After being kind of disappointed by MinneTESOL, I wasn’t hugely excited about the next conference on my list, the Volunteer Management Conference.

Concrete Bricks by Alesa Dam on Flickr

It seemed unlikely to be valuable because I was feeling pessimistic about conferences in general, and also because volunteer management is kind of a “fluffy” profession, not backed up by much research or data or formal history.

I’m thrilled to report that I was pleasantly surprised.  The sessions I went to did not perpetuate the fluff, but sought to give us concrete ideas and skills for taking our work to the next level.

I gained background in creating a volunteer-led ESL curriculum, setting up focus groups (of students and volunteers), addressing the 80/20 rule of life (that 80% of your effort will go to 20% of your tasks and problems), and creating well-designed flyers and brochures.

I think I actually found the last one to be the most useful.  Making flyers is one of those random parts of my job that I’m expected to just do, and I have never had the slightest bit of training on how to do a good job.  The presenter walked us through the four pieces of the puzzle that we need to consider, and three days later I still remember them: proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast.

Here’s what I think she did right:

1. limited her scope,
2. stayed focused on it, and
3. provided different levels of meaningful practice.

That presentation had no hand-outs.  This was disconcerting at first, but it turned out to be a strength.  Her goal wasn’t to give resources, but to convey four interrelated elements of design.  She didn’t try to make us into designers that afternoon.  The unified design she was teaching us was reflected in her presentation: she taught what she said she was going to teach, and she did it in a way that assured our attention was never split.  She also followed the basic format of a good ESL lesson: I do it, we do it, you do it.  By this I mean she gave us opportunities to practice what we were learning, and that over the course of the session she went from actively guiding our practice to letting us work through examples independently.

I think what made this conference stand out is that all the sessions I went to were taught in this way.  I hope other conferences catch on soon.

Sorry for the long wait for the update folks. So many pictures.

Friday the 13th celebrated Olivia’s 25th birthday (again) aka End of Season, lol, and also the going away party for Nick Chaney aka Massive Clearance, as he’s moving back to New Zealand.

Olivia has WAY more amazing photos than me, her with her wicked pro camera and photography skills and all. You can view her photos here.

What a celebration it was! We started off at Hook, the basement bar beside the 711 behind Luxy. Then moved on to Dark + Light put on by A State of Sound at Luxy, featuring Burn Electric (Stefan & Dom) and Genetically Modified Beats (GMB – Eben & Matt), with DJ Hooker (Dom) playing at the end of the night.

Max, looking oh so HUGE mag man:

Marcus’ mismatched Nikes:

Audrey’s bare back, why is this girl single again? Oh right, cuz she’s that hot. Don’t be afraid to talk to her!

Olivia looking fierce in my H&M dress:

She has always been one for masks:

Lesley and I:

Jer double fisting it:

Lilian rockin her Rhianna nails, they are sharp! (Drew in the background)

Abe and Liam:

Stefan and his girlfriend… (what’s her name?? I forget, sorry I am bad with names…someone please tell me!)

Nikki in Rice Society!!

Nick Chaney, oh how we will miss you!!

Carol looking so sleek. Nice hair, girl!

Marika rocking her Rice Society chain! The hacksaw

Brian and Jessica looking fine in glasses. Sexy secretary look is working for ya!

Ben’s cool shirt – had to cut out his head.

Vicki and Lisa:

Amanda with her Rice Society earrings:

Bathroom door at Hook, this is what I felt like waiting for the 4 people to get outta the only stall:

Dom yelling again:

Sandi and Cresencio. Justin said it best about Sandi when he said, “She is so rock n’ roll tonight. Look at her in the spotlight. It’s like Nancy looking for her Sid.”

This was in Hook near the entrance. it reminds me of the movie Big where he gets his wish:

Star Wars figures in the box gets points every time:

Two rad girls who I wish were my friends. Sen Sen is the one on the right.

Jer and Max, I’m gonna miss you guys when you go on vacation!

Me on a cop scooter. Ya, I asked him. He said it was cool. I was laughing so hard:

Moved to Luxy, finally and watched the glow stick/lazer dancers. (Special thanks to Daryl who got me in )

Marcus did not go to Luxy.

Toby was having fun! He wasn’t even listening to Ween, and he was having fun!

Stefan rocking out for Burn Electric on the guitar this time. Nice surprise change to the keyboard. This man is talented in the music department.

Burn Electric:

Dom introducing GMB, Eben pictured here:

I repeat, Marcus did not come to Luxy and he did not buy Justin and I drinks either. Eben & Matt in their awesome outfits:

Timmy! (but said in the South Park kinda way, hehe) Timmay!

