Introductions! What do you hope to learn from the Evidence-based Professional Development Group?

Hi everyone,

I'm happy to be a member of the ebpd cop!  I am presently the subject matter expert of the formative assessment cop (come join us!).  I'm looking forward to being part of the discussions I know we will have here. Thanks! 

I am Federico Salas-Isnardi, of Houston.  I work for the Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning (TCALL) at Texas A&M University where I am the adult literacy specialist.  I have been in the field of adult education and adult ESL for 25 years teaching, doing professional development, working as an administrator at the local and state levels, and co-authoring/consulting for the adult ESL series Future: English for Results and Future US Citizens.  I am interested in the adult classroom in the 21st century; social justice and diversity with emphasis on issues of sexual diversity, religious tolerance, and xenophobia as they affect the classroom; immigration issues and reform, and citizenship education.  I am on the last semester of coursework toward my PhD in Adult Education at Texas A&M where my dissertation research will be on adult educator PD.  I am currently the chair of the Association of Adult Literacy Professional Developers (AALPD.)

Hopeful and cautious about this new format for our discussion.

Peace,

federico

Hello, I am Carol and I have been a public school teacher for 25 years with the last six being in the school district's adult education program. My school is a bit unique in that it functions rather like a one room school house. The adults can come and go as they need to. I am responsible for preparing my students for all parts of the GED and for supervisor/tutor/teacher for all the high school subject matter for those getting their high school diploma. It keeps me hopping. The school district is moving to the Marzano model for evaluations and I am waiting to see how that can be adapted to what we do here; it should be interesting. I am hoping to get some useful insights from this group and to add my two cents to creating evidenced based adult education.

Dear Friends & Colleagues,

My name is John Corcoran and I am honored to join you on this forum. I believe that in America today, it is as important to teach an adult to read as it is to teach a child to read.

I learned to read at the age of 48 after going to a local library Adult Learning Center, taking a battery of diagnostic assessments and then receiving the research-based instructional methodology needed to teach me how to read. For the past 25 years, I have been advocating for literacy across the nation with the mission of preventing and eliminating illiteracy by teaching both children and adults to read. It is never too late to learn to read.

I look forward to continuing the conversation with all of you.

At your service,

John Corcoran

Oceanside, CA

www.johncorcoranfoundation.org

For the past 7-1/2 years I have been the Director of Read Up, a library-based adult literacy program serving Nevada County, California.  We carry an enrollment of about 65 students being tutored by about 58 volunteer tutors.  I am past-President of the Northern California Literacy Coalition; the 16 counties north of the capital, Sacramento.  I served two years as Chair of the California Library Association - Literacy Interest Group consisting of 100+ literacy professionals. 

I am a member of a local Lions Club, the world's largest service organization, and am serving as Literacy Committee Chair in our six-county District of 57 Lions clubs.  This year's International President, Wayne Madden of Indiana, is a retired educator and has named reading as his theme for the 1.35 million members in 46,000 Lions clubs world-wide.  My assignment as Literacy Committee Chair is to get the 57 clubs actively engaged in volunteerism and financial support in both children's and adult literacy in schools and literacy programs, with the hope that enduring relationships and partnerships will be formed. 

My education is a BS in Personnel Administration and Industrial Relations followed by a 40-year career in HR and Employee Safety in manufacturing and processing plants.

My goal in EBPD is to maintain awareness of what others are thinking and doing. 

My name is Mary McFadden and I have been a volunteer adult literacy tutor in Milwaukee, WI  for the past 10 years.  The students I tutor are usually well below the grade 4 reading level, many grade 2 or below.  I have been using the Wilson Reading System and have had some good results, but am continually trying to improve my teaching methods.  I have been following the discussions on many of the LINCS sites and, since our organization doesn't offer any PD opportunities, I am grateful for the invaulable information I have received. 

Hello all,

My name is Beverly Wilson, and I've been in the adult education field for 20 years. For the past seven years, I've worked for the Arizona Department of Education as the Director of Professional Learning for Adult Education. Previously, I was a program director and adult education instructor. I have also been an elementary and junior high teacher-teaching both regular and special education students. I feel so fortunate that I 'stumbled' into the field of adult education so many years ago.

