Feb. 21st is International Mother Language Day

Today is International Mother Language Day and on this day we recognize language diversity and variety worldwide. Our students represent 85 different countries and speak more than 37 different languages! 

International Mother Language Day has been observed since February 2000 and promotes the preservation and protection of all languages used by people around the world. 

"In this age of new technologies, books remain precious instruments, easy to handle, sturdy and practical for sharing knowledge, mutual understanding and opening the world to all. Books are the pillars of knowledge societies and essential for promoting freedom of expression and education for all."

Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Message for International Mother Language Day 2013

To learn more about International Mother Language Day, check UNESCO's website at : 
http://www.un.org/en/events/motherlanguageday/

New Year's Resolutions

Every year on January 1 people all over the world make the decision to change something about their life. Have you ever wondered where the idea of New Year's Resolutions come from?

The tradition of the New Year's Resolutions goes all the way back to 153 B.C.

The ancient Babylonians made promises to their gods at the start of each year that they would return borrowed objects and pay their debts. In the Medieval era, knights took the "peacock vow" at the end of the Christmas season each year to re-affirm their commitment to chivalry.

We have continued the tradition of making resolutions at the start of the new year. According to the University of Scranton,  Journal of Clinical Psychology, approximately 45% of Americans make New Year's Resolutions and the most popular New Year's Resolutions are:

1. To Lose Weight
2. To Get Organized
3. Spend Less, Save More
4. Enjoy Life to the Fullest
5. Staying Fit and Healthy
6. Learn Something Exciting
7. Quit Smoking
8. Help Others in Their Dreams
9. Fall in Love
10. Spend More Time with Family

At the Adult Literacy League many of our students have made similar resolutions to improve their lives. Whether it is the decision to learn to read, to earn a GED, to improve English skills or to help the young people in their lives learn to love literacy, our students and volunteers are making big changes throughout the year!

Guest Blog: International Human Rights Day

Lauren Dziechciarz
Former AmeriCorps Vista, Adult Literacy League

On this day, December 10^th, 1948, at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the United Nations. Eleanor Roosevelt was the chair of the committee that drafted and approved the declaration.  After being added to for the last time in 1976, this document was given the force of International Law--one of the most highly disputed, highly contested, and ambiguous types of law that is currently studied. The UDHR came to be after the atrocities of WWII, and grants a specific set of rights to which all human beings are entitled to by virtue of  being human. Hence, the term “Human Rights.” 

Every state (as in country) has signed it, however, there is no absolute way of punishing those who withhold human rights to individuals in their state. Due to this, scholars debate on whether the UDHR has any power.

To which it can be said, that when the Declaration of Independence was written, it was a document of shared beliefs, written to profess, with conviction, that the people of the Americas would no longer tolerate the rule of a monarchy, or taxation without representation. It has become one of the most important documents in American history, not only for what it symbolizes, but what the belief in it helped accomplish.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights may be considered a lawless document with no powerful way of exacting justice on those leaders that violate it, but it is not worthless to those who believe in the power that it could have one day. 

That day will be when a human being in any country is allowed, by his or her leaders, the freedom of speech, the freedom to practice their own religion (without harming others), the freedom to elect their own leader, and the freedom to learn. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), some 775 million adults around the world lack minimum literacy skills; one in five adults is still not literate and two-thirds of them are women. Approximately 60.7 million children are out of school and many more attend irregularly or drop out.

At the very core of human rights is opportunity. The work that the Adult Literacy League does  by providing programs and services to individuals with the lowest literacy skills is vital to our community because all people deserve the opportunity to provide for themselves and their families. They also deserve the opportunity to be productive citizens of the world. Education is the key to this and being able to read and communicate opens the doors to greater opportunities for all who learn. 

Fun ways to raise funds for literacy

Recently, a group of Orlando women got together for their annual Girls Night In slumber party wittingly called "Girlfest." The group met over a girlfriend's house overlooking a beautiful lake and spend the weekend together watching movies while sipping on delicious cocktails and nibbling on savory hor' devours. This year, organizers asked attendees to bring a monetary gift to support the students and families at the Adult Literacy League. They created a cute box (pictured above) and tied it with a black bow to resemble the ALL colors. The women raised $200.00 for the ALL's literacy programs and services. On its own, this $200 gift will provide all the curriculum and workbooks for 2 adult learners paired with a volunteer tutor for an entire year! 

With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, you may not have time to think of ways to help our students and families improve their literacy skills. A simple idea would be to ask your guests at your next holiday party to consider making a gift to the Adult Literacy League by sponsoring an adult learner or preschool child in our  Read to Me! Book Club. 

For example, $500 supports the cost for one NEW student and tutor pair for a full year. For $500 (or $42 a month), you can provide a preschool child from a low-income home with 36 weeks of literacy kits that include age-appropriate children's books, learning materials and supplies such as glue, scissors and crayons, for the parent and child to use together at home (http://www.adultliteracyleague.org/donate/sponsor.html).

You may also consider your friends and guests to purchase an item on our Wish List (http://www.adultliteracyleague.org/donate/wishlist.html). We currently need dry erase markers, flip chart markers, flip chart pads and copy paper to help our instructors teach the 1,000 adult learners who attend our classes each week throughout Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties.

Some other fun activities include:

Garage Sale: Ask all of your friends and neighbors to participate by donating items for sale. Make signs that indicate all proceeds are going to the Adult Literacy League. Ask your local paper to run an ad as their contribution. Add a bake sale and/or lemonade stand, and have a straight donation jar visibly displayed. 

