1

Volume 7, Issue 4

WINTER 2007

The Arkansas Adult

Learning Resource

Center provides equal

access to all programs

and activities.

If you have not visited the Arkansas Adult Learning Resource Center in

December, you have not yet seen the new "decorations" in the center's

east corridor!

After several months of discussion, the Arkansas Literacy Councils, Inc.,

(ALC) Board of Directors accepted an invitation from the center staff to

co-locate ALC's office and staff with them.

As nonprofit organizations, ALC and its member literacy councils are al-

ways seeking ways to save money while at the same time providing the

best services they can to their clients.

According to Barbara Hanley, president of the ALC board, not only is the

move to the resource center a savings for ALC, it also gives the chance

for the ALC staff to see more people from the councils they serve. "So

many of the literacy councils send staff and others to the resource center

trainings throughout the year. We'd never expect any of them, either be-

fore or after a full day of training or meetings, to drive to midtown Little

Rock just to visit the ALC staff. Now they can do that as well as save

some postage by bringing ALC paperwork with them when they come to

the resource center," said Ms. Hanley.

New Deputy Director of Adult Education

Arkansas Adult Learning

Resource Center

3905 Cooperative Way,

Suite D

Little Rock, AR 72209

Phone: 800-832-6242

501-907-2490

FAX: 501-907-2492

http://www.aalrc.org

Continued on page 3

James H. “Jim" Smith, Jr., has been appointed

Deputy Director of Adult Education, Department

of Workforce Education, effective as of

December 15, 2007.

Mr. Smith has a background in adult education;

February 1993, he began working as a Program

Advisor in Adult Education. Mr. Smith was active

in providing programs with technical assistance

and actively promoting the WAGE program.

Mr. Smith left the adult education position in 1999, to accept the manage-

ment position over Federal Surplus Property (FSP). On August 9, 2007,

Mr. Smith stepped back into adult education in a dual position of manag-

ing adult education and FSP.

We are pleased to have Mr. Smith in the position of Deputy Director of

Adult Education.

Arkansas Literacy Councils, Inc., Says "Yes" to Resource Center's

Invitation to Co

-

Locate Offices

2

Adult Learning Network

AALRC Staff

Director

Marsha Taylor

___________________

Administrative

Assistant

Wanda Johnson

Professional

Development

Coordinator

Nancy Loftis

Media

Coordinator

Klaus Neu

Secretary

Toccara Pearson

Information

Technology

Specialist

Rob Pollan

Disabilities

Project

Manager

Patti White

NOTICE:

When a workshop has a waiting

list, participants may not send sub-

stitutes from their center to attend

in their place. Registrations are

held for participants and not for

centers.

If you are unable to attend a work-

shop for which you have regis-

tered, please go online to ESC

Web and cancel your registration.

Participants are often placed on

waiting lists because workshops fill

up quickly. After you cancel, ESC

Web will send an email to the first

person in line on the waiting list.

Calendar

All events are at the AALRC unless otherwise noted.

http://www.escweb.net/ar_esc/

Please remember that the AALRC is

now using ESC Web for all work-

shop/training registrations. Tips, tricks,

and hints may be found on the AALRC

web site at:

http://www.aalrc.org/profdev/ESCWeb.

doc

.

If you are still having trouble, you can

always call the AALRC at 1-800-832-

6242 or 1-501-907-2490.

January 22 – Computer Tune-Up & Security – 68206

January 23 – Microsoft Office 2007 – 68210

January 31-Feb. 1 – Literacy Strategies – 61162 (Session 1)

February 5 – PowerPoint – 68212

February 6 – Excel – 68216

February 28-29 – Literacy Strategies – Session 2

March 5-6 – Teaching with Manipulatives – 60683

April 2 – Leadership Academy – Session 3

April 3-4 – Literacy Strategies – Session 3

Meetings - held at AALRC unless otherwise noted:

January 24-25 – Adult Education Advisory Council –

Russellville Adult Education Center

January 29-30 – Arkansas Youth Development Council

February 15 – Arkansas Literacy Council, Inc. Member Advisory Committee

February 21 – Department of Workforce Education – STAR Events

February 22 – WAGE Meeting

March 4 – AACAE Executive Committee Meeting

March 18-20 – Department of Workforce Education

Local programs funded

with state or federal

adult education funds

must adhere to Arkan-

sas Department of Fi-

nance and Administra-

tion guidelines when

requesting travel reim-

bursement.

TRAVEL

Reimburse-

ment

3

Adult Learning Network

Arkansas Literacy Councils, Inc., Says "Yes" to Resource Center's

Invitation to Co

-

Locate Offices

Enhancement to BEST PLUS Score Management Software Now Available

The ALC staff is now located in the northeast quadrant of the center. Grace Morrissey, ALC of-

fice/finance manager, is working in the space formerly occupied by Toccara Pearson. Toccara is

now sharing the northwest office space with Wanda Johnson. Katie McManners, ALC develop-

ment director and Katherine Wyrick, Arkansas Literary Festival assistant, now share the front

space that was formerly the small conference room. Marie Bruno, ALC executive director, is in the

space that was the room for the resource center servers, which have now been moved to the

copy room.

