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Adult Education Program

Memorandum To: Adult Education Program Staff From: Hanna Cabaj (Coordinator) and Antonietta Porretta (Secretary) Continuing Education Department

Vol. 2016/2017 No.244 January 2017

In This Issue

Upcoming Events/Dates 1

New/Important Information

Outreach Report 2

Employee Related News

Memorial 3

Celebrating Retirements 4

Tips for Classroom Instructors

Feature Resource of the Month 5

New Arrival 6

Inserts included this month:

1) February 2017 ESL supply list

2) Toronto Public Health

Upcoming Events/Dates

Family Day: Monday, February 20th, 2017 Upcoming February 2017 Webinars

*Wednesday, January 18, 7-8 p.m.: Teacher to Teacherpreneur: How to Monetize your Professional Skills (Patrice Palmer)

*Sunday January 29, 7-8 p.m.: Google Docs: GAFE Tools for ESL (Jen Artan)

Monday February 13, 2017, 5-6 pm: Accent on Canadian English (ACE): Pronunciation Assessment & Training Resources (Lisa Bjerke)

Tuesday February 14, 7-8 p.m.: Literacy Series Part 2: Strategies: Learning to Learn (Jean Campbell)

Tuesday, February 21, 7-8 p.m.: PBLA Series, Part 1: The Initial Student Assessment (Lisa McFaul)

*Wednesday February 22, 7-8 p.m.: Promoting Health Information with Adult English Language Learners (Toronto Public Health)

*Sunday February 26, 7-8 p.m.: Google Slides: GAFE Tools for ESL (Anna Bartosik)

Note: All webinars can be accessed through Tutela. Webinars with a star are only for TESL Ontario members, who also join the TESL Ontario group on Tutela (for more information, refer to the TESL Ontario website.)

New/Important Information

Family Day: Monday, February 20th, 2017 There will be no classes from Saturday February 18 to Monday February 20th, 2017 (inclusive). Classes resume on Tuesday February 21st, 2017.

New/Important Information Outreach Report for January, 2017 submitted by Kay Ham, Program Consultant

Community Engagement:

1. Joanne and Kay met with the SEPT worker assigned to Msgr. Fraser College on December 8, 2016 and provided a briefing of our programs as well as our flyers of Scarborough sites and specialty programs. A possibility of program presentation ot the Catholic Cross-cultural Services will be followed up.

2. Kay co-participated with the Parenting and Family Literacy Program representative at ‘After the First Year: Municipal Supports for Syrian Refugees in Toronto’, an info fair, that the Toronto Newcomer Office organized on December 9, 2016.

3. Gehan Guriguis and Kay participated in “Syrian Refugee Resource Fair” hosted by Islamic Institute of Toronto on December 10, 2016. At this event, the host brought in 90 Government-Sponsored Refugee families to provide information they could access for their settlement, especially in Month 13.

Program Promotion:

1. Photos and flyers are continuously posted on our social media platforms. In order to increase our presence in the social media world, more images are needed. Please send photos for posting to kay.ham@tcdsb.org. Please ensure that everyone in the photo(s) has signed a photo release consent form BEFORE sending the photo(s) to facilitate speedier posting.

User Names: FACEBOOK: @TorontoAdultEducation Instagram: TorontoAdultEducation Twitter: @AdulteducationToronto LinkedIn: Toronto Catholic District School Board Adult Education

2. An itinerant service has been set up at Chesswood Employment and Social Services office (Dufferin & Finch W area) from February, 2017 as a pilot to see its effectiveness in reaching out to OW recipients.

Upcoming Events:

3. A ‘Meet & Chat’’ with Dufferin YMCA assessors is scheduled on January 20, 2017.

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To: Adult Education Program Staff

From: Hanna Cabaj, Continuing Education Department

Employee Related News

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To: Adult Education Program Staff

From: Hanna Cabaj, Continuing Education Department

Memorial Let us remember in our prayers the soul of:

Lakshmi Vellayan, who passed away on Monday December 12, 2016. She was the mother of Vasuki Senthilnathan, Instructor-In-Charge, Norfinch Adult Education Centre.

Memorial Let us remember in our prayers the soul of:

Sylvia Mary Lenton, who passed away on Thursday January 5, 2017.

On behalf of the Toronto Catholic District School Board Adult Education Program, I am extending deepest condolences on Sylvia’s passing. She is well remembered by her colleagues in the TCDSB and even more so by the countless numbers of adult ESL learners she has taught over her years with the Adult Education Program. By serving the newcomers to Canada, she has helped make our country a model of openness and welcoming that is the world’s envy. She will be remembered by many.

