Highlights from the 2013 Florida Literacy Conference

Another great year for the Florida Literacy Conference! We had a fabulous turnout and several motivating speeches and sessions. The Conference started with keynote, Nelson Lauver. Nelson is the host of the American Storyteller Radio Journal and former Adult Learner. He told his story of how he learned that he had a learning disability and his ability to overcome it and work with it. We’re hoping to get a copy of the speech to post on our website in the future.

We had two and a half days filled with great sessions, but the most popular ones were the Adult Learner Experience and the Department of Education updates. In the Adult Learner Experience, members of the Adult Learner Committee spoke about their background and why they stayed in their literacy programs. Nelson was on the panel and a few students who were published in the Adult Learner Essay Book were able to read and share their story. Needless to say, everyone was moved.

On Thursday, FLC hosted it’s annual meeting. Executive Director, Greg Smith, provided an overview of the past year at our organization. He then opened the floor to adult learners who were there to read their essays. If you missed the meeting, you might be brought to tears from watching the video.

Jim Duffy was the closing keynote during the luncheon on Friday. Jim worked in broadcasting for 48 years and initiated a public service campaign on literacy. He incorporated the issue in programs and had television specials focused specifically on adults who could not read. Thousands of people joined literacy programs in their area as part of this campaign. The luncheon closed with the two drawings for a roundtrip ticket on Southwest Airlines. This year’s winners were Claire Valier and Paul Schaub!

What was your favorite part of Conference? Share it with us! Send your story to socialmedia@floridaliteracy.org .

Social Media at Conference

The Opening General Session is only ONE WEEK away! Can you smell the Atlantic Ocean yet?

One of our final posts before workshops start is to go over social media. We will be blogging during conference and giving recaps of great sessions and events. If you were at a session and had an amazing experience, let us know! We can set it up so you can blog during your breaks at one of the computer stations donated by Florida TechNet. You also can reflect on the experience as a whole and submit something after you’re back home. Either way, we’d love to hear about your experiences.

We’ll also have a text/twitter updates going on. If you text “Follow FlaLitCon2013″ to 40404, you can get text message updates on room changes, silent auction updates, and session reminders. If you plan on checking twitter frequently, follow us at @FlaLitCon2013.

For those who love tweeting great ideas! Be sure to include #flalitcon so those not at the conference can follow the conversation.

Don’t forget to check out our Conference Pinterest to stay updated on all the hotspots and happenings!

Can’t wait to see you there!

Call for Guest Bloggers

Attention conference attendees:

Don’t just come to the 2013 Florida Literacy Conference; share your thoughts, impressions, and take-aways with your and FLC’s community! Whether you’re coming to the 2013 Florida Literacy Conference to attend sessions, exhibit products and services, or present your own, FLC is inviting guest bloggers to help contribute content before, during, and/or after the event.

You might want to consider becoming a guest blogger if:

• you enjoy writing/ are a writer
• you have previous experience blogging OR have always wanted to try it
• you like to share your thoughts with others whom share your passion for literacy
• you need to put aside that half-finished novel you’ve been working on

You might not want to consider becoming a guest blogger if:

• you’re not attending the conference
• you have cyberphobia, or the fear of computers
• you didn’t read this blog entry

By now you’re probably wondering how to go about fulfilling this desire to blog, so here’s how to get started: Simply write an email expressing your interest to blog during the Florida Literacy Conference to John Sanchez, sanchezj@floridaliteracy.org, by Monday, April 29^th. After receiving your email, you will be asked several questions about your previous experience, when you’d prefer to blog, and how often you’d prefer to contribute, etc.

We welcome any and all attendees to take advantage of this opportunity, especially because the more you collect your thoughts during the conference, the more likely you’ll be able to recollect what you learned after you’ve returned home. When you think about it that way, blogging is not only a great way to share what you’ve learned; it’s also the teach-back method at work!

Financial Literacy Track Preview: Denise Smalls- Income or Wealth?

How many of you are working for income or wealth?  What is the difference?  Income is today and wealth is tomorrow.  One of the ways to accumulate wealth is to start saving for a retirement fund.  Are you currently saving for retirement?  If so, are you saving enough to retire comfortably?

According to the Retirement Confidence Survey, only 66% of workers have saved money for retirement.  These numbers go down significantly for workers who make less than $35,000/year (24%).  A number of people live for today and handle tomorrow when it gets here.  However, these are the same individuals who do not have enough money to pay for both medical and housing expenses.  Are you depending on Social Security to help you with tomorrow?  What happens if social security changes the way it provides funds in the future?  Could this change reduce the amount of money you will need to live on tomorrow?  Let’s say that Social Security does not change and you will receive the same amount that a retiree is getting today, is that enough to live on?  Why don’t you go ask a couple of our seniors who are currently living on Social Security alone and find out how comfortable they are living?

