Education Forum; Technology in Education and ESL

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to UNCTV's adult learning forum. I'm Ron Plummer and today we'll be looking at two important issues facing post -secondary education in our state. The first one involves the training of teachers and the use of technology for instruction. While the second issue highlights the challenges that are found in providing instruction to adult students whose original language might be something other than English. How do new circumstances create new challenges in both these areas? And what partnerships can be developed to find solutions to those challenges? Let's join Dr. Ann Barefield of Winston -Salem State University and her Guest to examine the first issue of teaching and technology training. Dr. Barefield. Thank you, Ron. We're glad to be here this evening to share with you our excitement about the technology tools that are available to teachers

today. And also to share what we are doing to make them more available to our teachers in our schools. We are a team of educators from a university and two high schools who are doing everything we can to provide technology education for our faculties so that our teachers can integrate these or use these tools in their courses. I am Ann Barefield, the chairperson for the Department of Education at Winston -Salem State University and my colleagues are. Marvett Aldridge. I'm a media coordinator at Reynolds High School in Winston -Salem and I also teach the computers in education class at Winston -Salem State as well as a class in the art department introduction to desktop publishing. My name is Rhonda Lester. I am the Curriculum Materials Center Coordinator at Winston -Salem State University and I also teach basic computer skills. I am Dr. Cecilia Jabba Kumar and I am the Learning Lab Coordinator. I also

teach a course in the psychological foundations of education at Winston -Salem State University. And I'm Carol Grandy. I teach math at Parkland High School in Winston -Salem. I also serve as the math department chair there and a member of the technology team. We attended the Ernest L. Boyer summit for technology on the Peabody College campus at the University of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee in September and we learned a great deal from that experience. There were 11 states represented at that particular conference, over 200 participants and 35 of those participants were from North Carolina. There will be three other conferences. One of them, the other one says already occurred and the one in Los Angeles is beginning today. And so this is very appropriate that we should be

talking with you about what we are doing. The funding that we have received for our work that we are doing in our schools came from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and they were the one of the sponsors for the summit. The other sponsor for the summit was the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. We are excited about what we are doing. We want to share with you the plans and that we have for the future and what we are doing now. And I am going to start out by telling you what one of my thoughts is about technology. I believe that technology opens new worlds for us and I believe all of us think that is true. We believe it is a new frontier and that the Internet particularly is opening new information to all of us. I can have a question and I can go to my computer at home or in my office and I can go

quickly to another country. I can look up that topic and get it very quickly. I am going to ask these other folks to share with you why how they use technology and why they think it is important to education. Cecilia, will you begin? Let me start off. I come from India and it was a very long time before I got started on technology as such. I was in graduate school when I realized I did not have the skills to do research work and I primarily got into entry -level jobs to learn my way up as far as using the catalog, computers and other research tools. And that gave me a head start and it came to reach the point where I could assist other patrons in the library. I felt really good about getting that skill and using it in my teaching as well. And in answer to your second question, I think students have, student teachers require these skills today. They cannot

just go out into the field and stumble along. And we need, we are in a position to offer those skills and it starts by our becoming skilled in the first place in order to continue that effort. Thank you. I became interested in technology after attending a summer workshop at the School of Science and Math about 10 years ago and began to look for ways to incorporate into my lessons in the classroom. Since then, I've also had an opportunity to participate in an interdisciplinary team at my school sponsored by IBM that allowed us to investigate new resources in the technology world and new ways of pulling our subject areas together through the use of technology. I believe that technology is important because it helps me provide some variety for the lessons in my classroom and provide some discovery experiences that wouldn't be possible without the assistance of the computers. Run? I got involved in using computers in college. I took a course on how to access online

databases. And from this course, I became very interested in using computers so I continued taking more computer classes and taking attending workshops. I feel that computers are important because our teachers today need to be able to train students on how to use computers so that our students will be able to compete in a well, be able to compete in the future job market. I became involved with technology. My degree is in educational media, so I became involved in college. And as a media coordinator, I see how technology is being used. I see them coming into the classroom no longer just asking for books. I see them asking, will give me the CD on authors because I have to do a report on authors and I don't have enough information with just books. But I also see it as well in the class that I teach at once in some state because I'm teaching a technology class to future teachers. So I'm able to