I had the priviledge of working with the AALPD sub-committee on creating the PD Standards several years ago and working w/ the National Adult Education Professional Development Consortium and ProLiteracy as one of three states to participate in the Leadership Excellence Academy pilot. Currently, I'm on a cross agency team with the Arizona Department of Education that is responsible for designing and implementing professional learning aligned to the Standards for Professional Learning (Learning Forward) and the common core standards.

I look forward to participating and learning through the collective wisdom and expertise of this CoP.

See you on-line!

Bev

Good evening everyone and I am happy to be a part of this group. I have worked in the educational arena for the last 15 years. I began with six years as a CTE teacher of adults. When I discovered many of my students were unable to read or complete basic math, I decided to visit the secondary level to see how one obtains a high school diploma, but still lacked these important skills. I spent five years teaching high school English, Reading, and Business Education. Although I loved teaching high school students, the politics involved and with an administration more worried about completing the students than the students learning, caused my return to the adult arena. I have now returned to the adult arena as an ABE/GED distant learning educator a few years ago. My goal was to develop CTE programs using online methods and to continue teaching ABE/GED at the same time. I have had so many online students, I have not been able to develop the new CTE programs I was hired to do.<?xml:namespace prefix = o />

I have a passion for helping people who may have been failed by the K-12 system. Please don't take this wrong, because some students do well! I believe everyone deserves a chance of becoming more intelligent to helps students become self-sufficient.

By joining this group, I hope to learn more about how I can help my students. Also, I recently began the EdD program in Adult Education. Although I considered the PhD, I wished to be a practitioner rather than a researcher. The program is challenging, but I am learning a great deal. My hope is to learn more about helping adults learn basic skills (and more) so they can be a productive member of society.

Thanks for reading the rambling,

Barbie Nall
George Stone Technical Center
2400 Longleaf Drive
Pensacola, FL 32526

Greetings, PD colleagues!

My name is Kimberly Johnson (most people call me Kim but I like Kim or Kimberly) and I wear two official hats at Hamline University in St Paul, MN:

• ATLAS Director (that's: Adult Basic Education Teaching and Learning Advancement Systems).  ATLAS is our state professional development center for ABE and adult ESL.  We work closely with ABE at the MN Department of Education to identify, design, deliver and evaluate PD for teachers, administrators and support staff across the state.
• Assistant Professor, School of Education.  My primary areas are adult education, professional development, curriculum & instruction, second language teaching and learning.

I'm here because I find the networking and sharing with colleagues to be incredibly valuable.  I'm looking forward to continuing conversations and exchanging ideas.

There is some frustration with the new setup for the LINCS communities, but I realize it may take a little time to learn how to work with this new structure.  I'll do my best to figure it out.  We are lucky to have Jackie with us, because I know we'll get the support we need.  So, kudos to Jackie for taking on the challenge of helping us get through these changes!

Hello All

My name is Susan Watson, and I've been in the adult education field for about 9 years.  I teach ESOL for an adult education program in my area.  Like some of the others who have posted,  I'm also back in school.  I'm working on an M.Ed. in adult education/adult literacy.   I don't often post to these forums, but I follow the discussions and gleen a lot of useful information.  Thank you for allowing me to be a "lurker" (smile).

As a project director for the U.S. Division of World Education, I coordinate the online professional development initiative, managing the development and delivery of courses for adult educators.  We offer courses on the topics of college and career readiness, adult student persistence, differentiated instruction, and reading through ProfessionalStudiesAE.  

I also co-direct the LINCS Region 1 Professional Development Center, promoting and disseminating evidence-based resources and training materials, and partnering with states to provide professional development.  

I have worked in adult literacy since 1980, serving as an instructor and local program director, state consultant, program development director, training coordinator, and state outreach coordinator.  Professional development has been an integral part of my career.

