Inservice confirmed!

Here are the final details about the upcoming in-service training. This session is open to all program volunteers, including those who are "on hiatus" from tutoring and those who will be attending the new-tutor training on September 26.

Refugee Resettlement and
Stateside Case Management
Your questions answered until your brain is full

Presenter:
Susan Anderson, Case Management Administrator
Lutheran Family Services, Refugee & Asylee Programs

Thursday, September 24
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Emily Griffith Opportunity School
1250 Welton St. (Room TBD)
Denver
We are located downtown, next to the Colorado Convention Center,
and just one-half block north of Colfax.

Join us for an informative discussion of the many details involved in resettling refugees. Find out how the national program is structured, where the money comes from, and who oversees resettlement locally.

Susan will explain the benefits and financial assistance that refugees receive once they are in the United States. She will also talk about the responsibilities that refugees have upon entering the program, expectations on both sides, and what happens when the resettlement relationship breaks down. Susan will also share information regarding refugee education, housing, and why access to services changes after the first year of resettlement has finished.

Bring your questions! If possible, email your questions in advance so Susan can address your specific concerns. This is your opportunity to gain an understanding of why the refugees you meet appear to have different levels of support.

Susan Anderson oversees case management services to refugees, asylees, and victims of human trafficking for four federal programs throughout Colorado and the region. Ms. Anderson is a member of Colorado’s Network to End Human Trafficking, which works to prevent human trafficking in the state. Ms. Anderson has traveled throughout the country assessing the U.S. refugee program, providing training to Lutheran social ministry organizations and ensuring appropriate services are provided to refugees, asylees and others.

You must RSVP if you are planning to attend. We need an accurate headcount so we can book the appropriate room. Click here to confirm attendance via email no later than Monday, September 22. Persons responding after 9/22 will be accepted on a space-available basis.

Yes, there will be training!!!

If you have not yet attended a training session for incoming in-home tutors but you are ready to volunteer in the program, mark your calendar!

Training for new tutors

Saturday, September 26

8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

To download an application (you have to print it out and use a pen!), please go to www.refugee-esl.org You cannot attend the session if you have not submitted an application.

Details will follow by regular U.S. mail--if you turned in your application.

Hope to see new tutors soon!

The blog lives (as does the blogger)

Updated blog posts coming soon! In the meantime, please note the following:

In-service Training

For all volunteers!

Saturday, September 12*

9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon

Emily Griffith Opportunity School

Topic: To be determined!

Date is very, very tentative

We haven't yet chosen a topic or a speaker. What would you like to learn about? In the course of the year, we offer eight hours of in-service training.

• four hours of language teaching techniques or curriculum topics
• four hours of refugee resettlement topics, including updates on overseas developments, new populations, health, benefits, cultural information, etc.

This time around, we are due for a resettlement topic. What would you like to know? Is there something about refugees you've wanted to learn but didn't know how to find the information?

If you have a suggestion or request, click on the word "comment" below this post to share your ideas. You don't need to have an account--just select the "name" option. Others will be able to see your comment, and that might get a good conversation going.

Don't delay in making your suggestions--I need time to line up a speaker. Let those ideas flow!

Dispatch from the field

One of the most rewarding--and interesting--aspects of being an in-home tutor is learning about your student's life: past, present, and future aspirations. As Americans, we live in a culture where we hesitate to ask about personal sstories for fear of stirring up bad memories. The truth is, our students are adults and they wholly reserve the right to say they don't want to talk about it. Making the effort to get to know your student on a personal level, though, is a gift you give to both of you.

Our guest blogger today is Jean Clark, who has been tutoring a group of Burmese Karen women. Along the way, she has also become a close friend of the families and some of their friends. Jean encourages her students to speak so they are comfortable using what they learn. As a result, she has learned a few things, as well.

Recently, I had the opportunity to be alone with Htee Ku Paw as we drove to one of her (many) appointments. She is doing so well learning English. The joke is that Htee Ku Paw is everyone's English student because she goes to any class that is available. One thing that she does not like to do is speak extemporaneously. I thought that since we were alone, I'd push her to do just that. I explained what we were going to do but that I'd go first. Our rule is, if she doesn't understand a word, she must stop me. So, I talked to her about my childhood. Then I asked her to do the same. Quiet, quiet and I didn't interrupt the quiet. Finally, she started to talk. I did help her by asking questions. This is what I learned.

She was born in a small village, the oldest of five children, four girls and one boy. She told me that her father and mother were farmers—rice and vegetables. She also told me that her father was a tailor and her mother was a weaver. Htee Ku Paw learned to sew and weave from the age of 8. Her mother wanted her to carry on the Burmese Karen weaving tradition.

