Reporting May hours, enrolling students online

It's a new month halfway through what's turning out to be an unfathomably challenging year. There's a reason the old Chinese saying* "May you live in interesting times" is considered to actually be a sly curse.

I hope that you all continue to be well--and safe. As we move into a new month, no matter how weird things have become, we still have some regular business to tend to. If you have not formally quit the in-home program (it's OK to be "on hold" for now), please report your participation time for May, even if the hours are zero. If you're not doing anything with your student because of the pandemic restrictions, that's OK--just leave this note in the comments: "COVID-19." If you're on-hold because of the pandemic but you don't report anything, I don't know if you've actually quit or you're just not able to tutor at this time. This is why I ask you to complete the survey and report zero hours with the note of COVID-19.

Here's the reporting link for May hours. Note the bonus question at the end (and kudos if you get my reference in the banner illustration at the top of the form).

Click here to submit your report (or lack of hours):

https://forms.gle/hQYEuuoWFcAMQcW89

*Per Wikipedia: Despite being widely attributed as a Chinese curse, there is no known equivalent expression in Chinese. The nearest related Chinese expression translates as "Better to be a dog in times of tranquility than a human in times of chaos."

Other news

I continue to try to post helpful information at the blog site, cresltutors.blogspot.com. You'll find these monthly emails posted there, as well. I also continue to post articles and similar content on the Facebook page, Colorado Refugee ESL Volunteers.

Enrolling in-home students into online classes

There were a lot of questions about this, so let me clarify a few things. First, enrolling your student in the online classes does not disenroll them from in-home tutoring. In fact, because we believe more instruction is better, we encourage you to continue to tutor remotely so you can build on what your student is covering in the online classes.

Is this the end of the in-home tutoring program? No, absolutely not. At least, if it is, no one has told me that! The decision to offer the online classes to our in-home students came about because we realized that online classes eliminated a lot of the barriers to instruction that were keeping our in-home students out of school. For now, transportation and distance aren't factors in accessing classes.

Does my student need a computer for online classes? No, although it helps. A smart TV connected to the internet (with or without a webcam) would work, or even an internet connected tablet or just phone would be fine.

Can I get a copy of the packet my student will use for class? Probably. We're working on it. We will likely send you a link to our Google Drive where you can download the documents in the packet.

When do classes start? After finishing the placement test, students can enroll any Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. The sooner students get started, the better for them. The summer term will end on July 23. Fall classes start some time in mid-to-late August.

Can my student still enroll even if I didn't get you the information you asked for? Absolutely! It is incredibly helpful if your student has an email address. This is how they will get the link to the placement test before registration. Otherwise, they'll get it as a text message, which is fine, but can be harder to navigate. They can use a family member's email address if that's the easiest route, but if you want to set up or help set up a Gmail address, that's OK, too. I used to set up Gmail addresses for my students and I would make it as close to their name as possible, so a student named Muna Ahmed would be munaahmed@gmail.com or as close to that format as possible. It has to be easy for the student to remember and to type! For the password, we used city and year, so denver2020.

May I "sit in" on my student's online class so I'm better equipped to do follow-up tutoring? Maybe. This will be decided on an individual basis by the teachers.

Does my student need to live in Colorado to take the online classes through Emily Griffith? Yes.

Can you send me any of the textbooks the classes are using? No. I can't even get into the office to get my own files.

Am I allowed to go to my student's home and tutor there? That's entirely up to you and your student. I heard from a couple of tutors who are doing this; one meets with her student outside at a picnic table, socially distanced and wearing a mask. Please take into consideration any risks that affect you and your student before going back to in-person tutoring.

If you sent me your student's information already, you don't need to do anything else yet. We'll take it from here. For everyone else, you can continue to go through me to get your student enrolled or, per our standard instructions to any refugees inquiring about classes:

Please ask someone to help you to send an email to learnenglish@emilygriffith.edu so we can email you back the link to the placement test. If you have questions, please email us at LearnEnglish@emilygriffith.edu or text us at 720-593-1692.

Mail still exists

If you have been unable to get your student to engage with you since social distancing started, consider sending a brief note of encouragement or a "Thinking of you" card through the regular US mail. The post office would welcome the work, and your student probably doesn't get any personal mail. It's a lovely gesture that your student will likely appreciate.

I'm working from home, but...

I'm somewhat limited in how much I can do from the dining room table. Still, if you want to reach me by phone, I have a work cell phone. You got that phone number before you attended training and again when you met your student. You may call or text, but I beg you to limit your calls and texts to happen between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. I usually have meetings at the beginning and end of the day, so it's harder for me to have office hours then. If I don't pick up, know that I'm either on another call or doing something that I can't interrupt. When I was in Florida, my mom commented, "I guess it wouldn't be a work day for you if you didn't have at least three meetings." I think it was a surprise to her to see what "working from home" looks like for me (I actually work--a lot).

For those of you who miss in-person meetings, my cell phone is an iPhone, so if you're an iPhone user, yes, we can Facetime. If you want to set up a Google Meet, we can arrange that, too. Just let me know!

That's all for now. Please stay safe, be well, and try to get outside and get some fresh air!