take my experience from the high school and tell them you're going to need this. And I also see when they're doing their internship, then they're going to the schools, they're being used. They're learning at such an early level in elementary school. I see how important it is at that early stage. So the teachers have to be prepared. They're going to meet it when they get into the classroom. As you can see, all of these teachers believe that technology is very, very important. Carol, why do you think that technology training is important for all teachers and just not just the technology specialist? And what are you doing at your school? What's happening at Parkland High School? Many of our teachers did not grow up with computers or even calculators in their homes and in their classroom. So it's important to provide training so that they can become comfortable with the technology so that they will be able to use it in their classrooms or they'll feel comfortable bringing their students to the computer lab to work with a piece of software.

What we've been able to do at Parkland through the generosity of this grant was to establish a workshop where approximately 25 of our teachers from 10 different curriculum areas within our school have learned some basics about hyperstudio, presentation software, Microsoft works, word processing, database, and spreadsheet software. They've learned how to use the Internet and how to look for information on the Internet. They've learned how to use CDROMs to find information and to provide additional experiences for their students. And they've had a wonderful chance to work together to learn this information, to share ideas about how it would be useful in their classrooms, and to create products that they can take back and use with their students and increase their comfort level with these items. Hi, Cecilia and Ronda, what's happening at Winston -Salem State? And why do you think it's important for all professors to be trained in the use

of technology? Well, we've had a great response from our faculty members at Winston -Salem State University. We have offered workshops on how to use hyperstudio, how to use the Internet, how to use word processing, databases, spreadsheets. Spreadsheets. Spreadsheets. Another multimedia tools as well. And our focus has been to implement this learning into our teacher education so that the students can directly apply what the faculty have learned into their lessons, their classes. And another requirement is that the state of North Carolina has headed toward integrating technology into the curriculum. And I think we've taken a lead direction in propagating it in adopting such a step, a measure right here in Winston -Salem State University. Okay, workshops have been really ongoing at Reynolds from the beginning

of this year. I think the state is requiring three units of technology in continuing education. So we have been involved with several workshops all along in a happy studio on how to use the lab, in our classrooms, how to bring the students to the lab, and also teacher -sponsored workshops where they learn how they can best utilize computers for their own use with their classes. As you can see, these schools are taking the technology training very seriously, and we all truly believe that it needs to be integrated into all classes. How are your faculty and teachers responding to the workshops? The response at Reynolds has been very good. As I said, they were already involved in several of the workshops. The last group that I did with the money that we got from

the Ernest Boyard Technology Summit were involved with doing desktop publishing. So we did PowerPoint using the Internet, HyperStudio, and they've been really very interested. They've been excited, they have fun in the class, and they can import that to their students as well. I think they can get their students hooked on using it as well. So they are actually going back to the classrooms and using the skills that they are gaining in these workshops? Using them with their students. So if you can do a paper on India, or you can do a HyperStudio project on India, it's the same knowledge. You can use the same information, and you can have a different source. But you can bring in other perspectives also from a wide range. The canopy is kind of huge, and the direction that you take is up to you. You'll be the author to decide that. We have the ESL program housed

at Reynolds, and it's exciting to see the students come in from the different countries, get on the Internet, go into that country, read their newspaper in their language. That's really exciting to see, and they get kind of hooked. So the space is kind of booked. In fact, I've put in bookmarks on newspapers from India and around the world, and you can just go in and look up major pieces of information, and use that. You have the information in the here and now, not as opposed to a week or a month later. One of the exciting things that I've had in my class is because I teach a class on curriculum integration. And we have used the World Wide Web Internet, a great deal. And many of my students, after participating in that class, have bought their own computers, so they can do this all the time. And they are just about ready to do student teaching, and when they get in the student teaching, they continue to use the information in their classrooms in a variety of ways. Carol? Well, I've found that our faculty has really enjoyed the clearly reality of

