Adult Learning Centers, NYPL

Adult Learning Centers, NYPL

Monday, May 23, 2016

May 23, 2016

WEEK 5
WORK


TEACHING RESOURCES

* Work and social media 
Please check out the "work" wiki: alc-work.wikispaces.com
You'll find lots of ideas and also Word and PDF downloads for three articles about social media and work:
1. Time Magazine: The 7 Social Media Mistakes Most Likely to Cost You a Job (advanced)
2. NY Daily News: Can't land a job? Your social media posts may be to blame (intermediate/advanced)
3. Levo.com: Do's and Don'ts Social Media (intermediate/advanced) 


If you'd like to contribute an activity or link to the work wiki, please upload or let us know :)

* Here's a conversation starter- some pictures of different people with different occupations. (You can delete the text.) Thank you to Elizabeth's colleague Melisa Crosby, all the way out in Portland, Oregon, for sharing with us! Occupations


An interesting Voice of America Special English learning report. The video is about foreign students in the US and the job market for them. VOA Special English Report


Career videos: In connection with the upcoming Employment theme, you may find some of the videos at the sites below to be of interest. Many of the videos are for jobs requiring a high level of education and language skills, but there are several that do not have such high requirements.

http://www.drkit.org/careervideos/(see Certified Nurses Assistant, for example)

http://www.careeronestop.org/videos/careerandclustervideos/career-and-cluster-videos.aspx (These videos are generally very short and have closed captions. The visual quality is not the best, however. See Home Health Aide, for example)

-----Many Thanks to Eric Rosenbaum for contributing these!


 
GOOGLE RESOURCES
Once again the Free Technology for Teachers website has some useful information for us. 
This time, it's How to Insert & Modify Charts in Google Slides




VENTURES

Do you know about Touchstone Arcade? 

It's another way of using Ventures with your class. It's similar to Ventures Arcade, but different. The link is here: Touchstone Arcade




NYU LITERACY REVIEW
Please click HERE for last week's blog with photos from the Annual Event. 

Click HERE to read some of our students' winning stories!


SYMPHONY SPACE
Many of you know the Symphony Space "All Write!" Program. Teachers sign up in October. In January, actors read select short stories and poems at Symphony Space on 95th Street and Broadway. ESOL and literacy students then write their own pieces, inspired by stories from the event. Symphony Space selects winning pieces from all submissions and in May the same actors read our students' writing on stage!
Watch the wonderful video below to learn more. It was produced a few cycles ago and features St. Agnes students Mary and Alessandra.


Symphony Space offers a morning program and an evening program to accommodate different class times.
Please see some photos below from this year's evening program.

Click HERE to read some of our students' winning stories!


 95th and Broadway!

 Getting ready.


All Write! Program Director Madeleine Cohen
Seward Park in the House!


Lower Manhattan student Rosa P. (front) with volunteer Maxine Ganzer (left) and lead teacher Terry Sheehan (right)


Aguilar Teacher Christina Nieder with her student Eric S.

St. Agnes volunteer Lynda Myles with student Maria Lopez

 After the reading, the winners go on stage!

 Photos: Elke Stappert


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SHOW US THE LOVE!
One of the only ways we can know if you like what we are doing is if you make a comment on our blog page. Like our blog? Are there topics you would like us to add? Please comment! 

Would you like to contribute something? A link, teaching tip, other? Any time!
Thank you, we really appreciate your feedback!

Have a great week!
Elizabeth & Elke
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Monday, May 16, 2016

May 16, 2016

WEEK 4
Shopping


VENTURES ONLINE WORKBOOKS 

Did you know the Ventures Workbooks are available online? 
This might be something you'd like to use with your class.

Get a link to an online version of the Ventures WORKBOOK here: 
Ventures Online Workbook

There’s a YouTube video explaining the process here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTJimMrgI9c&feature=youtu.be
( This is not Presentation Plus. PP does not have material from the workbook, only the student book) Teachers can get this for free. NB: I asked for more than one level and was given codes for everything I asked for. - Elizabeth

TEACHING RESOURCES

The Voice of America Learning English website has an audio clip and text about buying a house. Check out the link here: The Terms of Buying a House

A discussion game with the shopping theme from ISLCollective: Shopping Board Game

A role play activity from the British Council: Shopping Role Play



GOOGLE HELP

The Free Technology for Teachers website shared an interesting activity recently: How to Create a Biking or Walking Route Map in Google Maps. Get the complete info here: Route Maps in Google Maps 


 SHOPPING TEACHING MATERIAL - LAST WEEK
LISTENING:
You better shop around! What did your Mama tell you?
Lianne Smith suggested this song. Use it as a warm-up or transition between activities. Listen to the version with lyrics or without on the wiki: alc-money.wikispaces.com
You can also download the lyrics in a word doc and create a gapfill, or cut out the lyrics and have students try to put them together in the correct order.