CELEBRATING RETIREMENTS Retirement Celebration for Rita D’Aquila Rita D’Aquila is retiring from the Adult Education Program after 30 years of instructing adult ESL and Citizenship preparation classes of different levels, class and client profiles and schedules. Rita’s career mirrors the developments within the field of adult ESL, moving from a program operated out of a church hall, that would be transformed from an exercise room into classroom by staff and learners moving in tables, chairs and portable dividers before and each day of classes. From that trench of adult ESL, Rita has moved on to federally funded LINC programs in different sites and continued on to the COSTI Corvetti Centre in 2008, joining a large program with several levels of classes and settlement services offered at the site. Needless to say, Rita has moved on through all the career changes with her usual wide smile, great sense of humour and infectious positive attitude. She will be missed by her colleagues greatly, as attested below, but she will be missed by her learners even more. Happy retirement Rita, we hope to see you around in supply capacity after a short, well-deserved break.

Instructors Farewell Wishes Our dear colleague Rita D’Aquila began her teaching career 33 years ago. She taught at various locations, including Holy Spirit, SAFSS, and Costi. We have had the great pleasure of working with Rita for the past 10 years at Costi. Throughout her years as an ESL instructor for the board, Rita taught countless students and left an indelible mark on each and every one of them. Rita taught Listening and Speaking for Study at our centre and gave so much energy and passion to her work. We will truly miss her great sense of humor, amazing impersonations, wonderful singing and kind heart. The staffroom will not be the same without her. We wish her the best in this new chapter of her life as she spends time enjoying her retirement with her husband, children and 3 beautiful grandchildren. All the best to her!!

Helen & COSTI Daytime Staff Rita has a way to make people feel at ease with her hearty laughs and approachability. Although I do not have a long history with COSTI Corvetti Centre, Rita helped me feel as if I had been there for many years. I still remember the day when she drew me into her joke which made me laugh so much later. I am going to miss her presence in the staffroom so much. I wish her the best in her retirement! Kay

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To: Adult Education Program Staff

From: Hanna Cabaj, Continuing Education Department

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To: Adult Education Program Staff

From: Hanna Cabaj, Continuing Education Department

Tips for Classroom Instructors Feature Resource of the Month submitted by Julia Chemali, Program Consultant

Title: 21st Century Communication 1 Listening, Speaking and Critical Thinking—CLB 5—6 Authors: Lida Baker & Laurie Blass Publisher: Cengage Learning & National Geographic Learning ISBN: 978-1-33-727580-4 21st Century Communication is a four-level series that uses powerful ideas from Ted Talks to teach learners to think critically and communicate effectively. Through authentic models of effective communication, students build their listening, speaking, critical thinking, pronunciation, note-taking, and presentation skills that are needed to achieve academic and personal success. 21st Century communication 1 addresses the needs of ESL CLB 5 & 6 learners. It is divided into eight units that deal with very interesting topics such as: Small Actions, Big Results/Conservation , Connecting to Nature/Photography, Going Places/Innovation, Music everywhere/Music, Give thanks/The Power of Gratitude, Tell Me Why/Education, The Livable City/Urban Planning, Life Lessons/Psychology. Ted Talks are used in these units to develop essential skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, and visual literacy. The speaking, pronunciation, and presentation skills, inspired by Ted speakers, prepare learners to speak confidently in any situation. The extended listening based on real-life situations provide more note-taking practice. Each unit opens with an impactful photograph related to a 21st century theme and think and discuss questions to draw learners into the topic. Part 1 introduces a variety of listening inputs including lectures, interviews, podcasts, and classroom discussions. Selected listenings are accompanied by video slide shows. Listening, speaking, pronunciation and note-taking skills are explicitly taught and practiced. Woven throughout are the skills of communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. Part 2 introduces the Ted speaker and the idea worth spreading. Learners explore and discuss the ideas while they apply the skills learned in Part 1. Put It Together helps students connect ideas and prepares them for their final assignment. Students synthesize information and consolidate their learning. This resource offers fully blended Online Workbooks which help develop digital literacy skills by offering students the complete audio and video program along with speech-recognition and auto graded language practice activities. Goodheart-Willcox Publications: Experts in Career and Technical Education These publications are available online and are designed to help adult learners in their education in different fields such as Family and Consumer Sciences (Guide to Good Food, Principles of Human Services, Customer Service, Family and Community Services, etc.), Business, Marketing and Career Education (Financial Literacy, Principles of Business, Marketing, and Finance, and Information Technology), and Technical, Trade, and Engineering. Many digital resources with videos and interactive content such as flash cards and matching activities are available to

engage learners. Please visit www.g-wlearning.com/humanservices to sample these activities that could be applicable for your class.

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To: Adult Education Program Staff

From: Hanna Cabaj, Continuing Education Department

New Arrival

A boy, Noah Gabor Sharpe, born December 31, 2016 and weighing 8 pounds, 15 ounces (4.092kg) to Dori Tarjan, Supply Instructor.

Submission to:

Antonietta Porretta

Adult Education

Program - CEC

80 Sheppard Ave. E.

416-222-8282 Ext.2513

fax: 416-512-4992

Email:

antonietta.porretta@tcdsb.org

Birth