working together during these workshops and sharing ideas and supporting each other as they try to learn how to use pieces of equipment they are not familiar with. They tell me that the time passed very quickly in our afternoon workshops, and it's given them an awareness of the possibilities they're starting to dream about what they could do in the class, or will be doing in their classroom soon, and starting to come up with new and creative ideas for their classroom. So it's causing them to dream and to think about things in a different way, and that's nice that we have some change. Any other things that are happening? I was just going to also say that the teachers, the faculty members that have been coming to our workshops, especially the internet workshop, they were able to pull up lesson plans and went back to the classes to tell the students what's on the internet, and these are lesson plans that you can get in use in the schools when you get out there and start teaching. So it's an abundance of information on the internet. And in my class, that's what we've been doing. That was their assignment. They were to pull lesson

plans from the internet, and they got really excited about doing that. No longer on your own? You have a great deal of help, right, at your fingertips. And both nationally and worldwide. Exactly. One of our lessons was, integrated lessons was on the sinking of the Titanic, and we found a child, a 13 -year -old young man in Australia, who had written a great deal on the internet about the sinking of the Titanic. And of course, the middle schoolers had a marvelous time reading what he had written and using that information. One of the activities that we had as a result of this funding was a vendor's fair. Tell us a little bit about that vendor's fair, and what were the results? The vendor's fair, we had about 15 vendors to come, and parents, teachers, faculty members, also students at what's the same state were able to see educational technology on display. Students were able to ask vendors about the technology.

Vinders were able to tell students how the technology could be used in the classroom. A lot of parents came and wanted to know what's the best educational software to buy for the home and what would be the best computer to buy for the home also. I think, you know, they got a lot of information from the vendor's fair, and it was a plus for the university. What are some of the other experiences? I appreciate the fact that there were several local companies at our vendor's fair that I wasn't even aware of. I didn't know that they had offices and stores right in our own community. So I found some new local sources instead of having to send off to other states and regions for products that I couldn't preview. I also found that there are professionals in education out in the business world who are making this possible, and the students and faculty had a chance to meet with them, and that broadens and opens up new avenues for easier collaboration in the future. And when those facilities are available locally, it makes it less of a hassle

finding health. Exactly. Any other comments about the vendor's fair? One of the things that I really want to know from you has to do with the fact that there are some major outcomes that are occurring from this training with the faculty and with the students. What do you think the major outcomes are for your particular school? Carol, could you start out? Well, the funding that we're receiving because of this project will allow us to buy some updated programs for the computers. Our school system generously provided new computers for our lab this year but no new programs for them. So many of the products that we've taught our teachers about will become available for their use because of the grant. Many of the teachers expressed an interest in continuing to take workshops or continuing to practice on their own or in small groups with the program so that it's spard and interest. It sparked that little flame to where I believe they will go

on to learn more about technology. They will become more comfortable with it and increase their use of technology in the classroom. We at Winston -Salem State have received a grant of 46 ,000 from General Administration. What this allows us to do is to upgrade our technology in the labs, software, hardware and what have you plus programs that students can use for their lesson plans and so forth. And one of our plans this June is to get experts in technology over at our faculty retreat and what they will provide is technology assistance to faculty directly so that in the near future, in life the fall we will have new initiatives that will follow this effort. Very good. At Reynolds, we've just received enough money for, I think we had 30 computers that were purchased by the school system but we have a very active PTA, thank goodness we do. And so we have just signed a, we were going to be able to

order enough computers so each classroom will have a computer. The technology summit showed me what global learning is really all about when you're able to have a classroom that is completely worldwide. And the things that I saw there, I can see coming to our schools at least I'm able to have a focus, a dream that you can see what can happen if you have the availability, if you have the technology, if you have the software. So that's what the summit really did for me. Any other comments about that? I guess as we come to the end of our conversation, I would like to know some personal things from you about how the technology training and attending the summit and all of these things that we are doing to try to ensure that technology is available to our students has affected you and what you do. Are they?