GMB:

Jeff, that’s a nice leather jacket. Shop more.

Shelly looking saucy. Really love the spring on the strap.

This girl followed us here from Hook. I think she may have been on her way to Fly, or maybe she was slanging some sponsered alcohol. either way, she was super happy to pose for my picture!

Dom made a mixtape. Around his neck. And now he wants to eat it. Hmmmm….

Jack and Dom:

Abe, you need to keep this tiger on a short leash! Liking that color on Tasha:

Sandi in the washroom looking all Nancy again:

Ran into Helen:

Abe and Johnnie. Abe’s obviously having fun!

Nick and Justin, the last goodbye!

Doesn’t that shirt look like Nick’s, above? DJ Hooker (Dom) rounding out the night. Lookit that chick in that background, total celeb shock – OMG it’s HOOKER!

One of the coolest parts of the night was signing Nick’s Adidas and also the Jenga blocks. I think the blocks were Rachel’s idea. Great memories! Happy Birthday to Ola and Til Next Time, Nick!

Composer: Keiko Abe

Title: Marimba d’Amore

This marimba solo is a very challenging one, both technically and musically. Early in her career, Keiko Abe wanted to write a piece about her love for the marimba. However, she decided to wait until she was a more mature composer. When she was experienced enough, this work is what she created. It shows the many rewards and challenges present in any kind of love with both lyrical sections and more stereotypically intense “Abe” sections. This is one of the most fully realized and well rounded pieces Keiko Abe has composed. Unlike some of her other compositions, this one is not good for younger players.

Annotated by Ethan Pani

Composer: Keiko Abe

Title:: Itsuki Fantasy for Six Mallets

This piece is one of the rare marimba solos requiring the performer to hold three mallets in each hand. Though otherwise simple, this novel technique adds a new degree of difficulty to the piece. Some of the challenges the player will encounter are playing a melodic with three voice accompany, small interval changes between the mallets in each hand, chromaticism, and 6 note block chords. This is one of Abe’s more lyrical compositions, in part due to the cumbersome nature of 6 mallet technique.

Annotated by Ethan Pani

Composer: Keiko Abe

Title: Michi

Michi, which means “road” in Japanese, is a marimba solo by Keiko Abe. Featuring an almost non-stop stream of 32nd notes, this piece can be very intimidating to read. However, it is very idiomatic and often repetitive. It begins and ends with an optional improvisatory section. If the player does not want to improvise, then they may simply play the written part for those pages. This is a very popular solo for high school level players.

Annotated by Ethan Pani

Composer: Keiko Abe

Title: Frogs

This marimba solo is easily Keiko Abe’s most humorous work. Marked constantly moving thirds, the music seems to always be dancing or hopping, just as the frogs in its title. Though by no means easy or simple, it is one of Abe’s most accessible pieces. “Frogs” is mostly in 4/4 with a triplet base, except for a slower middle section in 2/4. The musical intent is more obvious than many of her compositions, and the technical aspects are less complicated. Also, it will be easier to read for young players than many of Abe’s compositions simply due to the fact that is not covered in 32nd notes. This piece can be a tremendous amount of fun and a good challenge for a younger marimba player that is just beginning to see their skills blossom.

Annotated by Ethan Pani

Composer: Keiko Abe

Title: Dream of the Cherry Blossoms

This piece, for solo marimba, is one of Keiko Abe’s most famous compositions. Central to the piece is the traditional Japanese song “Sakura.” This song is played and varied in endless ways throughout. Also integral to the piece is a sixteenth note ostinato, played in the left hand, that is seen whenever the Sakura theme reoccurs. The piece features a challenging and virtuosic cadenza, and many sections of fast and loud playing. Though a very hard and sometimes flashy piece, there is much musical content to be found in it as well.

Annotated by Ethan Pani

Composer: Keiko Abe

Title: Works for Marimba

Keiko Abe is undoubtedly the most influential marimbist and composer for the marimba that the percussion world has seen. She has combined five of her very popular pieces into this book. Keiko Abe’s compositions are always virtuosic, requiring fast playing, quick dynamic control, and much musicality. Though performed somewhat less often now that marimba repertoire includes many other composers, these pieces still represent some of the building blocks of contemporary marimba performance, composition, and pedagogy. The book also contains “alternative suggestions” at the end, which are ways in which the composer reworked parts of the compositions so that they may be played on marimbas smaller than 5 octaves.

