President’s Message

This spring has been a busy and exciting time for GMLC members. We have completed two successful fund raisers. The Boston Store Community Day coupon books earned us about $170, and the trillium sale brought us about $100, with an equal amount being donated to Wisconsin Literacy. Although seemingly small amounts, these profits allow us to fund some of our monthly operating expenses. Thanks to everyone who participated in these sales and especially to Eileen Marotte, Gary Drescher and Reggie Parks for executing these activities.

Help us honor those who work tirelessly for literacy! You will find on pages 5 and 6 in this newsletter, the nomination forms for the GMLC Spirit Award and Community Service Award. Please nominate a worthy candidate for either award and carefully address the various criteria that the committee uses to determine a recipient.

Be sure to attend our June 10 membership meeting where our new Web site will be unveiled. The Public Relations Committee has worked diligently with our designer and Webmaster to create an attractive and user-friendly site. Let us know how you like it!

And finally, this is also the time of the year to renew your membership in GMLC so you can continue to enjoy all the membership benefits and vote at the annual meeting in September. You may send your $20 renewal to our Post Office box number or complete and send in the membership form found at our website.

Summer will soon be here – enjoy!

-- Mary Moze

GMLC members shine at State Curriculum Conference

One of the most informative conferences for me has always been the ABE (Adult Basic Education) State Curriculum Conference, and this year was no exception. Its purpose is to bring together literacy providers to make recommendations for changes in curriculum for the coming year and to share best practices and current data on how Wisconsin is doing. At least 18 GMLC members were among the 250 attendees, and three of our members were presenters:

• Barbara Felix, Literacy Services of Wisconsin, spoke about the Myers-Briggs evaluation and how the personality types relate to adult education and learning strategies. She has agreed to do a similar presentation for GMLC.
• Reggie Parks, Next Door Foundation, was part of a panel discussing the effect of different learning environments on the learning outcomes (i.e., labs vs. classrooms).
• Jan Anderson, Waukesha County Technical College, and Kerry Nikutta, Literacy Services of Wisconsin, were part of the team presenting information about learning disabilities from the “Bridges to Practice" materials.

The conference keynote address was given by Judy Taylor of Jobs for the Future and Jim Jacobs, president of National Council for Workplace Education. They shared information from the report, “Breaking Through: Helping Low-Skilled Adults Enter and Succeed in College and Careers." Half of the students in the United States who are at the post-secondary level are enrolled in technical colleges, which is a significant increase. But, low-literacy adults often lack access to degree programs that lead to jobs with family- supporting wages. The speakers pointed out several barriers that prevent these low-literacy adults from moving into post-secondary education, and shared some strategies (accelerated learning, creating learning modules and more comprehensive support systems) that colleges could adopt to alleviate those barriers,

Mary Ann Jackson, Wisconsin Technical College System Education Director, Adult Basic Education, gave an update on proposed federal funding cuts and encouraged everyone to continue to contact their senators and representatives to reauthorize the full budget. The proposed cuts would create fragmented services and weaken the impact of literacy agencies. Jackson said that speaking at a town-hall meeting is an effective way to communicate with the congressmen, and those who have already attended such meetings are surprised that there aren’t more people speaking on education issues, particularly adult literacy. Everyone is encouraged to check the schedule of upcoming meetings on the Internet and attend one with a few students.

The conference concluded with Instructional Area Roundtables, where suggestions were given to the statewide curriculum steering committee for future directions and concerns.

-- Mary Moze