I use technology constantly because as a media coordinator I have to use the students that are coming in asking for information, they go to the internet, they ask for the CD on science or they ask for the CD on history or instead of asking where are the books on? They now ask for the CD and then I leave Reynolds High School and I go to Winston -Salem State and I'm having student teachers ask some of the same things, you know, what, how can I use this? We incorporate the internet and the class, they're taught how to seek information, how to teach their students, how to use the computer. They're doing the hyper studio program and you teach everything on the basis of this teacher is going to teach someone else how to do it. I make a conscious effort on my part to include

technology into my lesson plans and into the work the students do in their classrooms and we find a kind of a sharing going on where they bring in their ideas and we're brainstorming on what to do next and how this can go. We're not only fulfilling requirements but we're also going in a direction that I think the whole world needs to go and we need to start with each one of us in our classrooms and in our line of work. I think the summit itself allowed me to view and preview some software items I wasn't familiar with before. The scheduling the workshops allowed me to work very closely with my curriculum coordinator and technology specialist who do a great job of supporting our teachers in training in an ongoing basis. I'm really happy that so many teachers are now coming to me and asking questions about technology and wanting to use the technology computer lab and have assistance. I have to share a funny story. One day in class

one of my students stopped me and he said, Dr. Barefield may I ask you a question and I said certainly and he said any question and I said of course and he said, Dr. Barefield, do you ever do anything besides technology? Do you ever bake cakes or anything else? And so I'm afraid my image is not one of a cake baker. As we finalize, are there any things that any of you would like to say that we have not touched on during this conversation? I want to quickly bring your focus to the culminating event activity or a celebration that's part of the three schools, Winston -Salem State University, Parkland High and Reynolds High. The three school faculty will come together and share what they've learned this past semester and share their ideas with other schools, other school faculty and

college faculty. And therefore, this will occur on the 8th of May at 4 to 6 p .m. All right. I think the last thing I'm sure we all want to do is to thank the Corporation for public broadcasting for the funding and to also thank the University of North Carolina Public Television for their support of what we are trying to do and run plumber because he is in our building at Winston -Salem State. And we sincerely appreciate what he has done for us. I would like now to turn it back to Ron Plummer. We are delighted to have been with you this evening. We hope that we have whetted your appetite for technology. Thank you, Dr. Barefield and our panel. We can see that the human element is still an important ingredient for success. When it is matched with technology and supported by partners working together, our next issue deals with the human side of communicating as well. What if you were in a grocery store and all the

signs and labels all at once changed to a language you did not know? How would you cope? What would you do? Many adult learners who come from a different culture and language have asked themselves the same question. In our next issue, we explore the challenges of providing instruction to people whose original language may be something other than English. Let's join Dr. Florence Taylor of the North Carolina Community College System and her guests. Thank you, Ron. English as a second language is one of the fastest growing programs in the North Carolina Community College System. In order for us to examine this phenomenon, I'd like to introduce you to our guest, Eugene Carter, Nancy Maines, Pete Matusa Vets, Leverun Barian, and Parks Todd. First, let's talk about the numbers of adults who come to our programs. Last

year, for example, the Community College System served over 18 ,000 adults in ESL. I'd like to ask a panelist at this time to talk about how many adults were enrolled at their colleges. Eugene? We had at Fayetteville Technical Community College and English second language program last year. We enrolled 979 students. At Wake Tech and Raleigh, we have over 2 ,500 who have come through our doors in the past year. At Allen Man's Community College, we have 350. In our citizenship program, which is just a year old, we've served over 300. That's most impressed. Eugene, I know in talking with you before about ESL, you have some really very definite good ideas about the structure of the program and the basic concept behind the ESL program in North Carolina. Could you talk about that a little bit? Yes, Dr. Taylor. The

ESL program, the concepts that we use at Fayetteville Tech is primarily directed toward the adults that are non -native English speakers. Here with that concept, we're able to be able to provide for them English based or English based competency instructions so that they may be able to improve their skills in areas of reading, in areas of writing, in areas of just basic life skills, being able to cope and all of the instructions just tell it to those individuals in their unique situations. That's good. And Pete, in talking with you on numerous occasions, I know you two have some real good comments about this and from your perspective, what I'd like to know is what kinds of different types of programs do you see in ESL? Well, they vary very much, Florence, according to the population that you're serving. For example, in Alamance County, we have a lot of people working in the labor -intensive manufacturing industries. And the needs of those

