Why you need to volunteer

When you volunteer, do you feel good? Unless you’re doing required or mandated community service, the answer is probably yes. You are able to make a connection with someone else and foster a relationship. You feel good and accomplished, making your body produce endorphins. Even if you were having a long/busy day and weren’t sure if you could make it out to do service, looking for excuses not to go, once it’s over, you’re happy that you did. This feeling isn’t just psychological. Studies show that doing community service helps you live longer. Here are some of the benefits of helping others:

1. It helps you overcome stress. By reaching out to a stranger, you become vulnerable. In becoming vulnerable, your body releases oxytocin or the “compassion hormone,” which helps decrease stress. Oxytocin helps your body in several other ways. It helps cells repair themselves, store nutrients, and grow. So even if you’re working with someone who is sick, your body is working in your favor to repair itself.

2. Your brain produces dopamine and sometimes serotonin, both of which help treat depression. Most people experience feelings of peace, serenity and tranquility after serving others for a couple of hours. Even if you are experiencing mild depression, helping others will ultimately help you.

3. You salivate slightly more than usual, producing immunoglobullin A, which helps fight cavities. But please, still brush your teeth.

So whether you are doing service because you feel connected to a cause, through a moral obligation, or simply because you enjoy doing it, you are benefiting society and yourself. How is that for karma?

Have you tried to learn something new now that you’re older? Was it harder than you imagined it would be?

Imagine all the things in your life that would be harder if you couldn’t read.

• In Florida, one in five adults lacks basic literacy skills.
• Florida has the third lowest adult literacy of all states, behind California and New York
• The state experienced a 33% increase over 10 years in the percentage of people who fall in the lowest literacy skill level with rates ranging from 7% in St. John’s county to 52% in Miami-Dade.

Now, you might not be able to relate directly to illiteracy, but you can relate to the struggle of learning something new. The best person to help someone with a problem is someone who has also been there. You can reach out and help an adult learn.  Find your local literacy organization and reach out today.

Gail Rice: Language Experience Approach

Since writing is one of the last skills to develop, native speakers of English who are not proficient in reading are less likely to be proficient in writing. Students that have been shamed in the past for their failures in writing, may dislike writing and write as little as possible.  ESL (English as a Second Language) learners may also experience the same problems because they are aware of their mistakes speaking English.  Thus, ESL and native speaking students are less likely to write because they do not want to see a paper loaded with red marks and corrections.

The language experience approach (LEA) is a powerful tool for tutors to use with any learner who has enough conversational ability to carry on simple conversations, even if that person has no reading skills at all.  It uses the language of the learner, dictated to and written down by the tutor, as the basis of the reading material.  The material is then familiar and understandable since it is based on the learner’s experience, making it easier to read.

But what if learners make grammatical or other mistakes when dictating to the tutor?  What about mistakes that native speakers and ESL learners make in their own writing?

Some tutors feel that they should correct all mistakes and if not they are reinforcing those mistakes.  But such an approach defeats the purpose of the LEA and ensures that struggling writers will become more discouraged and less likely to write.

These issues and others will be discussed at the Tutor Celebration of Learning Seminar offered by the Florida Literacy Council and the Adult Literacy League on the morning of September 17, 2011.

Luciano Cossi: Using Technology to Engage Reluctant Readers and Teach Literacy Elements and Vocabulary

My name is Luciano Cossi. I am the Florida account representative for McGraw-Hill/Contemporary. For many of you I have not met, I look forward to meeting you and working with you and your organizations as you begin to implement your Career Pathways programs. This past January I attended several of the state-wide Career Pathways Workshops. As a representative of McGraw-Hill Education Publishing I attended the workshops to better understand the goals and objectives of the Florida Career Pathways Initiative. I am pleased to say that McGraw-Hill continues to innovate and expand existing programs to deliver materials that meet your Career Pathways and Workforce Education program needs.

Recently, McGraw-Hill Education published two new free websites that support existing programs – the Critical Reading Series ( Jamestown’s The Outer Edge, The Wild Side, Critical Reading, and Above & Beyond-NEW) and the Reading Basics Series. Existing customers and new customers can access the websites for these programs free-of-charge and can access the new technology support materials that include MP3 audio files of reading passages, instructor’s materials, student activity worksheets, and much more.

Below is a detailed description of each program. In addition to the two free websites, McGraw-Hill has published technology support that can be purchased for the Words to Learn By vocabulary program app now available on iTunes® and in the Android Marketplace for phones and tablets and the revised Number Power math series now includes the ExamView® Assessment Suite CD-ROM test generator and worksheet generator.

