Learning Matters Blog and VAL Updates

Giving Tuesday Now: 5/5/20 (4/28/2020) - Tuesday, May 5th is designated as #GivingTuesdayNow. The intention is to lend support to nonprofits in this disquieting time of the COVID-19 Pandemic. With so many Vermonters having lost their jobs, Vermont Adult Learning has seen an uptick in requests for services. We've been nimble as an agency, shifting services to the virtual realm to maintain continuity with existing students while accepting new ones. We are using cell phones, iPads, chrome books and laptops to facilitate instruction, training and academic advising. We're getting technology into the hands of students who need it. Students are progressing towards their goals. Participants are…

Ensuring that all are counted (4/23/2020) - VAL ELL Students Complete Census Ambassador Training and are Featured in World Education Webinar As Governor Scott’s stay-at-home order was announced in mid-March and Vermont Adult Learning centers around the state had to close their doors, Fiona Cook had been making plans to teach her higher-level ELL students in Brattleboro about the upcoming census. At around the same time, The Change Agent, a theme-based newspaper published twice yearly by the New England Literacy Resource Center, with articles written by student authors, had just released its latest issue--“Stand Up and Be Counted”--about the census. The Change Agent’s website also offered a…

English Language Classes in a Pandemic Era (4/15/2020) - Submitted by Leigh Smith, ESOL Teacher at VT Adult Learning's St. Albans Office Imagine coming to a country and culture where you didn’t know anyone and, suddenly, everyone you wanted to speak with disappeared inside. Suddenly, you’re responsible for overseeing your kids’ online schoolwork during a global pandemic. You also had to learn the local protocol for physical distancing and whether to wear a mask or not. Imagine what that would be like if you did not know the language to navigate these skills. Imagine what fear or pain is like, with no language facility to express your feelings during…

An Unusual Spring (4/7/2020) - Lijun Huang, a student of Joy Gaine at VAL’s White River Junction Learning Center, is from Xiamen, a port city on China’s southeast coast. This year's winter, there is no legendary cold, after mid-February, the temperature gradually warmed up, until late March, there was finally a slightly bigger snow.The snow began to fall in the afternoon, it grew bigger and bigger, and the snowflakes covered the whole lawn, wrapped around the whole house, and the sidewalks and driveways were out of sight. After supper, my family took the sled to the next yard, where there was a steep slope where…

Virtual Learning Raises Equity Issues (4/3/2020) - From where I sit in my home office in Burlington, my internet access is fine. I work upstairs in my adult daughter's bedroom writing grants and appeals and attending Google Hangout meetings with colleagues from across Vermont. My husband, an engineer, is sequestered downstairs in our home office, in video calls with folks as far away as Singapore. Our signal remains strong and consistent, spared frozen screens and scratchy audio. One of the enchanting aspects of living in Vermont is that, if you choose, you can live off of a dirt road, off of a dirt road and cultivate your…

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Learning Matters Blog and VAL Updates