At the end of February I had the chance to attend a literacy conference in Pittsburgh with my fellow Literacy*AmeriCorps Central Texas members. The conference was hosted by the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council, the creators of the Literacy*AmeriCorps (L*AC) program, and was attended by the other nationwide L*AC sites.
Several workshops were held during the conference, but I chose to participate in workshops that focused on ESL learners and refugees as well preliterate and limited literacy students. I also had the opportunity to take part in a shock Moroccan Arabic language course.
The language course was great as it emphasized the benefits of immersion over direct translation when learning a new language. Immersion is something I always try in stress in my classes at Maudie’s and it was a valued experience to be placed in my students’ shoes to see the benefits of what works and what does not.
Aside from learning new teaching strategies, the conference was a great bonding opportunity for the L*AC Central Texas members. As a group, our time is limited together as we work at different sites across the region. We usually only see each other for once a month volunteer service projects and bi-weekly professional development trainings.
I hope I can speak for everyone by saying that after the conference we got much closer as cohorts and as friends. I enjoyed hearing about each of their experiences and how it compared to my 6 months serving at ENGLISH @ WORK as an ESL instructor and staff member. Listening to their successes and obstacles reaffirmed what great work E@W does in Austin and how it truly makes a unique impact on the local community.
Tanlyn Roelofs
Literacy*AmeriCorps E@W Instructor