Her father had a sewing machine and people would come to their home to have clothes made. They would bring their own fabric. Htee Ku Paw's mother would weave things that people would buy.

Htee Ku Paw’s father started a school for tailoring. Students would sign up for six months, and he would give them a certificate when they finished the term. I don't know where he got the machines for the class, but I do know that he found a building that he could use for these classes.

When Htee Ku Paw was about 17, Burmese soldiers came to their village to capture all of the men. Her father and brother escaped into the jungle and returned when it was safe. At 18, she and a friend decided to go to the refugee camp in Thailand. She didn't tell me much about their journey other than the fact that it was dangerous.

Htee Ku Paw had an aunt and uncle at the camp, so she lived with them until she met Thaw and married him in 1997. Htee Ku Paw's youngest sister, Paw, moved to the United States before her. Paw married an American (Anglo) in Colorado. They have a 1-year-old daughter and they currently live in a Denver suburb.

I believe that Htee Ku Paw’s father is dead and that her mother and another sister left the camp recently to return to their village. The village is not a safe place to live. It is raided by government soldiers periodically, forcing everyone to flee into the jungle. Htee Ku Paw has no way to get in touch with them. I cannot stop thinking about how I might to go about finding them.

If you would like to try your hand at sharing your in-home tutoring experiences as a guest blogger, send your essay to sharon_mccreary@dpsk12.org

Share what you know!

Although we work with adults in our program, some of the tutors also have experience tutoring children. A group in Minneapolis has asked us to join in their dialogue about working with kids. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions for them? If so, post your comments over at http://www.nayapaila.org/.

UNHCR kids' poster contest

Do you know a young artist who has talent, awareness, and compassion? UNHCR will once again sponsor its World Refugee Day poster contest, under the continued patronage of UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie. Elementary, middle and high school students are invited to design a poster around the theme “Real People, Real Needs.”

“Refugees are real people, just like you and me; they have very real needs, such as shelter, food, water, medical care and education. Think about what you would need to survive as a refugee. How would you want people to treat you? Design a poster using your imagination and creativity to show how we can help refugees.”
- Angelina Jolie

Posters should creatively illustrate what life is like for the millions of refugee children who flee their home countries due to war, persecution and human rights violations.

Prize: UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie will present an award to the winner in each category at the World Refugee Day ceremony on June 18, 2009, in Washington, DC. Winning posters will be exhibited at the National Geographic Museum.

Eligibility: Students in grades 4-12 in US public, private, parochial and home school programs are eligible to enter the contest. Each entry must be sponsored by a teacher or principal from the student’s school. All entries must include the entry form listing the student’s name, grade and age, educator’s name and email address, school name and address. Schools must be willing to sanction and coordinate this event. (This is probably just a matter of asking.)

Entry Categories: Entries will be judged in the three following age groups: Grades 4-5, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12.

Format: Posters should be no larger than 11 by 17 inches. Sculptures, clip art, and computer generated entries cannot be accepted.

Deadline: All entries must be postmarked by midnight, Friday, May 15, 2009.

For the full rules and entry form, click here. To see examples of previous winning posters, click here. Click on any of the small pictures to the left to see more examples.

UNHCR has an abundance of materials on its Website to help young people learn about refugees and human rights. The Refugee Stories page gives kids an oportunity to read what young refugees have written about their lives in exile. Some refugee children tell their stories with pictures, not words. you can see some their drawings on the Refugee Artwork page. Finally, UNHCR has some ideas about what any of us can do to help refugees living abroad and those who have resettled here. Click here find out how to help.

Puppets, planning, and pipe cleaners

The weather reports sounded dire and it appeared that the inservice training would be postponed--again. In the end, there was no blizzard, almost no snow at all, and it was a good morning to get together and learn something new.

Only ten in-home volunteers joined us for the training. Although the turnout was lackluster, to say the least, enthusiasm was high among those in attendance. Having such small groups meant we had the luxury of lots of one-to-one instruction and an opportunity to tailor the training to the specific needs of the attendees.

Kim Hosp and Cayenna Johnson helped walk the tutors through the process of lesson planning, linking the four skill areas within a lesson and then carrying over the material from one week to the next, and effectively incorporating text books into a lesson. Each time I peeked into the room, the tutors were deeply engrossed in the presentation. As soon as I get the highlights of these presentations, I'll post them here.

