SW ABE - Marshall Region Staff Meeting
Lyon County Government Center
November 14, 2006

SW ABE – Marshall Region Staff Present:  Stephanie Guza, Judy Hacker, Bonnie Nielsen, Delores Johnson, John Doyle, Paulette Hanson, Candace Thomas, Tracy Busch, Barb Glaeser, Shaunna Berg, Jeanne Kelsey, and Pat Thomas                    

Guests:  Lois Schmidt, Financial Collaborative; Jeff Moberg, LLMP Public Health; Tim Jones, SW MN PIC

Introductions:  New staff member Candace Thomas and Tracy Busch were  introduced.  Tracy is a student at SMSU and is working in the evening ESL class through the Work Study progam.  Candace is volunteering during the mornings with the ESL classes.  She comes with a wealth of experience.  Her background is as a librarian, and she has worked in positions of community collaborations.

Jeff Moberg , LLMP Public Health

Jeff spoke on measures that are being taken for the Pandemic Flu if there would be an outbreak.  He also shared the “count me in” effort being done to encourage people to be willing to volunteer in an event of a Health emergency or disaster.

Lois Schmidt, Bremer Community Liaison

Lois shared a portion of a video depicting the journey many Hmong folks have encountered as they have moved into the country.

Lois also share the Financial Empowerment Literacy information currently found on our ABE website.  Those in attendance were requested to complete evaluations on the website information. Evaluations need to be turned in to Lois or Pat by November 21st.

Shaunna Berg, Computer Training

Shaunna assisted participants in reviewing the Microsoft 2007 prototype.

Summer Institute Sharing

* Paulette Hanson - Paulette reported on "Integrating Phonics (And Everything Else!) in the Multilevel ELL Classroom" by Lia Conklin of the Hubb Center for Lifelong Learning.  She liked this approach because all levels were reading the same story and doing the same types of exercises and activities, but they were at each individual student's level.  The program has the beginner and intermediate levels completed with the advance level to be one next year.  The goal is to have this program on the MN Literacy website, so it would be available to teachers

* Judy Hacker - The intent of this presentation was to bring back ideas and to share them with my ABE co-workers from the ABE Statewide Summer Institute held at St. John's University, August 2-4, 2006.  Three sessions that I had attended at the institute were combined into one presentation.

These included handouts that gave websites designed to teach basic computer skills to ESL and ABE students.  The presenter was from the Minnesota Literacy Council who share the concept that computer literacy is no longer optional in a society where applying for jobs, visas, and working require basic computer skills.

Another shared handout was originally from the Minnesota Literacy Council that  was comprised of information to provide teachers with new online opportunities for helping their students practice a range of English Language skills.  Wikis, as they are called, are to be designed to allow students to collaborate as authors. Weblogs, which were also discussed, are online journaling websites students can use to share experiences and practice language skills.

Information about Podcasting was also shared.  This enables classrooms to use digital audio for authentic listening and speaking lessons and can be found on websites and used as curriculum for lessons and discussion material.

* John Doyle - John shared that as he attended sessions relating to corrections, he found that there was little similarity between how ABE programs run in prisons vs. county jails.  Having this information may be useful to share with any of his students that might be spending time in a longer-term correctional facility.

* Pat Thomas - Pat shared the fact that our program in collaboration with our Local Workforce were able to financially support the keynote at this training through our Bremer Grant.  She also share our proactive measures taken such as doing training with the workforce system and MNSCU system…plus the fact we put contact information for these 2 systems on our website.

Pat also shared some of the projects she is currently working on:  serving on the Workforce Investment Board; serving on the Governor’s Workforce Development Council under a Joyce Foundation initiative; working on the MN Literacy Legislative Committee; participating on the planning committee for the 2007 Summer ABE training.

ABE Updates – Pat Thomas/Barb Glaeser

Pat reviewed several new policies that went into effect September 1, 2006.  These include a Class Size Policy, Assistant Teacher/Aide Policy, Class Party Policy, and the CASAS Assessment Policy for 2006-07.

Barb reviewed following:

>  Intakes -     Be sure that the September 2006 Intake form is being used

Be sure that the US arrival date is entered on the form if a non-citizen

If the student has been in the US for less than 5 years, be sure a DHS intake form is also completed

Be sure students read their Privacy Rights (Tennessen Warning)  If students DO NOT AGREE to share this information, mark something to the effect of “do not share” by their signature

>  CASAS Levels – New levels & descriptors were reviewed

>  Missing Entry Levels – A list of students with missing entry levels was distributed.  If a student’s Entry Level is missing, a pre-test score has not been received.  Instructors were requested to either submit a pre-test score, or if this is not possible to assign a level using the descriptors.

> Level Changes & Hours since last assessment – These reports were distributed.  Instructors were encouraged to test students as is needed.

> Exiting Students – Instructors were given information on exiting students.  Exits are due to Barb by November 28^th.