Mrs. Bruno says she is grateful to the resource center and ALC staff for their hard work before,

during, and following the move. "It could not have gone more smoothly," she said. "Except for a

couple of minor glitches, we were able to plug in our Macintosh computer systems and have all of

them and the networks working. All the furniture has fit beautifully, and we are so glad to have

storage space on site. It feels like we have been here for years," she said.

The move was completed the week after Thanksgiving. There were several trainings and meet-

ings in December attended by both literacy council and adult education center representatives

who had a chance to see the new arrangements and visit with all the staff now at 3905 Coopera-

tive Way.

Continued from page 1

The Center for Applied Linguistics is pleased to announce im-

provement to the BEST PLUS Score Management Software.

Based on an internal review and valuable feedback from BEST

Plus customers, the improvements are designed to make data

management easier and more efficient.

BEST Plus users who want to take advantage of these improvements can download the free en-

hanced software from the BEST Plus Web site, along with an addendum to the BEST Plus Score

Management Software User Guide, which describes the software enhancements and installation

in detail. The BEST Plus website:

www.best-plus.net

English Discoveries is a comprehensive series of 12 cds that combines high-resolution graphics,

full-motion video, animation, digitized sound and music to create a thrilling and truly interactive

framework for long-term language learning for all students, from absolute beginners to the most

advanced. Each student enjoys intensive practice in reading, writing, listening, speaking, vocabu-

lary, and grammar through a variety of compelling activities, games, exercises and tests.

http://ed241us.engdis.com/technotms

Arkansas has four user sites available for preview.

Please choose any number between 1-4;

the password for all is 12345.

For further information, please contact Tracy

Hareza:

THareza@aol.com

1-888-813-9997

www.techno-ware-esl.com

English Discoveries

4

Adult Learning Network

News from the Disabilities Project Manager

Teaching Adult Students Who Are Deaf or Hearing-Impaired

Federal law requires that all adult education and literacy programs that receive federal funding provide ser-

vices for all students with disabilities. Over the last few years, several Arkansas Adult Education and Liter-

acy programs have successfully taught students who are deaf or hearing-impaired, and word is spreading

in the close-knit deaf population in our state. Congratulations to the programs that have discovered both

the rewards and the challenges providing such excellent services!

If your program has not yet worked with a student who is deaf or hearing-impaired, there is a valuable web-

site available at

http://p3.csun.edu/p3/LandingPages/Reading/PageK-reading.html

. (Note: Your computer

must be configured to allow pop-ups for this site.) This website is designed to help post-secondary instruc-

tors teach this student population, and includes self-assessment video activities and multimedia lessons for

the following topic areas:

Information about deafness;

Classroom environment;

Reading;

Writing;

Communication strategies;

Student participation; and

Assessment.

There are also links for additional resources regarding deafness, and links to a couple of 2001 and 2002

calendars, which are, of course, out-of date. But don.t let that stop you from looking at them! Each month

has a cartoon AND a sidebar of instructional tips for teaching students who are deaf or hearing-impaired.

Here.s one example:

You can click on any calendar picture to see it bigger, then copy/paste the enlarged image into a Word

document, and use the graphics tools to crop and resize the picture for use on creating your own updated

calendar. Posting this type of calendar not only shows your support for teaching students with these kinds

of disabilites; it also provides deaf-awareness opportunities for other students who can hear without prob-

lems.

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Adult Learning Network

AALRC

Advisory

Committee

Dubs Byers,

Chair,

Pine Bluff

Emily Barrier,

Little Rock

Harriet Branch,

Monticello

Sharon Ellis,

Secretary,

Fort Smith

Jennifer Hurst,

Pine Bluff

Lloyd Huskey,

Little Rock

Steven Lilly,

Lonoke

Charlotte

Robertson,

Little Rock

Trece Shepherd

Williams,

Helena

Billy Upson,

Texarkana

Nancy

Whitmire,

Vice-Chair,

Batesville

Every Day is a New Day

Adults with learning disabilities often have difficulty remembering what they

learned in their adult education class for a variety of reasons, including distractibil-

ity issues and trying to process the information using modalities that conflict with

their specific learning disability. I.ve had a lot of calls from teachers asking what

they can do to help their students remember what they.ve learned – too often, the

subsequent class period is consumed by reviewing the previous lesson.s skills.