Contents:

Memories of the Seashore

Wind in the Bamboo Grove

Little Windows

Ancient Vase

Variations on Japanese Children’s Songs

Alternative Suggestions

Annotated by Ethan Pani

New image in the windy flags photography contest

This 100 foot long flag is hung by a crane over the main street to the Delray Beach 4th of July activities. …
Big Abe photography picture

Suspendida a xornada “Atención ao cliente en tempos de crise” que se ía celebrar na Asociación de Empresarios de Boiro HOXE (12-11-2009).

Confession: I manage my volunteer mailing list on a Word document.

Glue Henge by sappymoosetree on Flickr

It’s true.  Even though I enjoy Excel formulas and mail merges, have harsh words for presenters who don’t know the ins and outs of PowerPoint, have actually built more than one relational database, and love to find the optimal information tool for a given task.  I am that person, and I copy and paste my mailing list from a Word document.

It didn’t used to be this way.  In my old job at the main office, my Outlook contacts list was a well-organized-frequently-mail-merged thing of beauty.  But when I got to my new job at the learning center a little over a year ago, I only had Outlook Webmail.  Managing contacts solely with webmail is pretty much impossible.  Word was there, I used it, and it worked.  Months later, my nonprofit helped me install real, actual Outlook Anywhere on the learning center’s laptop (I’m unable to install anything on the main computer, which is library property).  And months after that, I have yet to rework my emailing system.

Three thoughts on this:

• My Word document of contacts actually meets about 80% of my current needs quite efficiently.  Can I  justify spending time reworking it?
• Just because you’re not optimally using a given technology tool doesn’t mean you’re a moron.
• It’s extremely difficult and time-consuming to work around the technology constraints we so often face on the job (and what do they really accomplish, anyway?).  I understand why many people just throw their hands up and move on.

Spoon theory by scribbletaylor on Flickr

And now to the teaspoon:

This type of situation leads me to think broadly about the fact that people need more than initial training and ongoing Q and A to work effectively with digital technology; we need support in the form of quality tools. Even the people who “get” digital technology are severely hampered by slow, outdated, and/or limiting applications and hardware. When we have to figure out how to make our antiquated or locked-down equipment be good enough “in our spare time,” it either just doesn’t happen or it happens at the expense of the rest of our jobs.

I wish that the demands put on educators, especially in this age of obsession with computer-based and distance learning, could be accompanied by thoughts like, “Do they have the tools to accomplish this well?” or even better, “We should ask them what tools they need to facilitate these desired outcomes and then follow through.”

If all I have is a teaspoon and you’re surprised I’m not hammering nails with it, there’s a problem and it’s not with me.

Mondaylicious Monday is a sarcastic title for this post.

Who likes Mondays? Neither kids, and I think quite a lot of adults, are sympathetic to Monday. Monday, you bastard! Waking me up to get to work at some exploitative and/or authoritarian social institution! I feel especially bad if those institutions are bureaucracies.

Well, I had to go to a bureaucracy called school today – yes, a bureaucracy, with their stupid No-Touch policy that can even be made to apply to affectionate touching. Douchebags.

But, anyhow, today I had a book talk and I think I did alright on it. I said everything that was needed, but I think I failed at making my book at all interesting and compelling (1984). I mean, it’s like a college book being recommended to kindergartners – woah. Did you know that word (kindergartner) is a language transvestite of English and German?

Anyway, today I saw Abe also, and he seemed super-super-sick today. He was so cute with his sickish face! Though he was sick, I could care less if I would die by hugging him and his accompanying sickness. I really hope he gets alright. This school year seems to have been tough on him in terms of being virtually constantly absent and sick or having been hit or something. Geez – if God exists, I’d shoot him for not giving the adorable kid a break.

God, you made a big accomplishment when you were molding his body – now can you stop desecrating it?

This is how close I want to get to him and how much I'd be breaking the No-Touch policy. Apparently, boys aren't expected to show affection.

Looks like our Social Studies teacher wasn’t here, I believe due to a funeral. But oh well. Funerals are way more exciting than school.

MinneTESOL was last Friday and Saturday.  Overall I’m glad I went, but I wasn’t quite blown away.

To my mind, the conference’s highlight was when Kao Kalia Yang, author of The Latehomecomer spoke on Friday evening.  It was poetic and moving and beautiful.

The rest of the conference was a let-down except when I went to presentations by Hamline University faculty.  And no, Hamline did not pay me to say that.  The fact is that their presentations were exactly what they sounded like, were well-thought out and easily within their expertise, included hands-on practice of what we were learning, engaged and engaging presentation style, and successfully distributed useful materials that I’ll be able to use and/or alter at the learning center.