CONVERSATION:
Here are some shopping-related conversation questions for intermediate and advanced students:
You can download the word document (and customize it, if needed) and a PDF file here: alc-money.wikispaces.com
Suggested activity:
Cut out questions. Hand out one question per student. Students mingle, find a partner. Each pair looks at their questions and decides which one they want to talk about. They talk about the question for two minutes (use timer). Students then switch question cards, and find a new partner. Repeat 5 or more times. - Elke
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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT


NYS TESOL Resource Sharing Salon


Need new and innovative ways to teach this summer semester?
Join other ESL teachers in sharing and gaining new ideas and teaching methodology.

Thursday, June 2nd, 2016
5:30pm-7:30 pm
A location at 232 W. 40th St, New York, NY

Hosted by:  Ching Ching Lin, Director of Regions
RSVP the first moment you can!   Regions@nystesol.org

All attendees will share resources and communicative activities for improving lesson planning and teaching skills

This is a free event for both members and non-members

To keep the session intimate, there is room for a limited number of participants.

If you need to renew your membership
 or wish to join NYS TESOL, now’s the time!

Here’s the link to make it easy: http://www.nystesol.org/join.html

After registration, we will provide specific location details.









NYPL ONLINE SUPPORT CAMPAIGN
Ask not what your library can do for you, but what you can do for your library... :)

 As part of annual fundraising, the library created an online campaign where students and staff can share one sentence about "their" library and submit it online.

Please feel free to share this with your students (if they have at least basic computer skills). If you have a projector and laptop set up in class, you could do a sample submission live in class, maybe with a student volunteer, and then encourage students to do it at home on their computer or smartphone. - A nice digital literacy activity for all levels!
If you're interested,  go to www.nypl.org click the orange "Keep investing in libraries" field and fill out the form. The page is pasted below, and here's the direct link.
(You may also see a letter campaign being promoted in your local library.)

NYC's libraries need more funding. All we need from you is one sentence.


We're asking New Yorkers to tell us how libraries have changed their lives in one sentence.
How has the library helped you or made a difference in your life? Why do you love your library?

Only your story, first name, and location will be visible.
Get updates, events, and more from your library system:






LITERACY REVIEW CELEBRATION

It's that time of the year! 

Most of you know NYU's Literacy Review: Every year students from different NYC Literacy and English programs submit writing to Literacy Review, and select pieces are published in a wonderful journal. At the annual celebration overlooking Washington Square Park, students and teachers gather and share readings and a nice dinner. A very exciting event for students and teachers! Here are some photos. Next week we'll share some of our students' stories.
If you have photos to share, please email us, we'll post them next week.
What a view!

Full House


Lower Manhattan student Aya Kishinobu Hirahara is reading her story...
...and Lower Manhattan teachers, students and volunteers are listening.
Left: Lead teacher Kathryn Bonn, right: volunteer Norma McMillan


She made it!

Terry Sheehan with her student, Alex German B.

Mid-Manhattan teacher Ruby Taylor MacBride with her student Thamirys S.

Aguilar Lead Teacher Manal Grant with her student Fanta S.



Lower Manhattan lead teacher Ivana Ferguson with student Vasyl B.
Left to right: Elke Stappert, St. Agnes student Serafoula V., St. Agnes/Harlem volunteer Lynda Myles.
Serafoula's teacher Yolanda Rodriguez is missing in this picture!!!

Mr. Decklan Fox
Wendy Wen with Terry Sheehan
Photos: Elke Stappert


TEACHER INTERVIEWS?!?

Are you ready for your 15 minutes? 

We would love to share more teacher interviews, check out a few of our past ones:

Lianne Smith

Myrna Holguin

Martin Molden

If you're interested - just email us. We'll be in touch with 10 question you'll answer by email. You can change or adjust the questions as needed. You get final approval, too :)




SHOW US THE LOVE!
One of the only ways we can know if you like what we are doing is if you make a comment on our blog page. Like our blog? Are there topics you would like us to add? Please comment! 

Would you like to contribute something? A link, teaching tip, other? Any time!

Thank you, we really appreciate your feedback!

Have a great week!
Elizabeth & Elke


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Monday, May 9, 2016

May 9, 2016

Week 3
Shopping



GOOGLE APPS LEARNING CENTER

 Need a refresher on how to use one of the Google Apps? Would you like to learn how to use something new- like Google Forms?

 Start by taking a tour here: Google Apps Learning Center




VENTURES

On Thursday, May 5 some of us were able to attend a seminar on how to use Presentation Plus. It's an interactive software designed by Cambridge for use with our textbooks. There is so much you can do with it!

 You can project a page from the book, you can play the audio texts, you can link worksheets or YouTube videos- the possibilities are endless.

 Your Hub Manager will share a document with you about how to use it. It has both instructions from Cambridge and notes we took from the training.

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Let's talk shopping! TEACHING RESOURCES


1. Need to start up some conversation about shopping? Joanne Springstead from the 
St. George library contributed this activity that can be used at all levels:
Shopping Dialogue Bubbles PDF 
Or download the PDF on the "money" wiki: alc-money.wikispaces.com


2. Conversation Questions from iteslj.org
FOR USE IN CLASS:
You'll find a lot of questions about Money & Shopping here.

Great for conversation activities in class, such as :
A) Students find a partner. Teacher tells students the question or writes it on the board. Students talk for 1-2 minutes with a partner (use a stopwatch). Switch partners. New question. 
B) Teacher prints and cuts out select questions (copy paste into a word document, cut out).
Each student receives one question. Students mingle, find partners, talk about their questions, then exchange questions, find a new partner.