Reading Basics – Revised for 2011 - motivates and engages students with real-life workforce, expository, and literacy readings.The revised Reading Basics program is based on current Evidence-Based Reading Instructional (EBRI) research in adult reading, introduces workplace skills to help students relate their reading skills to their working lives, aligns to the National Reporting System’s (NRS) Grade Level Equivalents (GLE) and CTB/McGraw-Hill Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE 9 & 10), includes modernized scenarios, real-world scenarios, emphasizes phonemic awareness, word analysis, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, and technology support includes a no-charge website which includes MP3 audio files, instructor’s materials, activity worksheets. For more information, visit the Reading Basics information page.

Above and Beyond (RL 8-10) – New for 2011 –This series is fourth in the Jamestown Critical Reading series, which also includes The Outer Edge (RL 2-4), The Wild Side (RL 4-6), and Critical Reading (RL 6-8).  This series and the entire Critical Reading series stimulates students with high-interest selections at a grade 2-10 readability level, improves proficiency in reading narrative nonfiction, prepares students for state and national tests using critical thinking questions, offers follow-up questions to reinforce key comprehension skills and critical thinking questions that encourage students to consider the author’s purpose, make inferences, identify cause and effect, and make predictions, and and technology support includes a no-charge website which includes MP3 audio files, instructor’s materials, activity worksheets. For more information, visit the Above and Beyond information page .

McGraw-Hill Education will continue to listen to customers and to innovate with technology to engage students using the latest technology and materials. Please try out these resources and send me your feedback or comments as to how McGraw-Hill Education can continue to improve.

Number Crunching

Was this you?

Remember the last day of your high school or college math class? It was great. You were so relieved that never again would you have to memorize an equation, deal with non-real and imaginary numbers (why learn it if they aren’t there?), or figure out those ridiculous buttons on a calculator. As soon as life started really happening, you realized math was everywhere. Once you needed to pay bills, deal with taxes and interest, paint or organize a room, and pinch your pennies with coupons, math skills became increasingly necessary. Word problems were no longer how much faster Timmy got to town than Sarah, but how much faster/slower are highways compared to side roads during your morning commute.

Basic math skills are everywhere in our life. After secondary and post-secondary school, there are few opportunities to gain these skills. Teachers Investigating Adult Numeracy is a US Department of Education supported initiative that develops mathematics as a professional development for adult basic education teachers. Once teachers have increased their math knowledge, they will be able to pass it onto their students during tutoring sessions in a variety of approaches. TIAN provides examples of lessons that have worked in the classroom and curriculum for teachers that are applicable to adult learner’s lives. As a tutor/teacher, you can incorporate pie charts, graphs, fractions and percentages to help your learners better understand financial and health literacy. If you have a career pathways focus to your lesson, basic math skills, including being able to read charts and graphs, are imperative to the job market. Incorporating math provides more visuals and you’ll increase your learner’s skills more than threefold. Relate to them by telling your painful math story from back in the day, but how useful it is in your daily life. Most importantly, have fun.

If you find something that works, let me know and we’ll tell your success story!

“What’s Happening to my Family?”- Debra Hargrove

I recently read a post from someone I follow on Twitter. He’s a district K-12 technology specialist, and well recognized and admired in the Twitter world. A recent post on his blog was titled, “Digital Cleansing” . Steven literally went on vacation with no access to the tech world. Granted, he had a cell phone, but only for emergencies.

I was intrigued. I couldn’t imagine going anywhere without my Iphone or Ipad. After all, I’m responsible for keeping a lot of people up to date with what’s going on in the world of technology; whether it’s developing online courses, presenting workshops, passing along great websites, sharing my Twitter resources, or simply being available to answer a question or two from a colleague who happens to trust my expertise. I couldn’t imagine “unplugging” for seven days. Could I do it? Would I do it?

I tried. I really did.

But what if the people you are on vacation with DON’T want to unplug? I have to say I was a bit saddened by what I experienced. Now, I’m not going to sit here and duplicate all the thoughts and insights that my Twitter colleague shared. I’d recommend reading his post.  No, what I’m more interested in sharing with you is what I experienced by trying to unplug …when you’re vacationing with a 13 year-old grandson “texting maniac”, a 35 year old daughter “Facebook” and “Four Square” fanatic and a 59 year old “Ipad for EVERYTHING” spouse.

We went to the beach for 5 days. This place is an island. There’s no shopping, no malls, no restaurant chains. Nothing. You eat, sleep, swim, and get back to the basics of good ole family vacation time. Clark W. Griswold would have been proud of our choice of location.