Many teachers want a quick-fix panacea; unfortunately, there.s not one. Learning

is hard work, especially for people with learning disabilities. That said, there are a

number of instructional strategies that may help – here are a few that may be

helpful for some students:

One or two days a week in class is not enough, especially if the student is

not working on their skills in-between classes. Encourage your students

to try the “Weight Watchers" approach to learning; i.e., do a little bit sev-

eral times each day, and no binging. A half-hour of study, three times a

day, is often more effective than sitting for two hours trying to focus. Fre-

quent practice and repetition is key. If the student can only come to class

one or two days a week, they should commit to working on skills at home

on their days off.

For more effective practice at home, first determine the student.s pre-

ferred learning style.

Visual learners can create flash cards to review a few times a day. This

usually works best if they illustrate the cards by drawing a picture or cut-

ting one out and pasting it on. Remember that students working on some-

thing like their multiplication tables need to have the problem AND the an-

swer on one side of the card. Otherwise, they can.t fix the visual in their

memory as a whole thing and won.t remember the answer.

Auditory learners may want to have something on tape to review while

driving, cooking, or whatever. You can tape part of your lesson, or maybe

key points the student needs to remember to learn the skill. You may

want to build gaps into the tape where students can answer a question

out loud and then hear the answer.

Tactile-kinesthetic learners can practice by doing. Writing, working puz-

zles, or applying classroom skills to everyday life skills. The teacher.s job

is to help them know in advance how to do that.

These ideas are not even the tip of the iceberg. Memory is a complicated issue,

but one that can be addressed based on the student.s specific areas of strengths

and challenges. The key thing to work on is frequency of practice, not duration,

and matching the learning strategies to the student.s strengths. Homework does

not have to consume their days; rather, it should be integrated into each day as a

short reminder of the skills they are learning. For further information and a ton of

specific ideas for improving skill retention, go to

http://www.muskingum.edu/~cal/

database/general/memory.html

.

News from the Disabilities Project Manager

6

Adult Learning Network

Adult Education

Advisory Council

Ben Aldama, Chair

Rogers

Steve Clayton, Vice-

Chair, Jonesboro

Jim Allen,

Fayetteville

Patricia Bates,

El Dorado

Sherry Brown,

Ozark

Diane Cary,

Magnolia

Ralph Edds,

Hot Springs

Denise Hester

Blytheville

Lloyd Huskey,

North Little Rock

Margaret Jarrett,

Monticello

Steven Lilly,

Lonoke

Sandra Miller,

Melbourne

Jolla Robinson,

Little Rock

Diane Shores,

Helena

Flora Simon,

Dumas

Kathy Spigarelli,

Fayetteville

Marsha Taylor,

Little Rock

New Issue of Focus on Basics

Learning disabilities is the topic of a new

issue of "Focus on Basics", now available

at

www.ncsall.net

(click on "Focus on Ba-

sics" near the top of the right column on

the homepage).

Articles range from neurology and dyslexia to legal issues related to serving stu-

dents with learning disabilities, to best practices shared by skilled teachers, to

three states' approaches to serving students with learning disabilities, to address-

ing the needs of ESOL learners, to technology, to transitions to college, to chang-

ing practice at the program and classroom level: there's something for everyone.

Read on!

Barb Garner, Editor

Audio GED Instructional Materials Available

For several years now, the AALRC has con-

tracted with the Recording for the Blind & Dys-

lexic organization to provide books on tape for

adult students with disabilities in every adult

education and literacy program. So it.s surpris-

ing how many teachers are still not aware of this

resource, a fact made clear to me every time I

present a workshop.

If you have students who (1) read on a low level,

(2) avoid reading because it takes too much time

to decode and comprehend, or (3) have been

diagnosed with a disability that impacts their

reading comprehension, please contact Klaus Neu at

klaus@aalrc.org

or

800.832.6242 to learn how to order books on cds so your students can process

information more effectively and efficiently. This is especially important for stu-

dents working toward their GED. This service is free for your program, and you

can often order the same GED preparation books you already have in your class-

room so the student may read along with the paper copy while they listen.

Learning by listening for students who are not proficient readers is a critical tool

for increasing their knowledge of language patterns, vocabulary, and knowledge

base. Students can work on reading comprehension skills as well, but an effec-

tive complement to that remediation is often access to auditory learning.

News from the Disabilities Project Manager

7

Adult Learning Network

Tech

Talk

Note: To link to any web address (URL) in this newsletter, go the AALRC's home page at

http://aalrc.org

, look up this newsletter, and then just click on the appropriate link.

Safeguard Your Wi-Fi Network

Out of the box, most wireless routers are totally insecure. The routers are

sent from the factory in a form that will get people online as quickly as possi-

ble; this minimizes the chance of them taking the router back to the store.

This is good because it gets you online quickly, but it is very bad for security.