QUESTIONS - EXCERPT - MANY MORE ON THE WEBSITE
A Part of Conversation Questions for the ESL Classroom.
(Some questions about money may be considered too personal to ask anyone who is not a very close friend or a family member.)
  • About how much did you spend on presents last year?
  • About how much do you usually spend each day?
  • Are you a price conscious shopper?
  • Are you good at saving money?
  • Are you saving money to buy something?
    • If so, what are you planning to buy?
    • How much will it cost?
    • How much longer will you need to save before you can buy it?
  • Do banks pay a higher percent of interest here or in your country?
  • Do you compare prices at different stores when you shop?
  • Do you enjoy shopping?
  • Do you ever buy second-hand things? ("used things")
  • Do you ever give money to charity?

3. ESL DIALOGUES (READING AND LISTENING) from eslfast.com
Easy Conversations
---- For ESL/EFL Beginners
FOR USE IN CLASS AND FOR OUTSIDE OF CLASS PRACTICE.
Many shopping topics, including Looking for a Sweater / Looking for a Perfect Gift / The Sale is Over / Making a shopping list / Where to buy what.
All topics have multiple dialogues with audio.



If you introduce this website in class (how to access it, how to play audio and read along), students can practice at home, on a computer or their smartphone. 
Link students should use with their smartphones: www.eslfast.com/robot/topics/shop/shop.htm
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LIFEPRINTS 
Don't forget that all levels of the Lifeprints books address shopping in some for or another. Links to each Lifeprints Teacher Resource book are here: 
Lifeprints Teacher Resource Book 1
Lifeprints Teacher Resource Book 2
Lifeprints Teacher Resource Book 3


AUTHENTIC TEXTS
Would you like to use realia in class? Here's a quick read from the TESOL Blog about using them in a thoughtful and effective way: Authentic Texts in Class






MATERIALS DESIGN

The British Council website says it best:
So, you want to put your creative talents to good use by designing excellent and engaging materials for your English lessons but you don’t know how to get started. Look no further! Rachael Roberts, in less than an hour, gives you the material design recipe you’ve been looking for! 

 How to Write Effective Classroom Materials


2016 NYS TESOL - Call for Student Projects
 "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." --Helen Keller (1880-1968)
Each year, in order to showcase the tremendous talents of English language Learners, NYS TESOL proudly sponsors a student project contest. As usual, the contest theme is framed within the shifting landscapes of the needs of our culturally and linguistically diverse society.
Contest Theme: Collaboration: Working with others is often required of students, employees, athletes, government officials, and many others in society. What are the benefits of working with others, and why do you think it is important that people work together?
 
Submission Guidelines: Contestants can choose to enter in one of the following two categories. Notice that each category is defined by separate guidelines and rubrics. No double entries are allowed.
Please submit your proposals online by May 31, 2016. Winners for each entry will be notified on June 15, 2016. Please refer to our rubric for more information

 Definitions and Guidelines
Essay: An essay is a piece of writing written from an author's personal point of view that analyzes and evaluates an issue or a topic. Possible types include: personal essay, narrative essay, persuasive essay, etc. Please respond in an essay of 250 words or fewer (grades 4-5; 6-8), or 500 words or fewer (grades 9-12; university and adult education).
Digital Storytelling: Digital storytelling is broadly defined as the art of telling stories with a variety of multimedia, including but not being limited to graphics, images, photos, audio, video etc.
·      The presentation should be no longer than five minutes in length
·      If a photograph/image is taken from the Internet it must be cited properly
·      The first slide/frame of the story should include the title, student(s) first name and the name of their school. Stories must be saved in .wmv or .mp4

All submission must be the original work of the contestant, unpublished or not accepted for publication. Submission can have more than one author and any prizes awarded will be split evenly between or among the authors.
Please include with each submission the contest category, the student's name, grade level, teacher's name, school's name and teacher’s contact information. Please ensure that the contact information will be valid over the summer of 2016. Please send all inquiries to Ms. Camille Perez at student_projects@nystesol.org.
Participants:
The Student Project Contest is open to any current or former English language learner in the following categories:
§ Students in grades 4-5, § Students in grades 6-8, § Students in grades 9-12
§ Students in university and adult education programs
Winners will be honored at our 46th NYS TESOL Annual Conference in Syracuse, New York. For more information about NYS TESOL, please visit our homepage at www.nystesol.org



SHOW US THE LOVE!
One of the only ways we can know if you like what we are doing is if you make a comment on our blog page. Like our blog? Are there topics you would like us to add? Please comment! 

Would you like to contribute something? A link, teaching tip, other? Any time!
Thank you, we really appreciate your feedback!

Have a great week!
Elizabeth & Elke

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