Super Change Jar: Ask all of your friends and family to put aside their spare change to be added to the super change jar. Every month or so, empty it out and let everyone know how much "a little at a time" adds up! This is a great idea to put into action at work, too. Decorate the jar with inspirational quotes on literacy. 

Theme Dinner: Hold a theme dinner party for at least 10 of your friends; $50 donation per a person.Spend just $20 per person on food and you've raised $300 in donations. Better yet, have all of the food donated!

Game Night: Host a game night; Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, Poker, Bridge, Bingo. Serve donated food and drinks. Ask for a suggested donation at the door.

Dress Down Friday: Ask your boss if you can host a "Dress Down Friday." Employees buy a

button and get to dress down on an assigned day.

Lawyers for Literacy Spelling Bee S-U-C-C-E-S-S!

3rd annual Lawyers for Literacy Spelling Bee raises funds, awareness for literacy in Central Florida

Local attorneys cheered on as 11 teams competed to become the 2012 Spelling Bee Champion of the Year. The spirited competition ended in a draw with Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed and GrayRobinson as spelling bee champs. But the true victors of the event are the students and families enrolled in literacy programs at the Adult Literacy League. 

Special thanks to the Young Lawyers Section of the Orange County Bar Association for planning the 3rd Annual Lawyers for Literacy Spelling Bee on October 18th at the Sheraton Orlando Downtown Hotel. This event raised just over $21,000 for our literacy services and a total of $57,000 since it began in 2010. The Planning Committee was led by dynamic trio Daryl Gottlieb, Melinda Wimbish and Davis Lewis and included Jennifer White, Kayla Mudge, Steven Kahana, Kelley Lester, Amanda Diane Perry and Matt Ferry.

Mayanne Downs, past president of The Florida Bar, kept the 200 attendees chuckling as the evening’s emcee adding humor and cheer to the competition. Guest judges Jim Payne, news anchor of WESH TV and Thaddeus Seymour, president emeritus of Rollins College, kept spellers on track while radio personality Erica Lee assumed a new role as beekeeper, ensuring a fun, yet fair competition for the evening. ALL Board Vice President Brendan Lynch welcomed guests while student Solangel Mederos spoke on how the ALL helped her earn her GED. Planning Chair Daryl Gottlieb encouraged attendees to help the ALL “do justice” by donating their time and resources to improving literacy.

ALL would also like to thank our sponsors including the inaugural Golden Bee sponsor Killgore Pearlman Stamp Ornstein & Squires. Special thanks to our incredible Host Committee, chaired by Alana Brenner from the City of Orlando. She was joined by Joe Amos, Grey Squires-Binford, Ryan Davis, Amy Iennaco, Jim Lussier, Woody Rodriguez and Thomas Yaegers.

For a list of this year’s sponsors, visit www.adultliteracyleague.org/spellingbee/sponsors.html 

To view photos of the event, visit https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151099686209007.430532.182695979006&type=1&l=8cdc1d5579

Giving Thanks

 Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to incorporate a bit of US history in to an ESOL classroom! As the only holiday specific to the United States, sharing a meal on the fourth Thursday in November is an American custom that many immigrants to our country are excited to take part in. The rich history surrounding the holiday and its family-oriented traditions are often very unfamiliar to recent migrants to the US. Because of this, Thanksgiving lesson plans are a definite must-use for English teachers!

There are a number of Thanksgiving-related classroom ideas all over the internet, but a specific ESOL lesson plan from eslholidaylessons.com has proven successful for a number of our teachers.

The lesson includes a passage for reading, a section on vocabulary and spelling, some fill-in-the-blanks for listening, a portion on comprehension, and ends with an interview to be used to facilitate speaking.

The entire lesson takes anywhere from 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours, and can be done in groups or as an entire class. Best of all, when the lesson is complete students will have a greater understanding of why and how Americans celebrate Thanksgiving every year!

The entire lesson plan can be found here: http://www.eslholidaylessons.com/11/thanksgiving.html

We hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and knows just how thankful we are for our students, volunteers and staff! Gobble Gobble!

What We’re Reading at the ALL: The Colors of Us by Karen Katz

In one of our July posts, the Adult Literacy League recommended a book called The Colors of Us by Karen Katz, and some of us loved it so much, we wanted to describe it a little more.

The children’s book is about a girl named Lena, whose mother, an artist, describes the colors of her family, friends, and neighbors’ skin with the happiest and most heartwarming adjectives. Her friend Isabella “is chocolate brown, like the cupcakes we had for her birthday.” Her friend Jo-Jin “is the color of honey,” and Aunt Kathy is “tan like coconuts and coffee toffee.”

Throughout the book they discuss mixing colors to get the right skin tones. Little Lena is depicted sprawled on the floor with large pieces of paper and jars of paint, happily discussing the beautiful colors of those closest to her. Her finished works are hung up proudly on the last page, displaying a gallery and celebration of multiculturalism.

The book raises the issue of diversity in a fundamental, positive way, and it helps children (and parents) know what understanding diversity is truly about. It is about instilling positive feelings towards people who have different, or perhaps the same skin color as ourselves, and who we interact with every day. It is about individuality. It is about artistic expression. It is, quite simply, an extraordinary book. With a purpose, and a principle, “The Colors of Us,” people who look different, and are different, and why we love them for it.