Topics that I’ve been reading and thinking about recently include:

• Teacher competencies/standards and how those are used by PD systems
• Successful models of intensive/extended PD that include virtual components, reflection, and practitioner research
• Using professional learning communities as PD
• Program infrastructures and policies that support effective PD

Hi, everyone,

My name is Margaret, and I am a Senior Researcher with Research Allies for Lifelong Learning in Vienna, Virginia (another Virginia group member, I see :-). We specialize in applying research to support adult educators and learners. In this community I'm looking forward to learning more about how adult educators like to use research to enhance their professional development. Also I will be glad to share new research findings with the group when they are available. And thank you, Jackie, for sharing your expertise with the group!

Margaret

Hello All,

I am a 'retired' academic librarian (MIT, UCLA, University at Buffalo, ITT Technical Institute). I joined to obtain ideas about and to contribute to discussions about lifelong learning. As a librarian, I am particularly interested in how people look for and use information. My daughter is pursuing a BS degree at Empire State College and is hoping to have a career in corporate training or in adult education. Right now, I am focusing on the development of PLNs and how people go about creating their personal learning network. Obviously, I joined this community to expand my own PLN.

Please share your PLN methodologies and favorite resources with this group. My richest source in the area is TrainingMag.com. They provide a vast array of free webinars.

Best,

Kate (the 'information seeker')

I arrived at the Missouri AEL office nine months ago after retiring from twenty-five years in the K-12 system as a classroom teacher, building administrator, and reading specialist.  I had so many questions at first, and after several months I found LINCS and many, many answers to my questions.  Every day that I participate I find a new piece of valuable information or tie up a loose end that has been dangling.  LINCS is my go-to!

Rebecca Taylor

Supervisor, Adult Education and Literacy

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Hello, everyone,

I am not new to LINCS but I am new to this group and I just joined AALPD as well.  Many of the names here are familiar. I'm happy to be among good company!

I have worked with adults in the corporate sector but my adult literacy work has been in a volunteer or private tutoring capacity. I want to continue learning and teaching, spread the word about adult literacy, and perhaps one day delve into the field of professional development. 

All the best,

Lucy 

Hi everyone,

I am Jill.  I am a freelance ESL teacher, literacy program coordinator, and tutor trainer.  In my teaching capacity, which is my favorite part of my job, I teach ESL classes to adults.  My classes are held in local public libraries and are free to the students - but I get paid! :-)  It is so wonderful to work in these places, with the library staff and with the students.  As a program coordinator I am Educational Programs Manager with Project Literacy of Greater Bergen County and I coordinate training for our volunteer tutors.  Our program offers one-to-one tutoring in basic literacy, ESL, and math for the GED.  All our students are adults and are drawn from the surrounding area.  I also do tutor trainings at local libraries that want an ESL program.

I recently found LINCS and am so happy that I can now access PD!  As a freelance teacher, this part of my professional life has been sadly lacking.

I have been teaching ESL to adults for 20 years.  I have a Master of Arts in Teaching and a post-baccalaureate certificate in TESOL (3 credits short of another Masters! Had I only known at the time I would have done the second Masters ...).  Teaching ESL is a wonderful way for me to connect with people from all parts of the world.  Everybody comes to my classes because they want to be there.  Also, and equally important, teaching English is a way I can teach peace through teaching English and better communication.

It's so nice to meet you all and I look forward to learning from everyone. 

Thanks so much!

Jill

Hi! My name is Linda Kozacek, and I am a transition coach and professional development coordinator for Johnson County Adult Education (part of Johnson County Community College) in Overland Park, KS.  I am new to the PD role and participated in the webinar last Tuesday on "What's Happening in State Professional Development."  I found it very interesting to learn what other states and programs are doing. I am trying to learn all that I can quickly so that I can provide the best resources and models of delivery for my instructors and staff.  I look forward to great discussions!

Hello, Stephanie Moran here from Durango Adult Education Center. GED program manager, PT instructor in LA/SS. Looking forward to sharing about our new accelerated learning approach--it seems to be working wonders for the GED 2014.