This past weekend (April 9, Saturday)I took the 7 local from Jackson Heights to Flushing's Main Street. Two very distinct neighbourhoods within the city of the world - the city of New York. It was the first sunny day New York had seen since Christmas'10.The signboards, the shop signs , the billboard ads went from a mix of Hindi/Bengali/Punjabi to Hanzi/Kanji. Its amazing how the city has these culturally diverse yet segregated pockets around varioius neighbourhoods. Crossing Jackson Height's 74th street also called Indian Street is a totally different experience from walking down Main Street Flushing. I don't wan't to go Segwaying, but here is another one. I got my first close up view of the Citifield. This a day after New York Mets' openning day. The night before I could see its bright and humming neon signboards and ad signs far on the horizon from my apartment window.
I was heading to the Flushing's branch of Queens Library that was hosting the 16th Annual Tri-Library Volunteer Tutor Conference. This was a collaboration of the Brooklyn Public Library, New York Public Library and Queens Library Adult Learner Programs and sponsored by the Mayor's Office of Adult Education. I was hoping that either Mayor Bloomberg or the new schools chancelor Walcott would show up to flag it off. Last week had been a turbulent time for the Department of Education as Cathy Black was forced out by the parents and teachers of the city. The Mayor himself had taken a lot of flack, for his ill-fated choice to select her as the schools chancelor. Deputy Mayor Walcott took over the role, and well atleast the Library administrators saw him as a strong support in the Mayor's office for the adult learner program. The Mayor's office was represented by the late arrival of Paul Kim. Oh and the infamous G train took the blame yet again. Paul himself has his roots starting of as a volunteer tutor with the adult learner program.
The conference was a development and continuing education opportunity provided for the volunteer tutors. It was a great platform to share my tutoring experiences with fellow tutors and learn from their experiences. It was a good way to refocus on the basics and pick up a few tips and resources from the library.
For the morning session I attended the "We Are New York" workshop. We Are New York [WANY] is a an award winning TV series that builds communication skills and strengthens communities at the same time also dealing with issues that matter to our students. David Hellman one of the writers of the series and Mark Trushkowsky from CUNY office of Academic Affairs were the presenters. The room was a mixture of tutors like me who hadn't used the series as yet and others who had. The session looked at various pre- and post viewing techniques that the presenters had suggested to use with the material. This by far to me is the most engaging stimuli for a student that I have come across, and I am most certainly going to plan out a few lessons on WANY. They were giving away the DVD and the learning material at the end of the session. For more information visit www.nyc.gov/LearnEnglish . The full lesson set for WANY is available here.
For the afternoon session I attended "Introduction to Numeracy" presented by Gladys Scott and Haniff Toussaint from the Brooklyn Public Library. I hadn't really delved much into Numeracy in any of my sessions as yet, but this was an eye openner to the concept, and showed us how to introduce numeracy to students. Infact the first thing I observed when going over the basics mathematical operations this Monday with my students, was that Numeracy is probably as intutive as verbal communication itself. An adult with no schooling in today's world has a pretty good grasp of the basics mathematical operations. As I was explaining Multiplication and division, I was surprised how my students were able to give me the correct answers even though the weren't able to explain or write down the steps that they had take to arrive at the answer.
Through out the day the raffle tickets were given out to the attendees, and with my luck with these things I had no intention of sticking on for the Prizes and Closing after the long day. I ended up taking a few wrong turns and walking in to the proceedings. I can't say I was disappointed I won a Queens Library Umbrella.
cheers,
Ajay
P.S. Tomorrow Applebee's is conducting a Dining to Donate for Queens Library. So all you people in Queens head out to the Neighbour hood Bar and Grill , while you eat , 10% of your bill will be donated to Queens Library Foundation. Don't forget to take a printout of this flyer http://www.queenslibraryfoundation.org/site/DocServer/QLF_Applebees_flyer1.pdf?docID=1141 .
Below is the mail I got from the the Queens Library Foundation :
Applebee’s Restaurants in Queens are supporting National Library Week with "Dining to Donate" for Queens Library. On Thursday, April 14th, Applebee’s will donate 10% of each lunch or dinner bill to Queens Library Foundation for every customer who presents a "Dining to Donate" flyer. All money raised will go towards Queens Library Foundation’s Buy-A-Book program.