There was actually one other worthwhile presentation about a research project in neurolinguistics.  It was just a talk with a PowerPoint but the speaker’s energy and focus on actually communicating with the audience made it work wonderfully.  My colleague also pointed out that the scope was perfect for a short presentation.

The other presentations committed the following (what I consider to be) sins:

• the keynote was plain lecture with a busy, dense PowerPoint for an hour straight.  Also, they didn’t know that PowerPoint has several pointer features and that they didn’t have to point to parts of their graphs with their shadows.
• one woman actually just read her paper to us without pause while her busy PowerPoint went on behind her.  I’m sorry, but I didn’t get up at 6:45AM on a Saturday for your airport voice.  Thank goodness she only wasted 20 minutes of my life.
• the following 20-minute session was at least an attempt to communicate with the audience, but he had not only made too few hand-outs but misplaced some of them and didn’t freely pass his card around for us to contact him later.
• the special interest brainstorm session on Adult Education had potential, but I ended up in a small group that was taken over by a group of three women griping about terrible cooperation between ESL/ABE and the MN State Colleges and Universities.  I wish we could have moved past that phase of the discussion.
• I went to another 20-minute presentation in which the speaker concluded that adopting technology in the classroom was easier than people think and they just need more time.  Clearly he hadn’t seen the keynote in which they thought they knew PowerPoint.

I feel the conference as a whole could have done a better job with:

• making sure there were on-site photocopying resources
• facilitating electronic communication of presentation hand-outs in lieu of paper hand-outs (i.e. a Conference Resources page on their website, or an email directory of the presenters)
• laying down some standards of presentation style

Several people I talked to agreed with me but remarked that these are perennial issues with conferences.  Which begs the question… why?  These are very fixable problems!

Well, I didn’t fill my office with balloons, but I did snag the last 20 minutes of each level of class to write happy things.

In My Craft or Sullen Art by chrisjohnbeckett on Flickr

I wrote a note to each teacher explaining the assignment and my motivation for it, and I included suggestions on how to explain it to their level of student. I asked them to introduce the activity to their class… and then have everyone get up and walk over to the big classroom to do the actual writing.

We had some music in the background and students sat at random tables. They wrote on colorful slips of paper about what makes them smile, what they’re proud of, etc. When they finished a piece, they brought it to the front and taped it onto a poster.  They were encouraged to do multiple pieces, and the teachers enjoyed participating too.

At the end we had a colorful patchwork of student (and teacher) writing at all levels. More importantly, everyone left with a huge smile on their face.  Success!

Epilogue: One of the librarians offered to run it through their giant laminator for us, and our now very shiny poster is on display between our classrooms and the circulation desk.  I’ve seen students and general library patrons reading it, and several students who were absent on writing poster day have come to me hoping they’ll be around for the next one and suggesting future writing prompts.  I’m very pleased and plan to do this again soon!

SUSPENDIDO!!

A ABE (Asociación Boirense de Empresarios) coa colaboración da Cámara de Comercio vai a desenvolver, de xeito gratuíto, unha xornada titulada “Atención ao cliente en momentos de crise” . Terá lugar o vindeiro xoves 12 de novembro 2009 ás 21.00 horas.

Dita xornada contará cunha duración aproximada de 2 horas.

Para máis información poñerse en contacto coa ABE:

Tfno. 981.84.78.88

Mail: asociacion.abe@gmail.com 

Para ver o programa da xornada preme AQUÍ.

We’ve spent the last eight weeks taking a look at organizations through the eyes of their volunteers, staff, and clients. Each and every story has been a joy but also somewhat of a struggle to tell. Doing justice to the personality and passion of each person was a challenge and an investment, but that was the way we wanted our listeners to see these organizations — not through a mission statement or a standard commercial, but rather through an individual’s narrative.

There are many reasons Literacy Services of Wisconsin made sense as our final organization. For one, as I mentioned in our first post on Joanne and Linda, their work ties together a number of the volunteering/mentoring themes we’ve seen develop over the span of the campaign. Additionally, they are a perfect bridge to our Meet The Need campaign, where we highlight 50 non-profit organizations serving the needs of our community in 50 days.

Oftentimes, when we think of “basic needs,” three things come to mind: food, shelter, clothing. However, when we think about how deficiencies in basic needs arise, we’re immediately led to a whole network of other needs: education, employment, housing, community, and of course, literacy. Literacy Services gives adults a basic building block that they need to function productively in our society. Whether it be their ABE (Adult Basic Education), ESL (English as a Second Language), or GED (General Education Degree) program, the work Literacy Services does has a massive impact in the lives of their students.