Saving for retirement is a good first step but you have to do more.  You have to determine how much money you will need to save before you can retire. More than 50% of workers, according to the Retirement Confidence Survey, do not know how much money they will need to have to retire.  It is equally important to know if you are on the right track with your retirement goals.  How will you pay for medical expenses?  How will you pay for housing and food expenses?  Do you want to travel or visit your potential grandchildren?  Do you want to spend time playing golf, tennis or bingo?  Do you want to volunteer or work part time?  There are so many decisions that have to be made and while you can’t foresee the future you can definitely plan for it.

There are numerous calculators on the Internet that can help you make a determination on how much money is needed for retirement.  One such calculator is from CNN Money http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/retirementneed/retirementneed_plain.html and AARP also has a good retirement calculator http://www.aarp.org/work/retirement-planning/retirement_calculator/

For more information on retirement and other money management questions, feel free to come to the Money $ense classes where we speak about the above issues as well as how to build and/or fix credit, how to get a free credit report, how to create a spending plan and what are the advantages of using a financial institution.  The class schedule is located at http://www.goodwillcfl.org/services.php.  Go to the bottom of the page for financial programs and select Money $ense class schedule.

Are you working for income or wealth?  Why don’t you use the income you are making to achieve the wealth you want?  How do you accomplish this goal, come to the Money $ense class to find out.

Employee Benefit Research Institute. (2013). Preparing for Retirement in America.  2013 RCS Fact Sheet #3.  Retrieved from http://www.ebri.org/files/Final-FS.RCS-13.FS_3.Saving.FINAL.pdf

Do you have your ticket to Florida Literacy Awards Banquet yet?

The Florida Literacy Awards Banquet is on Thursday, May 9 from 6:30-8:30. The banquet is a time to relax with peers as we highlight the many accomplishments in literacy over the past year. Awards will are given to adult learners, literacy practitioners, literacy programs, volunteers, and business partners. The awards that will be given include: the Mary J. Brogan Leadership Award, Flight for Freedom Award, Outstanding Literacy Volunteer Award, Excellence in Education Award, and Outstanding Business Partner Award. Author Angela Lane will be the keynote speaker for this inspiring night.

It’s not too late to reserve your spot!

For more information or to register for the event, please contact Amanda Terrell (intern@floridaliteracy.org).

Literacy Awards Banquet Keynote: Angela Lane

Miami native, Angela Lane, grew up in Miami-Dade County, Florida, “in a world of endless possibilities limited only by self.”  The daughter of a Pentecostal minister, Ms. Lane traces some of her writer’s inspiration back to the sights and sounds in her father’s small church.  She explains, “I’m convinced that we are a product of our environment; it’s just that mine incorporated fantasy and faith.”

Ms. Lane’s debut picture book, Mommy, There’s A Giraffe in My Room!, was featured at the 2007 Miami Book Fair International and honored with a spot on the Florida Department of Education summer reading list, Just Read Florida! 2009.

Ms. Lane also serves as a legislative assistant to Florida State Representative Kionne McGhee, she writes and acts in contemporary stage plays, and she shares her love of books with young students on school visits.

The mother of three children, Ms. Lane lives in Miami with her husband, Robert.

For more information on the Florida Literacy Conference and the Awards Banquet, please visit our website.

 

Welcome to the South Seas Island Resort!

On behalf of the entire staff of South Seas Island Resort, I want to welcome those of you that will be joining us for the 29^th Annual Florida Literacy Conference being held at South Seas on beautiful Captiva Island, Florida, May 7, 2013 to May 10, 2013.

What can you expect from your trip to South Seas?  Relaxation and rejuvenation. 

South Seas is a sprawling tropical oasis, 330 acres and 2.5 miles long, framed by the tranquil blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Pine Island Sound.  It’s best to think of South Seas as its own little village, consisting of two major areas: South Village and North Pointe.

South Village is where you’ll find your meeting rooms for the event, main reception center for check-in, your accommodations (Beach, Tennis and Bayside Villas), Chadwick’s Square for shopping and spa services (Starbucks in the morning, anyone?), tennis, and one of our staffed beach areas, South Beach.  Each of the villa areas has its own pool and SouthBeach has chairs, towels and umbrellas available during the day.  All of these areas are within easy walking distance to each other.

About 1 mile away is North Pointe, where you’ll find the Resort Pool Complex (featuring H2Whoa! waterslides), the Yacht Harbour, golf course, Harbourside Bar & Grill (serving Fish Market Cuisine nightly), Scoops & Slices (serving pizza, ice cream and a wall of candy), and my favorite spot, Sunset Beach.  Sunset Beach is our main beach area where we have Sunset Beach Bar, Sunny Island Watersports, a volleyball net, chairs, towels and umbrellas.  We have live music from 5pm – 8pm nightly and just as the sun sets each night, we have a special ceremony on the beach.

