Blog 3 - ESL pilot & funding

As I begin my third blog, I am finding this adventure to be extremely helpful for a couple reasons.  I am being more proactive looking at current events going on in multiple content areas. Also, I'm getting more practice with reading and writing.  I now enjoy finding some things interesting to me & building on top of them for others to enjoy.  Finally,  this gives me a good amount of time to reflect and analyze my personal roles in education, technology, and ESL content.

The first article I read was uplifting, inspiring, and really a positive outcome for a pilot program that allowed parents in a district to get appropriate L2 education.  In last week's blog I talked about a program that gave an educational opportunity to student's parents to learn English as their second language.  This program was successful, but they were going to be looking at how many of the graduates were going into the work force as a measurement of funding.  This funding would then be regulated based successes or failures into the work force. The conflict was that not all of the graduates of the program had the intent to continue on by obtaining a job.  Most were just looking to expand their English skills to communicate with the school, become involved further with the community, and some were even passed retirement ages and learning a new skill.

The pilot program helped 22 community members to receive training in ESL classes to better communicate with teachers, administrators, other parents, and their own students.  There was a community survey that collected results of 53 people interested if the services were offered.  22 of those respondents ended up taking the course, while other parts of the community offered refreshments, further experiences, and the school provided the educator.  The results were overall positive, and left a spark for many to continue onto GED programs, or more formal educational experiences.

Pilot Program

The above pilot program that was successful, positive, and exciting for everyone involved now runs into the funding questions.  This is always the next step for continuing to offer services, look to advance the learning opportunities, and move forward with any piloted program.  This is why I went out and found an article that was covering this huge question of 'How are we going to fund this project?'

My second article describes a march that took place to gather funds for teachers, schools, and education in general.  The government is going through budgeting and possible cuts to specific education programs.  I see this march as a positive thing that communities all over the world can participate in to show support for the educational community.  The importance of having educators trained, professional backgrounds implemented, and positive influences for the youth to look up to and learn from is HUGE.  I find that more communities should be reaching this level of support, and just found this article to be extremely helpful to that cause.

Funding March