The other two presentations came courtesy of Kate Goodspeed and Sharon McCreary (me). Kate's lively presentation addressed the needs of our most prevalent type of student in the home-tutoring program--the pre-literate, zero-level English learner. When I poked my head in and checked on Kate's session, the five volunteers were actively engaged in activities meant to elicit speaking from the absolute beginner language student. The use of puppets was particularly original, and Kate's lesson underlined the need to present material in ways that are interesting, effective, and fun.

The final presentation was truly hands-on. I demonstrated many different ways to use index cards as teaching tools, how to break away from keeping lessons on paper, and how to use a wide variety of manipulatives including pipe cleaners, picture cards, textured letters, and musical instruments.

Huge, huge thanks to Cayenna, Kate, and Kim for putting in the time to prepare excellent, targeted lessons (entirely based on your questions and requests for help), and for giving up part of their weekend to teach for free.

The next inservice training will be sometime this summer. If you would like to suggest a topic, be sure to let me know. I hope to see you then--many more of you!



Are you intrigued by this picture? Most things about our inservice trainings are intriguing--but only to those who attend!

Join Denver's Bhutanese refugee community for

Bhutanese & Nepalese

New Year Celebrations

Sunday, April 5th--4:00 pm

New Covenant Christian Church
825 Ivanhoe St.
Denver, CO 80220

Chief Guest : Paul Stein, Director, Colorado Refugee Services Program

This event commemorates the Bhutanese new year with exciting cultural programs, folk dances and authentic Bhutanese food.

The dance dramas are common traditional features usually accompanied by traditional music. Energetic dancers, wearing colourful face masks and stylized costumes, depict heroes, demons, death heads, animals, gods, and caricatures of common people. The dance performances preserve ancient folk and religious customs.

Heavy weather

If you are planning to join us for the inservice training on Saturday...

Currently, the National Weather Service is predicting light snow for Saturday morning, with snow and wind increasing later in the day.

If this forecast remains as it is, the inservice will take place as planned. I'll be sure to have tea and coffee on hand.

If it looks like the snow will be heavy or the conditions will be dangerous, I will postpone the session until a future date. In the event the training session is canceled, I will post something here and I will also try to personally reach everyone who told me they were planning to attend--if I have their phone numbers.

Stay tuned.

More on the inservice

Saturday, April 4
10:00 a.m. to noon
Emily Griffith Opportunity School
Rooms 146-148

There are two more sessions for the volunteer inservice training...
Open to all CRESL Tutors (even those on hiatus)

Linking it together!
Do you need help creating a lesson that hits all four language skill areas: listening, speaking, reading, writing? This session will help tutors understand how to recycle lesson content to incorporate all skill areas while working within one lesson or topic. In addition, the instructor will show how to use a textbook as one tool in the teaching/learning process. Tutors will explore a variety of textbooks as part of a lesson planning exercise.
Kim Hosp, CRESL Instructor

Index cards and manipulatives
Learn fun and interesting ways to use simple index cards and everyday items to provide texture, touch, and movement in your lessons. Add a dash of fun and involve the senses in any lesson you plan!
Sharon McCreary, CRESL Instructor


Don't forget the rest of what's being offered!

• Lesson planning: Effective lesson planning suited to in-home tutoring will be explained, as well as how to incorporate and revisit lesson material throughout all activities in a session. Cayenna Johnson, CRESL instructor


• Getting started speaking & Language lessons without literacy: How do you help someone learn to speak English now when she has no familiarity with the language and no experience with printed materials? Conversation strategies, vocabulary building, and person-to-person activities will be included. Information can be adapted for higher-level students. Kate Goodspeed, CRESL instructor

Two sessions will run concurrently each hour. Please choose your sessions and let us know ahead of time which you plan to attend so the presenters can prepare.

RSVP ASAP

Welcome to America

There is really no shortage of media coverage about good people doing extraordinary things. I make a point of watching the last five minutes of the national news every Friday night--any broadcast network will do--because those few minutes of the week highlight the contributions of normal people making a remarkable difference in the world.

CNN devotes a whole year of stories to this concept, culminating in distinguishing honors for a group of ten people every year. Not all are from the U.S., but most are. The reason I mention the geography comes from a bit of frustration I tend to harbor. In the course of the year, the volunteer coordinators in the Colorado Refugee Network attend nonprofit fairs throughout the metro area. When people approach our booth for information about our programs, we are frequently asked the same question: "Do you have volunteer positions overseas?" Or, with a measure of disappointment, "Oh. So, you only help people who are here?"

All three of us are quick to point out that a refugee arriving on American shores has just begun a whole new struggle. There are plenty of ways to contribute to world peace and international relations right here in the town where you live. Many people are surprised to find out refugees are here at all. If you aren't aware of their presence, it's because they're often all but invisible...Except to those of us who devote our waking hours to this particular cause.