I packed the sunscreen, floats, towels, a few magazines, my Ipad (Only to read my book) and the faithful Hargrove family fun time games of Monopoly and Seinfeld Trivia. I created my phone “away” messages, my email “out of office assistant” messages and was excited about the trip.

We arrived and unpacked. I was ready to jump in the pool. That’s when it started. We couldn’t go to the pool without both my daughter and grandson first “checking in” to the house we rented so they could race to see who would become the “Mayor” of the place. Then, they had to “check in” to the pool, the beach, and so on. It was NUTS! And what’s the purpose? My grandson even became the “Mayor” of the kitchen, for goodness sake.  We insisted he stop when he announced he was working on becoming the “Mayor” of the bathroom! Those two could not be without their cell phones for longer than an hour. Thank goodness there was water around. Between those two posting pictures to Facebook and texting, I felt like I was on vacation by myself.

I kept thinking, what’s happening to my family? How did this get so far out of control?

Thank goodness my grandson still loves to play board games. Except we were the only two playing. Ipads, cell phones and CNBC took first precedent for the other two members of the family.

We broke out the family favorite: Monopoly.  And by the way, I STILL think Monopoly is a great strategic game for kids. I’m ALL for family game night. Did you know that they apparently have a new version of Monopoly that uses a debit card instead of Monopoly money? What’s THAT about? So now, we don’t teach kids how to count and sort money? That’s just great. First, the use of electronics to communicate forces schools to consider removing cursive writing from the curriculum. Now learning games are electronic? Is that REALLY healthy?

I don’t know. We had a great time at the beach though. We rode the golf cart around the island, took pictures of the sunsets and walked on the beach. We played Volleyball in the pool, dove in the ocean for sand dollars, and looked for sharks teeth. Those are the times I will cherish. Those are the times that we WERE unplugged, and it felt great.

So here I sit;my first day back, 256 emails, including the one reminding me about this guest blog.

So I while I was supposed to write about Technology and Literacy or What’s New with Florida TechNet, I hope you’ll understand that I first needed to share my family vacation with you. I wanted you to know that even someone who KNOWS about the responsibilities of being a good Digital citizen struggles to keep balance in her own world.

And while I encourage and promote Social Media and the use of technology for learning and growing, I also want to remind you to NOT get so involved in this sterile way of communicating that you forget what’s important in your life. I’ve promised myself to keep the balance. I hope you do to.

By the way, my grandson beat me 2 games out of 3. Moral of the story: ALWAYS BUY THE RAILROADS!

Digital Literacy and Adult Education

Digital literacy has become increasingly popular amongst people who focus on adult literacy because of its necessity in our society. In my previous post, I talked about the importance of social media because more and more people are tuning into that market. In addition to the world of social media, everyday more and more things are becoming technology based. If you were to look for a job, you no longer search for a print newspaper (today, this could mean an actual search) or go to your local college’s bulletin board for listings. You would look on monster, career builder, idealist, craigslist, and a variety of other on-line sources to see what is available. Then, if you wanted to contact an agency, you would need some knowledge of Microsoft word to create a resume and knowledge of email to send it as an attachment to the proper recipient. For an adult learner, basic technology goes hand-in-hand with societal integration.

Florida TechNet provides digital literacy resources for Adult Education centers throughout the state. On their website you will be able to find resources, publications, training guides, a moodle course, web based training and much more to help you (the tutor or trainer) in this endeavor. The website is easy to use and they will help you through every step of the way. So even if you don’t feel that confident in your technological skills, they will help you with lesson plans. You’ll find that you have more to offer than you think. This week, our guest blogger will be Debra Hargrove, project director for Florida TechNet. Be sure to check back in to learn about her insights on how technology has become our lives. Have you ever been unplugged?

Social Media and Non-Profits 101

Before I started blogging for FLC, I decided to do some research on social media and non-profits. To no surprise, there were several helpful sites reviewing different outlets for social media and how it can be used to help your business. Some of the sites even offered advice specifically for non-profits. Once I started looking around at other non-profit’s social media, I was surprised by their lack of presence. From few facebook followers, to a non-existent website, I realized that this industry niche is behind. If social media is a cheap way to communicate with the largest audience, why not jump on the bandwagon? While maintaining sites takes time and people power, there are ways to spread the word about your organization at little to no cost for your organization. Here are some helpful tips on the importance of social media, maintenance tips, and information on different social media sites that can work for your organization. For the record, I realize that I’m only posting this on social networking sites, but hopefully someone can spread the word to their not-so-tech savvy friends.