individuals are considerably different, for example, to the individuals served at Durham Technical Community College. We are a skills -based program, as Eugene has already mentioned, but 75 % of what we do is in the workplace. So our program is geared very much towards helping individuals survive at work on a daily basis. Whereas at, and I should also add that our programs are open entry, open exit, because of the demands of working and running a family, those kinds of issues. Whereas at Durham Technical Community College, and also at Central Piedmont, they are able to run courses on a quarterly basis. So you'd know if you don't sign up on a given date, you've got to wait this point 12 weeks for the next class to open. And those classes are not necessarily geared towards the demands of working. They might be skills -based, but they might also be more general conversation. And you might find a lot of individuals there who are here with

family members working in research triangle part. And Park, and it's almost in one sense a hobby for them to improve their English. They don't necessarily need it to the same extent. Levin, what can you tell us about the Citizenship Program that you run down at Fable Tech? How is it different from ESL that we've been talking about? Florence, actually, the Citizenship Program is a springboard or an offspring of the English as a second language program. The Citizenship Program has its main focus, preparing persons to become naturalized citizens. We offer classes to those persons who will be legal residents, legal permanent residents within the year. We offer them instruction in US history and government so that they can take the Citizenship Test in English.

Then they are scheduled to go to INS and Charlotte to do their interview. An advantage of offering the Citizenship Program is that it relieves the anxiety that a person would ordinarily feel if they were to go to INS to be tested by an INS officer. You get more of a relaxed atmosphere or more of an assurance when they are at home with people or with others with the same basic purpose in mind. Nancy, can you talk to us a little bit about the predominant language groups that are represented at Wake Tech? I'd say Florence, the largest groups are the Spanish speaking students and the Asian students that would be Korea, Taiwan, China, Japan, Vietnam. Usually in our daytime classes it would be the Asian students who

are there the most and in the evening it would be the Spanish speaking students. Although we also have students from Europe, from countries in Africa and from the Middle East as well. Just if you would elaborate a little bit further about because you have students from so many different cultures and countries, how does that impact the instructional process? Of course our teachers are very talented and skilled. They use a variety. To be in ESL you have to be flexible. That's one of the first qualifications as we all know. Very resourceful and they use a variety of materials and techniques to reach all different levels of students. Of course this is adult education so we have 18 -19 year olds and we have people in their 60s. We might have in the same class someone with zero to three years of schooling in their home country and someone with a PhD from their country. So it's always challenging and the teachers do a very good job.

Le Verne, down at Fatal Tech do you basically have the same language groups that Nancy referred to or do you have other cultures too? We have many cultures that Fatal Tech as a matter of fact we served over 25 different nationalities over the past year. With Fatal Tech being in the center of Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base we have people from all over the world that we work with. And what about it, Alamance? At Alamance Community College it's very much the same predominantly Spanish -speaking people but with actually a growing group of individuals from southeast Asian countries. And the other interesting thing I would like to throw in there is that in terms of teaching the most important thing that I think the teacher can do is to do nothing but

speak English in the classroom. And one of the major concepts of a successful ESL program is that it relies on what we call total immersion whereby there's nothing but English spoken in the classroom. I know I've had people ask me when I say I teach ESL I say well how many languages do you speak? Thinking that we speak all of the languages of all of our students but of course no. That's a natural misconception. I think it must be really scary. We're imposing a pretty heavy burden on those students to total immersion I would say. In one sense that's correct odd but on the other hand if you don't do that you're going to favour one group of another and people can end up feeling isolated very very quickly. Imagine one individual that speaks Chinese with 10 Spanish -speaking people if all they hear is Spanish and English it really isn't fair at all so that's the major issue. And the other thing of course is that research proves without a doubt that with a

combination of total immersion and a skills -based program which means that the areas of study are relevant to your daily needs that adults learn fastest in those conditions and remember more under those circumstances. Parks we're talking about lots of different people coming to our classes and you work in the area of telecommunications and we're happy to have you here because we'd like to hear what your perspective is on how telecommunications can be a viable instructional strategy in ESL. Well being the only non -educator formally at least not formally trained as an educator. I really think the challenge is to start using these technologies in basic skills and in ESL and other things. We really haven't done that. I think we've addressed these technologies to the most competent students and haven't really used it for people who probably need the most help. And after preaching that sermon I will go on and say I think first