Even those who are familiar with the refugee resettlement program are often unaware of just how truly grassroots most of the programs are. Our programs cannot exist without community support, church partnerships, devoted teachers, tutors for adults and kids, mentors, first friends, a small army of volunteers, plus all of the people who donate money, furniture, household goods, and time setting up apartments and taking refugees to their many appointments. Refugee resettlement works because it takes a community to welcome a new one to the mix, and communities have a way of knowing what to do.

One of CNN's 2009 Heroes is Carolyn Manning of Phoenix, Arizona. I'll say this for CNN: The network has consistently shown a commitment to telling the story of refugees and the resettlement process. That Ms. Manning was chosen to be honored by CNN this year is one more example of CNN's understanding that this work matters.

Carolyn Manning started an organization called The Welcome to America Project. Her program assists newly arrived refugees by furnishing apartments and providing support and guidance in the time immediately after arrival. To find out more about The Welcome to America Project and Carolyn Manning, click here to visit CNN's Website. This link takes you to an entire web page with videos dedicated to this topic.

Congratulations to Carolyn Manning and her team of volunteers. They do the same work as many other people assisting refugees throughout the U.S., so as a 2009 CNN Hero, Ms. Manning carries the torch for all of you who volunteer your time and open your hearts to refugee newcomers every day. To the volunteers in the CRESL program and others like it, congratulations to you, too, for your fine work! You are all my heroes every day.

Inservice training rescheduled!

Open to all CRESL Tutors (even those on hiatus)

Saturday, April 4

10:00 a.m.

Emily Griffith Opportunity School

So far, two presenters are confirmed and they will teach about:

• Lesson planning: Effective lesson planning suited to in-home tutoring will be explained, as well as how to incorporate and revisit lesson material throughout all activities in a session. Cayenna Johnson, CRESL instructor


• Getting started speaking & Language lessons without literacy: How do you help someone learn to speak English now when she has no familiarity with the language and no experience with printed materials? Conversation strategies, vocabulary building, and person-to-person activities will be included. Information can be adapted for higher-level students. Kate Goodspeed, CRESL instructor

We hope to add two more sessions, so watch this blog for updates!
RSVP by March 31.

At a later date...

Inservice training postponed

Sorry about that. There has been a problem coordinating with presenters and their schedules. We can't have a training session with no one to teach it!

Watch this space for the new date and topic.

--SM

African Extravaganza!

The African Community Center and the University of Denver present

African Extravaganza 2009

February 18th-20th
University of Denver
Driscoll Hall

Voices of Refugees
Wednesday, February 18th, 6pm – 9pm
Davis Auditorium in Sturm Hall, 2000 E. Asbury Ave.

Hear the extraordinary and powerful stories of a diverse group of refugees who will share personal narratives of flight and refuge. Refugees from Iraq, Bhutan and Congo will give insights into the challenges and triumphs of living as a refugee and being resettled in the United States, and of joining a new community and finding new hope.

Kutaiba Abdulmahdi from Iraq will speak about his work with the US government during the war in Iraq and his subsequent resettlement in the United States.

MacGoddins Lushimba from Congo will talk about his advocacy efforts to bring awareness of refugee issues in Congo and throughout the world.

The Dhakal Family from Bhutan will paint an intergenerational picture of life between their two nations: Bhutan and Nepal, and 17 years in a refugee camp in Nepal.

African Extravaganza
Friday, February 20th, 6pm-9pm
Driscoll Ballroom, 2055 East Evans Ave.
Take part in a night of delicious food, an international marketplace, and extraordinary singing, dancing and drumming by African performers! Meals will be available, for purchase from Café Africana (Ethiopian food), Marrakesh (Moroccan food), and the Palava (Pan-African food). A Little Something will be there selling our handmade jewelry and weaving!
Suggested Donation: $5

Photography Exhibit
February 18th – 20th
Peruse the photo exhibit in the Gallery at Driscoll Center.

Dentists Across Colorado Give Kids a Smile by Providing Free Dental Care

Every February the Colorado Dental Association organizes the statewide Give Kids a Smile Day program – a program that offers FREE dental care to low-income families without dental insurance or the ability to afford dental care. This program is in its seventh year and was created to provide free dental treatment and education to qualifying kids and to draw attention to the struggle that many families face when trying to obtain basic dental care. It also lets legislators know that these kids deserve a better health care system.

Give Kids a Smile Day is Friday, February 6, 2009. Participating dental offices across the State are in need of qualifying kids to treat for this program. There are still 300 appointment slots available throughout the state. The majority of the appointments, however, are in the metro area, including Aurora, Boulder, Centennial, Denver, Englewood, Lafayette, Lakewood, Littleton, Lone Tree, Louisville, and Thornton. Click here for a list of specific offices and their contact information to make appointments.