People may be poaching wireless Internet

usage from you which may not be that big of

a deal if they are just checking their email or doing a little web

surfing, but they could be downloading movies, songs, or other

things that may be making your connection slow. If someone is

within range, having no wireless security makes it easy for them

to break into your network and wreak havoc, and another major

problem - if they are doing anything illegal, you could be blamed

for it.

If possible, plug in via ethernet to set up your router at the start--it'll save considerable time

down the line. Don't bother installing the special software that comes with your router. Most

routers can be controlled via a Web browser, which lets you manage your router from any

networked PC.

To manage the router, type its IP address into your Web browser's address bar. For example

if you have a Linksys wireless router, open Internet Explorer and in the address box (where

you type in www.webaddress.com) type in 192.168.1.1 and press enter. This should bring up

a username and password box, leave the username blank and type in admin as the pass-

word.

If you don't know the IP address, go to Start, Run, type command in the run box and press

enter. Then type ipconfig /all (one space between ipconfig and the slash, no space after the

slash) and press enter. The address will be shown as 'Default Gateway'. You'll also need the

user name and password available in the manual or via an online search of the model num-

ber. Once you can manage your router, change the administrator password you just looked

up. This is typically under System Settings or a similar option.

Next, turn on encryption. WPA (or WPA-PSK) is about as secure as Wi-Fi gets today. Set a

WPA key, and configure your clients to use the new key. (If one of the devices on your net-

work does not support the WPA version you want to use, though, you'll have to go with a less

secure method.) If your computer or device does not accept WPA, try the less secure but

more universal WEP.

It's a good idea to change the SSID from the default, which is usually 'linksys', 'belkin', or the like.

Choose an SSID that doesn't invite inquiry from passersby (like 'slow speed' instead of 'Adult Ed

231 mainstreet'). For extreme security, turn off SSID broadcasting.

8

Adult Learning Network

Arkansas Literary Festival

April 3-6, 2008, Little Rock

Join us in the River Market district for the 5

th

annual Arkansas Literary festival to

benefit adult literacy through Arkansas Literacy Councils, Inc. (ALC). Activities

include author sessions, book signings, children's craft and writing activities,

costumed characters, street performers, writing workshops, an outdoor book fair

and more. All are welcome and no admission is charged! Proceeds generated

through book sales, donations, and special ticketed fundraising events help ALC

and its network of literacy councils to Empower Arkansas Through Literacy.

Highlights include:

National Public Radio.s ever-popular “The Book Guys": Thursday, April 3, Main Library

New and improved area for children and young adults: Saturday, April 5, Historic Arkansas

Museum

Author sessions, book signings, outdoor book fair and entertainment area: Saturday & Sunday,

April 5-6, Main Library, Cox Creative Center, East Pavilion of the River Market

Pub or Perish, sponsored by the Arkansas Times, an open-mic event featuring festival and local

talent: Saturday, April 6, 7:00 p.m., location TBD.

NEW for 2008:

Celebrity Spelling Bee, 5:30 p.m., Saturday, April 5 (location TBD). Local celebs will compete

against one another in a friendly competition to see who has superior spelling skills.

The Art of Verbal Self-Defense Workshop for young adults, facilitated by former linguistics professor

and Arkansas resident Suzette Hadin Elgin, Ph.D.: Saturday, April 5, time and location TBD

Special Ticketed Fundraising Events

Friday, April 5, 7:00 p.m., LaFayette Building – “Roaring „20s" Themed Author Party

Saturday & Sunday, April 5-6, River Market 3

rd

Floor Clark Room – Celebrity Chef demonstrations

and tastings

This year there will be a lot of chefs in the kitchen. Roland Mesnier returns for a ticketed event to demon-

strate recipes from his new cake book, Basic to Beautiful Cakes. Perennial favorite Crescent Dragonwagon

also returns, this time preaching the gospel of cornbread with her latest, The Cornbread Gospels. Laissez

les bons temps roulez! Two cookbook authors new to the festival, Sara Roahen, author of Gumbo Tales:

Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table, and Susan Spicer, author of Crescent City Cooking: Unforget-

table Recipes from Susan Spicer’s New Orleans, bring a New Orleans flavor and flair to the table.

Kids and teens, we.ve got books for every age and every taste. Authors include: Jacques Couvillon, The

Chicken Dance (ages 10+), Beth Finke, Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound (ages 4-10), National Book Award

Winner Kimberly Willis Holt (ages 4-12), Richard Mason, The Red Scarf (age 10+), Lurlene McDaniel, Prey

(age 12+), Trenton Lee Stewart, sequel to The Mysterious Benedict Society (fiction, ages 8-12), and Linda

Williams (fiction, ages 3-7).

The Festival is now recruiting exhibitors, vendors, and volunteers. For more information including all

authors booked to date, visit

www.ArkansasLiteraryFestival.org

or contact Katie McManners, ALC Develop-

ment Director, at

katie@arkansasliteracy.org

or 501-907-2490. See you there!