of all the first major impact may be on faculty. I think the North Carolina information highway for example could create a virtual support group of ESL faculty. You must sometimes feel very lonely out there and especially at a small school that maybe has only one ESL faculty. So I think the first and greatest impact we may see on faculty as opposed to students. And again I would put forward the idea of a virtual support group where people can share ideas, practical ideas as well as moral support for what they're doing. Another use I think of the information highway could be we've talked a lot about statewide town meetings but we've not yet done it. I believe that a lot of state local elected officials do not yet realize what a multinational multinational racial multiethnic state North Carolina is becoming. So I'm not sure that the people who are in political issue and therefore appropriate the money

to support this group really this program really know how important it is. And I suppose the other obvious thing if you have a tremendously gifted teacher and you do have instructors, teachers, professors some of whom excel on their feet in the classroom and some of whom excel in sort of tutoring one on one. You obviously could share the talent of those gifted teachers in many geographic areas. That's very a very good statement that you may because one of my observations with English as a second language is that many times the instructor is very grateful to have a volunteer because it's like your tap dancing your everywhere it seems. And while it's good to have someone to work with one group while you're working with another group and also have students that can do a little bit of peer to very good idea. And I think also an important issue with

technology in the classroom in any classroom but especially in ESL is the issue of technology in the workplace more and more technology is being used to control production processes and individuals working on the production line. Even at the lowest levels need to be familiar with technology and be able to use it. People know me would be disappointed if I didn't tell at least one story and to illustrate what you're saying when I was a youngster in what was then a rural part of the Mecklenburg County of Farm Boy. I used to hear people say that a certain person who was really not very good in school or was not serious about how to rough row to hoe or a rough road to ride. That implied that if you if you hold slowly enough you could chop the grass out of the corn without tearing up the corn. Or if you drove slowly enough and dodged the potholes you could get to your destination if you just were careful and drove slowly enough. But now I think a better analogy let's say the the

requirements for a job are a is a 12 foot fence and certain people only have a six foot ladder. No matter how slowly they go and how much they try they're never going to get over a 12 foot fence with a six foot ladder. And so the challenge really is to give them the skills that they can make a decent living on. Absolutely. I agree entirely. The internationals are really limited in their educational well in their in their job their employment opportunities by their level of English by their education. I mean there are people who come here who are doctors lawyers in their countries who are working at fast food restaurants or just doing what they have to do to make the first steps to make a life for themselves and their families here. Even the textile industry which we have thought of mistakenly I think probably as a somewhat low tech industry has now come it becoming computerized and roboticized. And so even at those places where people with limited skills used to be able to find employment that that day is over.

I know that you have many interesting stories about the adults that come to your classes your citizenship classes. And I was down there on a Saturday when you were giving the citizenship test and I remember meeting two German ladies and they were just so very charming and delightful. And they were telling me how they had come to come to your classes by slipping out of the house not telling their husbands where they were going because they wanted to be able to surprise them up on passing the test. And sure enough that very day they passed the test they were all excited about going home and it was such a rewarding experience for me personally to be there and see that. And I know you have some other stories would you share a couple with us? Yes sure. What you described is very typical of the ESL student. I can recall the incidence of a student who

was driving what she needed to go to school and she did not have a driver's license. Her husband was away TDI. There were two cars parked at home. Both cars had gas in them so it was time to go to class. Her ride did not arrive so she decided that she was going to get in the car and drive to school. The teacher said we're glad to have you today. Who brought you to school? She said I drove myself. Oh I didn't know that you had a driver's license. License? I don't have a license. This is the way that the student is, the ESL student is. They are need driven. They're immediate need. This is what they think of as serving taken care of as they are immediate need. And I mean there are lots of other stories as well. The classic I love is to see a gentleman come to class with his eyes looking like marbles because the following evening he was at a parent teachers meeting at the