The Colorado Dental Association would LOVE your help in communicating this opportunity to families.

Please remember that appointments are first-come, first-served, so the sooner families can call, the better. When making an appointment, the caller should say that he/she is "calling to make an appointment for Give Kids a Smile Day." Please note that only a limited number of appointment slots are available.

NOTE: To qualify, families must meet ALL of the following criteria:

• Be low-income and/or a part of the free and reduced lunch program.
  
• Be dentally uninsured (no insurance or CHP+ coverage).
  
• Unable to afford dental care.

For more detailed information, please call Molly Pereria at 303-996-2844 (please do not have patients call).

Our hearts go out to the family of Bishnu Adhikari, who passed away last night. Bishnu was in her mid-forties. She leaves behind her husband and four children.

The Bhutanese family arrived in Denver in January of 2008 from Nepal. Ferdi Mevlani of Ecumenical Refugee Service has set up an account at Wells Fargo to accept donations to help the family with funeral expenses. Donations may be made at any Wells Fargo Bank; reference Bishnu Adhikari or Ferdinant Mevlani.

I will post the funeral information when it is available. Thank you for any support you can give--the family is in great need.

Mark your calendar

February 28

(It's a Saturday)

Inservice training for all in-home tutors.

Details to follow. For now, please pencil this in on your calendar. Unless you use a Palm Pilot.

I have no idea what I'm doing!

You've attended training, read the handbook, and been assigned to a student. You watched the language and literacy assessment. The volunteer coordinator has packed up her materials and headed out the door. Now, it's the moment you feared: You are alone with your student and you have no idea where to start.

Don't panic. There are a couple of things to know.

• First, you can't do this wrong, and you won't inflict any permanent linguistic damage.
• Second, there are a wealth of resources available to you, and many of them are free and online.

A week ago, we had the good fortune to attend a training session with Kathy Santopietro Weddel (see the post below this one). Her presentation focused on addressing literacy with the nonliterate student. Kathy encouraged us to go online and check out the teacher's toolkit at the Website for the Center for Applied Linguistics.

The document is over 200 pages of valuable and practical information. Again, don't panic--you can read it online, print it out, print out the sections you want, save it to your hard drive, etc. It's a pdf file, but you probably have Adobe Acrobat's reader already installed on your computer.

This toolkit has something helpful to address almost any ESL or literacy tutor (or classroom teacher). You don't need to enroll in a university class--the information you're looking for is in this toolkit!

To access the toolkit, click here. While you're on the CAL/CAELA site, look around--there is a lot of valuable information here to support your teaching. Remain calm--there is no need to panic!

An exceptional opportunity!

ESL Literacy Q & A and Training

Kathleen Santopietro-Weddel is coming to Denver!

Kathleen Santopietro-Weddel, a teacher trainer for the Northern Colorado Professional Development Center in Longmont, has experience as a classroom teacher, project coordinator, teacher trainer, speaker, and curriculum development consultant. She has authored several literacy textbooks and is a sought-after trainer and popular presenter at conferences.

What: A teacher trainer with amazing expertise is coming in from Longmont to answer questions and discuss how to help our ESL literacy students more effectively.

When: This Wednesday, January 14, 2009 3:00 – 4:30 or 5:00

Where: Emily Griffith Opportunity School--Room 433 (tentatively)

Who: Anyone who works with literacy-level ESL students or who just wants to learn more about helping adults learn to read. Classroom and in-home volunteers are encouraged to attend.

Cost: FREE!!!!
(You can’t beat that! What a deal!! What an opportunity!)

Bring your questions and examples of your most frustrating, difficult cases.
Please RSVP (ESL Office, 720-423-4752) ASAP so we can ensure seats for all.

Emily Griffith Opportunity School, 1250 Welton St., Denver, Colorado

Save The Date For
THE LITERACY COALITION OF COLORADO’S

2009 MINI CONFERENCE

Friday-Saturday February 6-7, 2009
8am-1:30pm (Lunch provided)

FREE!

Focus Points Family Resource Center
3532 Franklin Street
Denver, Colorado 80205

Workshop schedule and details to follow
Topics will include ESL, Family Literacy, Math, ABE, GED and more!

** Workshops are approved by CDE/AEFL (Colorado Department of Education/Adult Education Family Literacy) for Professional Development Hours.

For early registration, please send your name, email address, telephone number, and the town where you’re from to:
Molly Elkins 303-688-7646 or melkins@dclibraries.org