Our custom domain is gone

And that leaves a few extra characters to type to reach this page. Sorry I let it expire :(

Cary

Summer Update

So much has happened that I am not completely sure where to begin, and since time is growing short, I will need to just begin, and organize information about the site later.

Our move to the Davis Emerson campus has placed us in a much more convenient location without stairs and with Internet access, but its location is still not known to many adult English learners in the area. I hope to remedy that with a recruiting campaign that will be made possible, in part, by the next bit of news...

I am moving to Indonesia for 10 months, to serve a Georgetown University English Language Fellowship at Tanjungpura University in Pontianak. As a community service, I'll continue to update this page just as before, and answer questions from learners online, but will not be teaching on the site any more.

Since my last regular day on the regular day job at Tuscaloosa Public Library is July 19th, I will have time before I leave to get out there and "recruit, recruit!" This applies to both students and volunteers, though the volunteer program has some cleaning up to do, mainly because in all the confusion, I have not taken the time to keep everyone updated on summer Conversation Partners assignments, who has continued, who has dropped, etc. I hope an email flash can go out later this weekend.

As with every July, we are talking about the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution during EL Civics time on Mondays. I have been looking for Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese versions of these documents online, and not having the success we have enjoyed in years past. July 26th is movie night, and I predict a spike in attendance that evening, since everyone knows this. We will probably show National Treasure or some other film with a Declaration of Independence theme.

Summer conference in Birmingham is July 21-23, and Diane, Wynn, and I will be presenting a workshop on the oral interactive techniques we learned from Dr. Spezzini and have used in our own classrooms. We are planning to invite our students to participate in demonstrating these, but I don't know if many will want to. The Birmingham Zoo is proving to be a more popular choice for our class field trip - and it is about time for one again, of course.

Holy Spirit ESOL Site Welcomes LITE Volunteers

With this welcome message, I'd first like to thank Kristen, our area coordinator, for all her hard work in helping us find (and train) more badly needed help! Next, Wynn and I would like to welcome the new group of volunteers coming to us from the University of Alabama's LITE (Literacy Is The Edge) organization, and I know they will bring the enthusiasm we need for really energizing our ESL teaching. This development is even more exciting when we think about how much all our participants—both volunteers and students will learn from one another. Volunteers can serve as teachers for small groups, tutors, classroom aides, or one-on-one conversation partners for adults learning English. Welcome aboard!

Back Again !!

And no, I can't promise that our new URL www.esolnotes.info will be any easier for search engines to find than our old one, but it sure is a lot easier to type! After two months of neglect, I'll be posting a lot of information this weekend, since we've had several really exciting developments.

Wednesday Reading Groups at Holy Spirit

Well...great news and not-so-great news. The great news is that beginning ESL reading is going very well on Wednesday evenings, and more of Ann Gianola's great textbooks from New Readers Press will be in use after the Thanksgiving holiday.

http://www.newreaderspress.com/Items.aspx?hierId=0190

The bad news is that I took a look at our groupings of students, and realized that we now have six groups to four instructors/volunteers. Two of the six contain learners who don't have much regular attendance, but in the area of volunteers, I guess Wednesday seems to be getting a little "thin."

So, please consider this an appeal for help...:)

Civil War Unit in TOP Class

We just completed a successful, if brief, study of the Civil War in my ESL class at TOP. Some of the lessons were taken from the books, "America's Story" and "Entry into Citizenship." Both books are in the resource area at CA Fredd. We listened to Gospel spirituals on You Tube and sang along with them from printed sheets, being exposed to many new vocabulary words. We discussed the cotton based economy of the South with samples of cotton from local fields, an invoice from a cotton farmer (primary document), etc. Our discussion of slavery led into the topic of human trafficking today, with students sharing how they protect and teach their children about the dangers of predators on the internet, etc. We used a recent Tuscaloosa News article about over 700 people being arrested in 36 cities in a child prostitution ring of trafficking, learning vocabulary words such as "sweep," FBI and CIA, "crackdown, etc." We shared internet sites such as The International Justice Mission, etc. The lessons were serious but we did have some light moments such as when singing, "Cotton Fields" with Johnny Cash. They liked the country flavor of that song.

Enrichment Activities In Which Our Students Recently Participated

We decided to attend the Native American Festival at Moundville again this year, though not everyone chose to go. Many had been on our field trip this time last year, and one could be forgiven for concluding that you've been a hundred times if you've been once. The sun came out eventually, but the ground remained fairly soggy all day. Students were fascinated with the intricately-carved designs on knife handles made from deer antlers. We had some good class discussions later about the musical instruments Native Americans still make and play. The flute player spoke to his audience in Muskogee - nobody had to be told he wasn't speaking English!

Moundville 2009

We distributed information about the Fiesta in Birmingham's Linn Park, and two students chose to attend, despite the distance. Lots of dancing in the cold air to Colombian salsa!

Fiesta 2009

Kentuck Festival 2009 was a great first-time activity for at least one Holy Spirit ELL, who received a $10.00 prize for a great 300-word essay about his experiences.

Kentuck 2009