school and was actually able to talk to the teacher and the principal about the child's progress and the requirements of assistance at home to help the child study and stuff like that. But I think the broader issue that is important for everybody to understand is that education provides health for the country, it provides good social health, it provides good psychological health and it provides good economic health. Which at the end of the day reduces the cost to the taxpayer and the government. It's as simple as that. I mean somebody that can go to the hospital and acquire preventative care as opposed to crisis care because they can speak English is obviously saving themselves in the country as well. Eugene, we were talking about ESL and referring to the workplace and important it is for us to provide services there. Are there any other special groups that you could talk about that

really need ESL services? Of course as Laverne said early on that in Fayetteville we have a very very mixed population and there are many areas and segments of the population that we are servicing. Some of the programs we are offering for instance is that the migrant from workers. Common County is just by virtue of our location geographically. There are a lot of farms that are going around for instance, pig farms, a pork. That's a pretty big thing in Common County. We have many migrant workers that are working there. We also at those locations we provide instructions. We have an instructor in most cases that will go either to the place in which the migrant workers are working. The migrant workers may come to a very nearby facility which we are provided in some cases which are elementary schools in the community and there they are able to come to the facility in which the children are being serviced during the day. Other areas are in industry.

In Common County there are several industry of course. The ones that we would like to mention here this afternoon is at PureLater. We have an English second language class there and of course with our population being predominantly Hispanic and Asian there is a large population of those individuals that is at PureLater and we are providing English second language classes there. And of course the classes there of course is tailored to the needs of those students and the things that we are doing there are job related. Other areas that we have classes that are in Common County, we have industry and also there is one other area which is the area of family literacy. Family literacy is where we are able to take care of the parent, the child. Now this is in the case of the individuals that have probably come here that are military dependents. We have a partnership that we have formed with Common County School Head

Start and several other child care providers where we can conduct English second language. That is where the parent in the child is receiving education in the same facility, education facility, but the parent learning English. And of course last but not least is the area of citizenship which the learners have already addressed here this evening. We have mentioned in the citizenship and the migrants Florence nothing warms my heart more on a Saturday morning more than to see former migrant workers or who were students in the ESL classes that have been away around the world working and they come back they remember us and they come in and take the citizenship test and pass it without taking the class. So that is really a proud feeling for me. Contrary to some stereotypes this is a question a lot of these people come here with a very strong work ethic already don't they? I wanted

to mention at Wake Tech we are piloting a grant that we got through the Triangle Community Foundation for parents who have children in the Wake County Public Schools to give them some skills and some information so that they will be able to give them some information. Talk to their child's teacher to understand the memos that are sent home and be able to interact and give them the confidence that they need because a lot of them the women especially the husbands will do all the talk to the teachers and they don't go but it's important for them for the mothers and mothers to know how to do that. And a part of that also is certainly in Alamance County for myself I know I spend a lot of time trying to work with the public schools as closely as we can to ensure that the parents of non -English speaking children understand what's going on and that where classes are available and when and all those kinds of good things. Many of our colleges celebrate international days for the ESL students could you talk a little bit any of you talk a little bit about what it is that you do when you have these international days on your campuses?

Wake Tech has a wonderful international day I believe it's in the fall and the students set up booths from their countries they serve food they have music they have crafts and you can go and sample you can get a little passport and they'll have a stamp and you can go around and get your passport stamped at all the different countries dancing and singing if their costumes or traditional costumes. And it's so much of a sense of pride for them to be able to share that with everybody. And I think also it's an eye opener for Native Americans to realize that so many different people are living in the community as parts were saying earlier about North Carolina being a really diverse state these days absolutely the case. The one we had recently at Alamance Community College was just as exciting with so many different things going on it's great to see it I love it. We'd like to encourage any of our viewers to call their local community colleges to find out more about ESL programs where our folks out there are always willing to share

