Bring items for Bottomless Closet
to April 11 GMLC meeting

Andrea Estrada, executive director of the Bottomless Closet, will be the featured speaker At the April 11 evening meeting of the GMLC.

The Bottomless Closet is a social-service agency whose primary mission is to provide business appropriate clothing and image and career coaching to unemployed and underemployed women in the Milwaukee area. Estrada will discuss the services provided and recruit volunteers for the agency.

Each year nearly 1,000 clients receive assistance from the Closet. It takes a large volunteer base and countless clothing items and accessories to provide all that is needed to assist the clients.

In an effort to support the Closet, the GMLC will do a drive of particular items that are needed by the Bottomless Closet.

Please bring the following to the April meeting:

• Gently used jewelry, scarves, handbags, belts, shoes, briefcases
• Gently used undergarments such as bras and slips
• NEW, UNUSED underwear ( panties and girdles), panty hose and knee highs (neutral colors- primarily coffee, off -black, navy in Queen sizes)
• Toiletries, such as perfume, lotion, deodorant, shampoo, conditioners, and new and slightly used cosmetics

If you have questions regarding the Bottomless Closet or whether particular items are appropriate for the Closet, please call Susan Nemetz at 414-297-6817 or email Nemetzs@matc.edu.

Bridges to Practice workshop was outstanding

An outstanding workshop took place at the Four Points Milwaukee Sheraton Hotel, Friday, February 10, with many GMLC members and faculty from many area sites participating. The Bridges to Practice all-day regional training workshop was provided to assist faculty to work more effectively with students who have learning disabilities

The interactive workshop was presented by three Milwaukee-area instructors trained at the National Institute of Literacy. Many manipulatives were used at each instructor’s table. The emphasis was on looking for the positive strength of each learner. Our students all possess some unique individual strength and we need to identify these in students with learning difficulties.

It was pointed out that 15% of the general population has learning disabilities, and that possibly 50-80% of our Adult Basic Education (ABE) students may have them. Therefore, some Learning Needs Screening Tools were suggested.

We examined the various key elements in teaching basic-skills students. When the skill level is low and we need to teach reading, writing and math, various comprehension tools are needed. We were introduced to learning strategies, critical content, social skills and self-advocacy as key elements for success. The lack of any one of these key elements is prohibitive to educational success.

Using many graphic organizers, we practiced some of the techniques to enhance our students’ learning, paying attention to possibly 12 characteristics of LD-appropriate instruction.

I would encourage anyone to attend this workshop in the future or get the big notebook that goes with the Bridges to Practice Method. It was provided free for ABE instructors by the Wisconsin Technical College System.

-- Janet Nortrom, MATC ABE Instructor