Secondary and College Spring Event

Bridging the Gap: Helping ELL Students Prepare for College Success

A MinneTESOL Secondary and College Intersection Mini-Conference was held on Saturday, April 29 at Inver Hills Community College. About 45 educators from Minnesota high schools and colleges came together to discuss barriers preventing our students from going to college and being successful once they are in college, strategies to help them overcome barriers, and initiatives between high schools and colleges promoting college entrance and success. Another objective of the gathering was for secondary and college instructors to make connections and partnerships to continue to work together on the challenges facing high school students going to college.
Karen Hynick, Dean of Academic Affairs and Jill Jacobson, Director of K-12 Connections at Minneapolis Community and Technical College gave a presentation,
"A Seamless Transition from High School to College". They gave attendees an overview of what is being done now to bridge the gap, and what is being planned for the future. They equipped the high school teachers with information needed to give their learners more informed answers to their questions regarding college.
Following the presentation, high school and college instructors combined into small groups to discuss the challenges they are facing as they try to help students make the transition from high school to college. Discussions included: the achievement gap, getting a higher percentage of students to come "college ready", college knowledge, resources needed, first steps to Bridging the Gap, and follow-up issues for future collaboration.
Feedback from participants suggests the mini-conference was successful. One participant wrote, "I'm glad I attended the intersection gathering. This is an area I've been working on for a couple of years now. The information and connections I made with colleagues was very helpful."

From Marilyn Gjerde
Secondary Interest Section Co-Chair

MinneTESOL Representatives Will Meet with Congresspeople in Washington DC!

TESOL Advocacy Day – TESOL is organizing the first annual TESOL Advocacy Day for Wednesday, June 21, 2006 in Washington, D.C. As part of the event, TESOL invited regional chapters to submit names of current board members who would want to participate in the day, including scheduling meetings with members of Congress. MinneTESOL submitted the names of both Andrea Poulos, 1st Vice President, and Scott Endo, Secretary, and both have been invited to participate. TESOL will provide training and talking points, but if you have TESOL issues you are concerned about, please feel free to contact Andrea and Scott with your message for your Senators.

Professional Development
2006 Technology in Adult Literacy Conference

The Minnesota Literacy Council and the Hubbs Center for Lifelong Learning invite you to attend the 2006 all day conference on technology use in the field of Adult Basic Education. This is an opportunity for ABE program managers, teachers and volunteer tutors to learn from other educators how Literacy and ESL programs are effectively using educational technology.

For more information and to register click on http://www.themlc.org/techconference

Date and Time Friday, June 23, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Location Hubbs Center for Lifelong Learning in St. Paul

Keynote: Interactive Multimedia Applications for Adult Literacy Educators

C. Candace Chou is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the School of Education at the University of St. Thomas. Her publications include journal articles and conference proceedings on the instructional design for Web-based language courses, patterns of learner interaction in distance learning environments, and action research on the process of technology integration in teacher education programs.

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Reframing for the Future: Maintaining Balance in Perpetual Change

Literacy Minnesota and the Minnesota Community Education Association are forging new ground in their efforts to promote and support ABE programming across the state. The two organizations are coming together
to produce a summer conference focused on ABE issues. The ABE
Statewide Summer Institute will be held on the gorgeous St. John's University Campus in Collegeville, August 2-4, 2006.

Both organizations want to keep the momentum that the Literacy Training Network sustained for 26 years of providing quality staff development opportunities for ABE professionals moving forward. The organizations have each selected a co-chair and the committee is pulled from ABE programs across the state. The Minnesota Department of Education is also providing staff to the conference planning committee.

The theme for the conference, Reframing for the Future: Maintaining Balance in Perpetual Change is in recognition of the constant adjustments that ABE has to endure while still running excellent programming for the adult learners. We have enclosed a call for presentations and hope that you will consider submitting a presentation application to the committee.

This is an exciting time in ABE; we are looking forward to the challenges and opportunities ahead of us. See attached CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS form for additional information OR go to:
http://www.literacyminnesota.org/summer_institute


http://ltn.themlc.org/2006_ABE_Statewide_Summer_Institute.html

JOBS

Teaching English in China

Position: English Instructor
Date of appointment: Sep. 1, 2006

Responsibilities: The successful candidate's primary assignment will be to teach Listening and Speaking English in the universities, colleges or high schools for one semester (full or spring) or a whole academic year. Duties include lecturing, tutoring, advising, monitoring student progress and developing curricular materials.