and and would love to talk with you so please feel free to call your local community college. Florence let me ask if this is typical I think you may know who I'm talking about at one of our community colleges in the mountain one of your ESL teachers I know has really done more than teach in the classroom. I know she has helped a couple Spanish speaking people get loans to open a restaurant soon but this is not a typical of that this happens a good bit of the time. Parks you know that our folks in ESL will go the extra mile they will do whatever it takes to help those students. We have a truly committed and dedicated staff and it's just wonderful that there's so many great ESL personnel out there throughout the system and we really appreciate all that they do and as Laverne alluded to earlier the students appreciate they come back and they let us know so it's just a wonderful feeling and just an exciting feel to be in. That's why I mentioned the virtual

support group I think you folks have a lot in common and the kind of mutual support as well as concrete ideas would really boost morale. Absolutely thank you panelists this has been a very enlightening discussion we appreciate your participation now let's go back to Ron. Thank you Dr. Tyler and our panel many of the situations and challenges that our panel talked about are addressed in a new series premiering June 2nd on UNCTV. Crossroads Cafe examines how people cope with communicating across cultural and language differences to work together in a small neighborhood restaurant. Let's take a look at Crossroads Cafe. It's a bright show one Rosa's facial drought and mundane with potatoes and some fresh vegetables. But I asked for a hamburger and some french fries. But this is much better for you. Rosa you are a very kind and thoughtful person but next time I want

you to be a mean and insensitive person and give me a hamburger and fries. That drought is one big fish but not as big as the fish will catch on his vacation. The fish I am going to catch will be much larger at least this big. What's this vacation you're all talking about? Look a whole world had heard about it and heard it and heard it and heard it. It will not be a very long vacation but it will be a perfect one. First I will rent a car and drive to Niagara Falls. One of the most beautiful waterfalls in all the world. The next morning I will camp and fish and enjoy the mountains scenery. Victor it sounds like you've already taken this vacation. I have taken it many times but only in my dreams. Jamal what happened? I was working on the plumbing and one of the valves

was so corroded it could no longer hold in the pressure of the water. Can you say that in English please? Leaky pipe. But don't worry I think I can fix it. You see there is so much work to do in the cafe. How can I take a vacation? You want my advice? Do I have a choice? There's always something to fix. Go on this vacation now it'll always be just a dream. When the time is right I will go. You know Victor this would be a great trip for you to take with your daughter. That would be difficult. I thought you said she lives only a few hours from here. The distance between my daughter and me is more than just miles. I'm sorry to hear that. I'm going to see where Jamal is up to. Three cases

ketchup. One to make the sauce. Where is the rice? What rice? The rice that it's supposed to be here. Let me take a look at that. What do you know it does say rice? So you can bring it tomorrow, right? Yeah of course. I'm sorry about that. No problem. See you tomorrow. You see Jess, how can I possibly take a vacation? How would crossroads cafe get along without me? Mr. Braschov doesn't think we can manage the cafe. Even for a few days. No no no that is not what I think. That's what it sounds like to me Mr. Braschov. Unfortunately you all have other jobs to do and this restaurant would not stay open if you did not do those other jobs. Like my cooking for example. How can you have a restaurant without a chef? How can you have a restaurant without a waitress? Catherine, Rosa, stop. Everyone is important here. Everyone is equal and crossroads cafe. I'm afraid not my friend. No. No. There is one person here who is much more important than all the others.

Without that person, there would be no cafe. Who's that? Me. The customer. No. Can we get some more coffee? Crossroads cafe airs Monday, June 2nd, 630 to 730 a .m. French in action, the popular series in the French language and culture will be Tuesday and Thursday at 630 to 730 on June 3rd. Destiny knows the popular series in Spanish language and culture will be Wednesday and Friday. June 4th, 630 to 730 a .m. And the ever popular GED on TV will be Monday through Friday starting June 2nd at 730 a .m. If you would like more information about these services and other UNCTV adult learning programs, please write us at UNCTV Adult Learning, 10 TW Alexander

Drive, PO Box 149 -00, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, 27709. Or give me a call at 919 -549 -7163 in Research Triangle Park. Or in what's in Salem at 910 -750 -2025. For our friends online, please contact us at UNC -link .unctv .org. And thanks to all of you for being a part of this edition of UNCTV's Adult Learning Forum. For

more information, please contact us at UNC -link .unctv .org. For more information, please contact us at UNC -link .unctv .org. For more information, please contact us at UNC -link .unctv .org.

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