La Plaza Central

No programs for me this week! Freed up my schedule to go to Crete for the afternoon and get some student footage for the documentary. I go back and forth between thinking we are on track with taping and then panicking that we won’t have enough footage from which to edit a spectacular final. Though I started going through tapes on Sunday and was reassured — temporarily, of course. Wrote a letter to parents of our little cohort, soliciting their involvement in interviews and asking those who have graduating seniors what the celebration plans are. Hopefully I’ll get in on the action and get some good lookin’ footage.

Apart from that, this week I have to key in on our second proposal for Latino Bike Tour. It’s happening! We’re looking at starting July 6th and partnering with County Health. Sheldon Museum has even offered to host a kick-off event.

Should be a good summer…

See? Told you I would write more often.

Tonight will be our second Monday preparing taxes as a VITA site for the IRS. Boy is it fun. Actually, last week went rather well compared to last  year. We have that year under our belts and have a more defined idea on how to manage the program. Just got the rest of my forms in the mail, so I’ll get to do my own taxes one day when I feel like it.

Also new: Hartley Elementary opened up their own Family Literacy Program just this afternoon and we are pleased to be a part of it. They have us down Fridays for clases de computación. Our three other classes are going well — today in the Migrant Family Literacy Program, I had students copying a Garcia Lorca poem, complete with instruction on how to enter accents and and upside-down exclamation points. Easier than you think (on a Mac!).

Info on Wine!Chocolate!Tango!…soon.

Thanks to the scads of volunteers, all gifts from Operation Santa Claus and Toys for Tots are wrapped! Based on an unscientific study conducted in my brain that looked at unofficial metrics on population, hours worked, numbers served, coffee imbibed, trainings endured, I conclude that El Centro’s community impact is on the rise. We have more help, more programs, and more collaboration than years past.

Come by our Fiesta de Navidad on Monday to see what it’s all about.

Also, photos of the fun:

Thanks again to those who helped!

We return to the office after 72 hours of office-free bliss. I spent the greater chunk of that time video editing and taking breaks from video editing. I return today to the task of writing a basic computer class curriculum for a new program at El Centro! Once again LPS is continuing their push for family literacy and contracted us for a new migrant family program to run from January through May. There will be an ELL component and a basic computer class, the former taught by SCC and the latter by yours truly.

Oh, and we gotta get ready for the Fiesta de Navidad!

I’ve been recently more bothered by the ‘learn English’ issue we have with  immigrants. The bothersome part is that many people stop after that single notion, that single command. If we unpack the notion we find positive arguments for assimilation and civic duty, a vehicle for accessing the American Dream…on the other hand we get things like this or even this. I’ll argue that the individuals in these two photos stopped after the single notion (if not before, given their spelling aptitude). The trouble manifest in not further exploring a notion is ostensibly that nothing will come of it. Is ‘learn English’ a viable notion? Of course, and it’s one I latch onto. But I’ll argue that instead of presenting some beguiling, paradoxical ‘learn English’ picket sign, we act on the notion.

Enter our agency, where we recently developed a free, weekly course called Hablemos Español which provides enrichment tools aimed at keeping Spanish skills shared between the generations of a Hispanic immigrant family. Pair that with programs like Family Literacy, ELL, and job search assistance, among others, and we’ve rounded the edges to a complete package for education, integration and assimilation, while still stressing the importance of hanging on to culture and heritage.

So if you see a man who you know or assume to know doesn’t speak English and feel  he should, don’t put a sign in his face (one he wouldn’t be able to read anyhow?) — send him our way, we will help him.

Today is my last day at El Centro.  I will be moving to Austin, Texas in the next few weeks and attending the University of Texas in the fall.  The goal is a masters in Latin American Studies, and maybe a PhD in the same or something similar if I like it.  I am extremely sad to leave this job, this organization, and the excellent staff here at El Centro.  No doubt there were trials and tribulations along the way, but I can honestly say this is the most fun I’ve ever had while working here in the States.  It was nothing if not rewarding, and that’s about all I ask from a job.  I will miss all of the people I worked with who have become my friends.  We’ll always have the memories.  Hasta la próxima.

There is an article on NPR’s website entitled ‘How Should We Teach English-Language Learners?‘ that presents a basic overview of the tough climate in which schools find themselves, specifically with the disparate camps between dual-language programs and the ‘sink or swim’ method that plunks students in English-only environments. They actually interviewed a Nebraskan educator, et al. I don’t claim to know the answer to what the title poses, though I am in favor of dual-language education…the problem with those is the second language is usually Spanish, which doesn’t satisfy the countless tongues our citizens speak. The only thing I can supply is a push for outside programming, e.g. nosotros at El Centro and our Family Literacy Pilot Project, in which we collaborated with Lincoln Public Schools and the Lincoln Literacy Council, a trinity of organizations whose combined foci of Education, Literacy and Español provided outreach for ten Lincoln families and their children. Thanks to all who contributed and we wish the best for future projects.

Enjoy the following photos:

Computacion Basica

bilingual literacy

Parent/children time

Nice vista on the ride home from work

Well, we’re coming down to the final week in our pilot project in coordination with Lincoln Public Schools.  Speaking for the computer classes, I must say they have been a success.  After three weeks of twice-weekly classes, the parents seem far more comfortable using the computers to create/edit/save documents, send email and search the internet.  I wish we had better photos then the ones I’ll post below, but I don’t know how to work cameras.  We’ll try to do a little better this week.  The initial photos are from the parents-only computer class, and the last set is from the final 30 minutes of instruction when the parents and children come together to share the computers while looking at educational and literacy websites.

Hoy is the first day of our family literacy pilot program in coordination with LPS.  Blog readers are probably familiar with our family literacy program with UNL at Everett Elementary School, but this is a little different.  Tonight’s class is part of a pilot project from LPS in coordination with all of the ethnic centers in town whereby 10 families, parents and children, at each cultural center will receive basic computer instruction and family literacy.  The idea is similar to our program at Everett, with the goals being increasing computer skills for the parents and family literacy activities for the students.  There is a wealth of research out there that alludes to these two components as essential for academic success.  So hopefully the pilot program goes well and LPS can find a grant to continue it throughout the school year.  We will certainly try to do our part.

I’m so sorry that it has taken me this long to mention something, but El Centro recently welcomed back one of it’s own, Diana Castillo, to the office.  Diana has recovered from her bout with leukemia, and is back at work as a domestic violence case manager for ElCentro.  Bienvenida, Diana, and we’re glad to have to back.

On another happy note, Staci Bell has offered to become El Centro’s volunteer coordinator.  Working in coordination with El Centro staff, she will be developing a volunteer database in order to better serve El Centro’s volunteer needs as well as provide potential volunteers with multiple opportunities that best serve their needs and interests.

It’s like our own little “Business Achievements” section from the Journal Star, but free and viewed by far fewer people.