Qualifications:
* Any B.A Degree or equivalent is required. ESL or English major preferred.
* American native speaker.
* Strong communication and organizational skill.
* Ability to live and flourish in a Chinese environment.
* The acknowledge of Chinese language is not required.
* Teaching experience is preferred, but not required

Benefits:
* Monthly salary - RMB 2200 - 6000 ($300 - $750, depends on your degree and experience. This equivalent to Chinese instructor - very comfortable salary.
* Free lodging, free airfare (one round trip a year).
* Providing transportation and some travels.

Contact:
Ningsheng Huang
CSCI/MATH Division Instructor
Minneapolis C&T College
1501 Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55403

Submit resume by email:
Ningsheng.huang@minneapolis.edu

Photo:
Ellen Lewin, 2006 MinneTESOL grant recipient, attending the 2005 TESOL Convention

Home Stay Opportunity

Last minute home stay needed immediately! Do you have 10 days to share your home and culture with a teacher from Bangladesh?
Do you live in Golden Valley, Hopkins, St. Louis Park, Eden Prairie
or Chaska? Host a teacher from May 10 (later start date is possible)
to May 21. The teacher will be provided with transportation to and from Chaska Middle School each day. Host families or individuals do receive a small hosting stipend. This program is facilitated by Hamline University and Relief International.
Contact Amanda ASAP: 612-816-3865, akoehler02@hamline.edu

Middle School Interest Section

If you are interested in being part of a middle-school interest section, and you have not already emailed Andrea Poulos, please do so at apoulos@lincolnadulted.org. According to the MinneTESOL by-laws, 10 people are needed to form a new interest section; so far there are 8 middle-schoolers who have expressed interest.

Wisconsin TESOL Call for Proposals

I would like to invite the members of MinneTESOL to submit proposals for our WITESOL Fall Conference. We hope this will provide a good opportunity for those in Minnesota!

The Wisconsin TESOL Call for Proposals is available on the MinneTESOL website, www.minnetesol.org

Best Regards,
Sheila Hopkins

Sheila Hopkins
TESOL Coordinator
Edgewood College
608-663-2236

JOBS
English Language Learners (ELL) Instructor (Part-time)

Dunwoody currently has a need for a part-time English Language Learners (ELL) instructor to develop and teach course curriculum. Incumbent will create an environment in which students can accomplish the learning objectives of the ELL course. Efforts result in students able to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, ethics, and use of proper tools to meet industry and professional business standards.

Accountabilities:
· Facilitates learning activities so that students learn the principles, theory, skills, and work ethic necessary to become proficient for entry level positions.
· Creates a positive learning environment.
· Monitors, assesses and advises learner on technical and academic progress and performance.
· Uses current academic practices as defined by ELL and English as Second Language (ESL) learning programs.
· Develops and upgrades course curriculum, lesson material, training aids and maintains equipment for ELL programs.
· Teaches other courses as needed.
· Assists in the recruitment and placement of learners.
· Tutors students in Gateway and regular courses.
· Other duties as assigned.

Core Competencies:
· Strong oral and written communications skills, with ability to tailor message to audience as appropriate.
· Ability to multi-task and successfully manage several competing priorities.
· Comfortable working and communicating with a diverse population (e.g. different ethnic and age groups).
· Strong strategic thinking skills and problem solving skills.
· Good interpersonal skills; ability and desire to work well with individuals with diverse backgrounds and high-need students.
· Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, follow-up skills.
· Ability to demonstrate adaptability in a fast-paced, frequently changing environment.
· Strong PC skills, including basic computer hardware and experience with Microsoft Office suite programs; database management skills.

Qualifications:
· Bachelor's degree in education required, Master's degree preferred.
· Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certification required.
· 3-5 years experience teaching and designing course curriculum.

Interested candidates should send a cover letter and resume outlining work and salary history to: Human Resources, Dunwoody College of Technology, 818 Dunwoody Blvd, Minneapolis, MN 55403, fax (612) 374-6183 or email: HR5@dunwoody.edu. No phone inquiries will be accepted. Equal Opportunity Employer.