Jessica Doyle visits Literacy Services of Wisconsin

In our first piece of extra audio, Joanne discusses how difficult life was before learning to read. Before you listen, take a moment and imagine the difficulties you’d face in life if you were not literate: 

The second piece of audio is also from my interview with Joanne and her tutor Linda. In my opinion, this piece of audio was one perhaps the most surprising of the entire campaign — Linda talks about Joanne voting in her first election for Barack Obama. Maybe it’s just me, but the story doesn’t quite go in the direction I expected it to:

This final piece of audio is taken from an interview I was unfortunately not able to get to last week. Melvin is a GED student who’s been coming to Literacy Services on and off for the past few years. Here, we get a feeling of his commitment to being a student and just how important a GED is to him:

For more information on Literacy Services of Wisconsin, visit their website. If you’re interested in volunteering of visiting Literacy Services, contact them here.

Produced by: Adam Carr

Submitted by Kenneth Tamarkin, Executive Director, Massachusetts Coalition for Adult Education at the State House, Boston, MA, September 15, 2009
I am Kenneth Tamarkin, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Adult Education (MCAE), the organization that represents Adult Basic Education (ABE) in Massachusetts, and on behalf of that organization, I am here today to testify in support of SB 37, the Workers’ Pathways to Self Sufficiency Act. I want to thank Senator James Eldridge, Representative Linda Dorcena Forry, and the co-sponsors of this bill for crafting legislation that will simultaneously aid low-income individuals in need and improve the quality of the Commonwealth’s workforce.
In Massachusetts, we have many residents who desperately want and need, but are unable to afford education leading to a degree or certificate that could open the door to a living wage job. Currently, the Educational Grants program is the only grant program in the state to provide support to learners that attend college less than half time to receive financial assistance and to use a part of that assistance for living expenses. Many adult learners have responsibilities that make it impossible to attend college more than half time and do not have the financial resources or income to pay for living expenses while attending classes. This legislation provides a solution for these learners by recapitalizing the Educational Grants program.
MCAE strongly supports investing $1.5 million in pilot funding for targeted services to help Education Rewards students complete a degree or certificate. Massachusetts already has small transitions programs in most of the state’s community college that are often the difference between a learner successfully completing a program or dropping out. We hope and expect that this new funding would build on those existing successes and help more learners complete their certificates or degrees.
MCAE also supports the sections of the legislation that refers to Transitional Assistance for Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC) recipients. If a TAFDC recipient needs Adult Basic Education (ABE) or English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), the current work requirement policy creates a huge barrier to that individual gaining the education and training they need to qualify for a living wage job by enrolling in and attending a certificate or degree program. This legislation would double the amount of time that education and training can be used to fulfill the work requirement for TAFDC. This change would give recipients the opportunity to permanently escape poverty and increase their contributions to our communities. We need to help more people who only current options are low wage/low skill jobs move to self-supporting/taxpaying careers.

Την Πέμπτη τα Oddworld στο PSN – Gameover.gr

Ο Lorne Lanning, δημιουργός της σειράς Oddworld, επιβεβαίωσε μέσω του PlayStation blog, ότι το Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee και Oddworld: Abe’s Exodus θα κάνουν την εμφάνισή τους στο PlayStation Network, την ερχόμενη Πέμπτη (22/10). Η τιμή των δύο τίτλων θα βρίσκεται στα 9.99 δολάρια για το καθένα, ενώ δεν έχει ανακοινωθεί η αντίστοιχη για την ευρωπαϊκή αγορά.[next]

In the September issue of Demux Dispatches we covered

Facial Identification
We have now partnered with a leading expert in this field and can provide a professional, independent service to Police Forces, solicitors/barristers and corporate clients in the field of Facial Identification. As crime levels increase, there is a call to express expert opinions on aspects of human faces in an attempt to identify criminals…. for more.

and share some Recent Results

” It wasn’t me.”
How many times have you heard that before? We were asked to analyse images from a digital CCTV system giving a view onto the area just outside a nightclub. The accused, having been ejected from the location, was alleged to have committed an assault recorded on the CCTV. Analysis of the images showed that the suspect was not the offender and that the actual offender was another person who was wearing similar clothing…. for more.

and Video Interviews (ABE)

The recording of images as well as audio from interviews is becoming increasingly common place and now that the preferred format is DVD there are some new problems for the user to overcome. Here are a couple of issues that we can help you with, we’ve also helped with removing background noise and can overlay subtitles if required…. for more.

Octobers edition of Demux Dispatches will be posted soon if you want to contact us visit www.demux.co.uk

The Analyst