Why invest in social media?

• Everyone else is using it. Besides the hundreds of millions of people around the world, 73% of small businesses and organizations have started using social media marketing. You can learn more about what your competitors are doing and reach out to your supporters. Over 1/3 of adults use smartphones and are able to access social media on the go. This number is increasing and it’s more proof that you need this to stay current
• Social media will help you achieve organizational goals. You’ll be able to spread the word, provide customer service (what they are saying about you and to you), build relationships and ultimately attract new audiences.
• Social media helps you maintain relationships with your volunteers, clients, and donors. It creates a platform to remind them what you are doing and hear their suggestions
• Find out which networks people are using around the office. Talk to your volunteers and co-workers about which sites interest them, then get started and see what happens.

Tips for maintaining your sites

• Post at least once a day to keep your name relevant. When you are working with Facebook and Twitter, it’s suggested you post anywhere between 2 and 10 times a day to make sure your messages aren’t flushed through the thousands of other users on the news feed.
• Make sure you have quality content. People aren’t generally interested in what you’re eating for lunch, so focus on news related to your field (policy and practices) and office events (closings, conferences, banquets, etc).
• You need to be consistent and patient. Don’t expect hundreds of responses and followers immediately. Have a plan for creating engaging content and spend at least 10-20 minutes a day just reading what others are saying.
• Incorporate social media into your existing site. Post videos, have a live twitter feed, use a facebook discussion board, add the google +1 so people can easily share your information. Give people different outlets of finding things out. Believe me, you’ll be much more interesting.

The Networks

Facebook

• If you don’t have a personal one, I’m sure you’ve heard something along the lines of “everyone and their mom has one,” which is (scarily) becoming increasingly true. There are over 350 million facebook users worldwide. It provides users an easy way to share experiences through posts, photos, videos, and events. Close to half of facebook’s users are connecting with businesses and non-profits, and then sharing the news, deals, and other content from those organizations.
• Just because it has been successful for some people, does not mean success is guaranteed for your organization. You should develop a site because it is easy to connect with your volunteers/supporters and other non-profits, but try to use more than just facebook

Twitter

• Twitter does text messages (140 characters max) to post news, articles, promotions, and jokes. It is a great tool for small businesses to communicate directly with customers, get feedback and provide support in real time. It’s a low- barrier method for audiences to interact with your organization to provide feedback, seek help and suggest ideas. It’s also a great platform for providing coverage of an event.
• It is suggested that you tweet 2-10 times a day, but make sure they are at least 30 minutes apart so it’s not lost in news feeds. If you don’t think your audience has twitter accounts, start one anyway. Follow as many organizations/non-profits/news sources and people you can think of. You’ll be able to learn from them and hopefully they’ll follow you and you can spread the word about your organization.
• Twitter tips for non-profits

YouTube

• YouTube is the second largest search engine outside of google. It’s an online video portal where you can post videos of what your organization is doing, who you are serving, who you are collaborating with and much more. It’s a great way to raise awareness (think PSAs), generate word of mouth, improve your search rankings on google, increase referrals and you’ll personalize your organization.

Blogs

• The most common blogsites are wordpress (which you are looking at), blogspot, and increasingly, tumblr. Blogs allow you to provide much more information than you can on any other platform. You can design it however you want (check out HTML classes at your library), post pictures, articles, videos, and pretty much anything else. Over 350 million people read blogs and more than 184 million people write their own. This is your chance to provide information in your area of expertise and answer FAQs for your organization. It brings out more of a human element than a traditional website.
• It is suggested that you blog at least once a week. You can have recurring features like weekly interview series with clients, industry leaders, mentors, or different people working in your office. The more you “tag” your organization in posts, the higher ranking you will have in search engines.

LinkedIn

• LinkedIn is a professional networking tool. It primarily works as a personal use to network with people who have similar interests, but your organization will have the opportunity to market themselves on the site as well. It works as a resource for group discussions that answer questions relating to your industry/area of expertise. It can give you ideas and advice for running your business and help spread the word about the value you are providing your customers.

Google +

• Brand new and not yet open to the public. It’s new, so by using it you are showing that you’re relevant and on the cutting edge. You can use the “circles” feature to organize information going out to volunteers, donors, and general supporters to more directly target content and engagement efforts. With the “hangouts” feature, up to 10 users can video chat, building relationships with community members or around the office, and different newsfeeds to see what everyone else is doing. It should open up to businesses and the public in the next couple of months
• Tips for Google+ in education