You can help get new books for your local library by participating in "Dining to Donate" at Applebee’s. You MUST present the "Dining to Donate" flyer in order for Applebee’s to make the donation.
Hope you can make it to Applebee's on April 14th and support Queens Library!
Sincerely,
Tom Galante
CEO
Queens Library
Diana Chapin
Executive Director
Queens Library Foundation
I was heading to the Flushing's branch of Queens Library that was hosting the 16th Annual Tri-Library Volunteer Tutor Conference. This was a collaboration of the Brooklyn Public Library, New York Public Library and Queens Library Adult Learner Programs and sponsored by the Mayor's Office of Adult Education. I was hoping that either Mayor Bloomberg or the new schools chancelor Walcott would show up to flag it off. Last week had been a turbulent time for the Department of Education as Cathy Black was forced out by the parents and teachers of the city. The Mayor himself had taken a lot of flack, for his ill-fated choice to select her as the schools chancelor. Deputy Mayor Walcott took over the role, and well atleast the Library administrators saw him as a strong support in the Mayor's office for the adult learner program. The Mayor's office was represented by the late arrival of Paul Kim. Oh and the infamous G train took the blame yet again. Paul himself has his roots starting of as a volunteer tutor with the adult learner program.
The conference was a development and continuing education opportunity provided for the volunteer tutors. It was a great platform to share my tutoring experiences with fellow tutors and learn from their experiences. It was a good way to refocus on the basics and pick up a few tips and resources from the library.
For the morning session I attended the "We Are New York" workshop. We Are New York [WANY] is a an award winning TV series that builds communication skills and strengthens communities at the same time also dealing with issues that matter to our students. David Hellman one of the writers of the series and Mark Trushkowsky from CUNY office of Academic Affairs were the presenters. The room was a mixture of tutors like me who hadn't used the series as yet and others who had. The session looked at various pre- and post viewing techniques that the presenters had suggested to use with the material. This by far to me is the most engaging stimuli for a student that I have come across, and I am most certainly going to plan out a few lessons on WANY. They were giving away the DVD and the learning material at the end of the session. For more information visit www.nyc.gov/LearnEnglish . The full lesson set for WANY is available here.
For the afternoon session I attended "Introduction to Numeracy" presented by Gladys Scott and Haniff Toussaint from the Brooklyn Public Library. I hadn't really delved much into Numeracy in any of my sessions as yet, but this was an eye openner to the concept, and showed us how to introduce numeracy to students. Infact the first thing I observed when going over the basics mathematical operations this Monday with my students, was that Numeracy is probably as intutive as verbal communication itself. An adult with no schooling in today's world has a pretty good grasp of the basics mathematical operations. As I was explaining Multiplication and division, I was surprised how my students were able to give me the correct answers even though the weren't able to explain or write down the steps that they had take to arrive at the answer.
Through out the day the raffle tickets were given out to the attendees, and with my luck with these things I had no intention of sticking on for the Prizes and Closing after the long day. I ended up taking a few wrong turns and walking in to the proceedings. I can't say I was disappointed I won a Queens Library Umbrella.
cheers,
Ajay
P.S. Tomorrow Applebee's is conducting a Dining to Donate for Queens Library. So all you people in Queens head out to the Neighbour hood Bar and Grill , while you eat , 10% of your bill will be donated to Queens Library Foundation. Don't forget to take a printout of this flyer http://www.queenslibraryfoundation.org/site/DocServer/QLF_Applebees_flyer1.pdf?docID=1141 .
Below is the mail I got from the the Queens Library Foundation :
Applebee’s Restaurants in Queens are supporting National Library Week with "Dining to Donate" for Queens Library. On Thursday, April 14th, Applebee’s will donate 10% of each lunch or dinner bill to Queens Library Foundation for every customer who presents a "Dining to Donate" flyer. All money raised will go towards Queens Library Foundation’s Buy-A-Book program.
You can help get new books for your local library by participating in "Dining to Donate" at Applebee’s. You MUST present the "Dining to Donate" flyer in order for Applebee’s to make the donation.
Hope you can make it to Applebee's on April 14th and support Queens Library!
Sincerely,
Tom Galante
CEO
Queens Library
Diana Chapin
Executive Director
Queens Library Foundation
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