to support each other, and to teach each other.

Let’s all make the pledge to share, and if we do, we’ll be richer for it. At the end of this article you will

find a list of resources. Share these with other teachers and help start a technology revolution. Another

great source for learning about technology is your students. Talk to your students about technology and

take the initiative to learn from the ones who have such an interest and knowledge. When you learn

from your students, it helps them gain confidence and understanding—interactive, participatory

teaching/learning is a win-win for teachers and students.

Whether you teach in a group or in a one-on-one setting, you can integrate technology into your

lessons with just a few adjustments. Instead of using a black or white board to write information for

your classes, use a smart board or a projector and visual presenter combination. Using these tools gives

you so much flexibility to present information quickly and easily without having to erase and you are

able to keep more information readily available. Instead of reading material from a printed book or

sheets of paper, use a tablet or e-reader to bolster interest in the information and take up less space.

Add notes and references to texts as you read and save them without having to worry about poor

penmanship or losing/destroying (accidentally of course) paper notes; integrated dictionary and web

access functions can look up words/phrases and research interesting topics that come up while reading.

You can integrate videos or blogs into your lessons, giving students reinforcement by giving them

another viewpoint on a subject and tasking them to apply what they learn from videos through

comparing and contrasting, writing words/sentences/essays or even creating their own video responses

to the information presented. Try ‘flipping’ your classroom by having students learn content at home,

where they can view/interact with information as much as they need to, and have them complete

‘homework’ in class, where you can supervise, help and correct them as they work. Having students

work together in an online forum and posting to message boards or creating multimedia presentations

is a great way to get them to investigate/use technology on their own. The greatest thing about

integrating technology into your lessons is that it builds on itself; you start with one small change,

gradually adding more technology, until you’re more than comfortable with it, and you’ve become

technologically savvy, and so have your students.

Technology in the Classroom – Dora Bingman

Fostering a thirst for knowledge in our students is what teachers live for (or, at the very least, it

is one reason that we teach). You can argue that technology is something that students already have

knowledge of, as well as the thirst to learn more. That may be true of students under the age of 30 and

it is probably true of (most) American students already, but, the majority of the students that we teach,

i.e. adults, immigrants, ex-offenders, and other non-traditional students, have a lot less pre-existing

technological interest and knowledge. In fact, technology might scare them, even as it (sometimes)

scares us. We must overcome defeatist attitudes and lack of background knowledge to help our

students. How? Well, we must make it fun, interesting and applicable to their lives. If your students

can learn to access their bank account from a phone/tablet/computer, instead of going to the bank every

time they want to deposit a check, pay bills, check their balance or transfer money between accounts,

think about all the time and money that will save them. If your students can watch a movie in their own

language with English subtitles (or vice versa), won’t that make technology a valuable tool for them?

Teach your students how to find the answer to (nearly) any question that they can conceive of, and

they’ll be ready to learn how to make that technology work for them. Show them that they can use

technology to make their lives and the lives of their families easier and more fulfilling, and they will

thirst for everything you can teach them about technology and all that they can learn on their own as

well.

“I’ve heard/read this all before,” you say. While that may be true, have you really

listened/thought about it? Have you integrated technological resources into your lessons? Do your

students use technology in their assignments/homework? Even teachers on the forefront of the

‘Technology in the Classroom’ movement can do more. Help other teachers, investigate new

technology resources and try new things! Lifelong learning (another of those ubiquitous buzzwords) is

something we can all benefit from. Make technology one avenue for your own lifelong learning and it

becomes natural for you and your students.

Some additional resources for your “Technology Education”:

www.meganga.com

https://www.youtube.com/edu

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/computers

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/on-line.htm

http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic76.htm

http://www.techtutorials.net/

http://www.atomiclearning.com/

http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/archives/techtorials.shtml

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/p/google-tools-tutorials.html

Maryland Literacy Hotline

410-752-3595 (Baltimore Reads old number) MDLiteracyHotline@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/MDLiteracy The Maryland Literacy Hotline is available to help Maryland residents find nearby Literacy, Adult Basic Education classes, GED® Exam preparation classes, National External Diploma Programs, and English as a Second Language classes. This project was originally a collaboration of Baltimore Reads and the Family Literacy Coalition in Baltimore. Now the hotline is being run by Cynthia Campbell of Gold Apple Services for the Family Literacy Coalition. If you are a Maryland adult education provider and would like to be on the referral list, please send an email to Dr. Cynthia Campbell at:

MDLiteracyHotline@gmail.com Be sure to include the following:

Name of organization

Contact information including address, phone number, web address, e-mail

address.

County or city the organization serves

Name of director

Name and email of person for prospective students to call

Types of classes offered

Indication of costs (if any) for to the student for classes, materials, or other

fees.

Please note: While MAACCE is supportive of the work of the Maryland Literacy Hotline, Maryland Literacy Hotline is not a program of MAACCE.

Time for some MAACCE member participation:

Rules: Take a look at the following conference photos and using the image number, provide a caption for that

photograph. Three of the best captions for each picture will be published in an upcoming special email.

Grand prize = your satisfaction that you showed your sense of humor and creativity!

Send your entries to Jay @ jaywilletts@comcast.net and don’t forget to provide your name and photo number

to which you are referring. No limit to the number of entries you send, just do them in 1 email please. Multiple

emails will be deleted. Board members are eligible to participate. Come on, send in your captions asap.

Deadline for submissions will be July 27, 2015.

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Join us on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/MAACCE/135869909789248

MAACCE

C/O Laurie Askins PO Box 709

Leonardtown, MD 20650

E-MAIL: MAACCEcoordinator@gmail.com

We’re on the web!

See us at: www.maaccemd.org

MAACCE Matters is published quarterly coordinating with the seasons. If you would like to furnish an article or supply information for MAACCE members, contact Jay Willetts at

jaywilletts@comcast.net

About Our Organization…

The Maryland Association for Adult, Community and

Continuing Education is a non-profit organization

providing leadership in Maryland for those interested in

advancing education as a lifelong process. MAACCE

provides a central forum for a wide variety of adult,

community and continuing education groups and

encourages organizations and agencies in Maryland to

cooperate in a broad spectrum of educational programs

and activities in support of the lifelong learning concept.

MAACCE Board of Directors 2015-2016