Moving between SouthVillage and North Pointe is easy.  We have a trolley service that runs continuously for all guests from 7am – 11pm, and bikes and golf carts are available for rent.  There will be a dedicated trolley for the FL Literacy Coalition during peak event times as well.  One of the best deals on the property is at check in when you’ll be asked if you’d like to rent a bike during your stay.  It’s only $5 per bike, per day, and you rent it for the duration of your stay, versus $15 per bike, per day if you elect to rent a la carte.  It’s a great way to travel throughout Captiva and South Seas at your own pace.

If you would like to learn more about South Seas, I encourage you to visit www.southseas.com, www.facebook.com/southseasresortvillage, or follow us on twitter and instagram @SSIslandResort.  We look forward to seeing you in May.

Regards,

Daniel Smock
Communication Manager, South Seas Island Resort

Sneak Peek at the Financial Literacy Track!

It’s surprising, sometimes frightening even, how little we really know about personal finance and money management, since most of us know close to nothing about sound practices beyond the basics.  In fact, most of what we do know is information that our friends and families have given us or that we have learned through our own research. Rarely does it come from any sort of formal education. When we consider how we can all benefit a bit more from a few lessons on financial literacy, it becomes clear just how important financial literacy is vital to an adult learners stability and progress.

The 29^th Annual Florida Literacy Conference will hold over 60 sessions within 14 distinct tracks, including a first of its kind financial literacy track! For those interested in learning more about personal finance and sound money management, here’s a look at what the track has to offer so that you can set your conference schedule proactively.

Sessions include:

• Financial Aid for the Nontraditional Student
  Did you know the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship can be awarded to GED students? This session covers avenues for funding higher education through federal, state, institutional, and local resources.
• Money $ense
  How do you make sense out of money?  One of the ways is to look at your behavior, habits and past to determine why you use money in a certain way. This workshop explains how to educate your clients to understand and change their behavior.
• Financial Literacy Resources for Adult Education
  There are many free resources for providing financial literacy in the Adult Education classroom. Receive sample brochures, website information  and the latest research/statistics for financial literacy.
• Making Money Work for You
  This brief intro to financial literacy and consumer education is designed for teachers and tutors of ESOL and ABE students.  (Participants can also access this module via Florida TechNet’s “Moodle” trainings.)
• Opening Doors to Home Ownership
  In this interactive session, we will share the Opening Doors to Home Ownership website designed for high school and adult learners.  The focus of this commercial-free website is to develop financial literacy through topics such as credit, budgeting, preparing for home ownership, and understanding mortgages.

Trying to imagine how adult learners manage financially, or rather how they don’t, can explain why learning even the most basic money management skills can greatly benefit the lives of our adult learners. Attend this track and bring back skills and practices your students that will immediately have an impact on their lives!

FIRST LOOK: Sessions at the Florida Literacy Conference!

Thank you to everyone who submitted a proposal to present at the 2013 Florida Literacy Conference. I was extremely impressed by the number of proposals that we received, and their overall quality. After reading each submission, I was inspired by the dedication and thought that went into each and every proposal. I am confident that Conference attendees will have an opportunity to learn from some very knowledgeable and devoted practitioners at this year’s event. Conference participants will have the opportunity to attend sessions within the following 14 tracks:

Adult Learner

Corrections Literacy

ESOL

Family Literacy

Financial Literacy

Health Literacy

Learning Disabilities

Library Literacy

Program Management

Reading

Technology

Volunteers in Literacy

Workforce Education

Adult Basic Education, GED, and Adult High School

 

For those of you that have been eagerly awaiting the announcement of the sessions for this year’s Conference, a preliminary list can be found here. More information about the specific and dates and times of the sessions will be available at the beginning of March. See you in Captiva!

Upcoming FLC Deadlines!

Don’t miss your opportunity to attend these important events hosted by the Florida Literacy Coalition! In the coming months, we are offering a variety of trainings such as the 10th Annual Literacy Leadership Institute and the Train the Tutor Trainer Course. The registration deadlines are fast approaching, so reserve your spot today!.

March 1- 10th Annual Literacy Leadership Institute Registration Deadline

March 6- Adult Learner Essay Book Submission Deadline

March 8- Last day to register for the Conference at the Early Bird rate

March 11- Florida Literacy Award Nominations Due

March 13- Webinar: Tutor Tips and Strategies for Teaching Reading

March 15- Train the Tutor Trainer Applications Due

March 19- Health Literacy Grant Application Due