The Coastal Region GREAT Center recently organized a marathon teacher training session for 150 Houston area adult education instructors.
The Houston Literacy Consortium conference offered eight courses spanning 30 classes on July 1-3. The sessions enabled the teachers to meet the Texas Education Agency's professional development criteria, which is 12 hours of instruction per year for established adult education teachers.
Tina Washco, Coastal Region GREAT Center project manager, said the courses covered an array of ABE/ASE and ESL topics. The courses included nine-hour training sessions on "Effective Multilevel Strategies for Adult English Language Learners" and "Effective Multilevel Strategies for ABE/ASE (GED) Learners."
The conference served teachers from the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans, the Alliance for Multicultural Services, the Chinese Community Center, Houston Community College's Northeast Community and Adult Education center, the Community Family Center, the Gulf Coast Community Services Association, the Houston International University, the Houston READ Commission, Literacy Volunteers of America, Meadowbrook Learning Center, the Research and Development Institute, and the Search Project.
The training was held at the AAMA complex in southeast Houston, where Coastal Region GREAT Center has held similar sessions in January and July for the past three years. Juan Esquivel, director of AAMA's Adelante adult education and literacy program, said 52 of his instructors signed up for the workshops. Adelante is the largest provider of adult education services in Houston.
"We were delighted to host this event," Esquivel said. "Over the years we have built our relationship with the Houston Literacy Consortium deeper and deeper. Since we have the most participants, we obviously benefit the most from this training. And our teachers tell me they feel good about the instruction that they are getting."
Esquivel said, "The key thing for us is that Tina Washco is our eyes and ears with the state education department. She's always up-to-date on their requirements. These workshops allow us to provide professional development based on state initiatives and best practices from the field to our staff."
Washco said, "This conference was a major undertaking for the Coastal Region GREAT Center. We owe its success -- once again -- to the detailed preparations by my staff and to the enthusiasm of our 15 GREAT Center trainers."
Coastal GREAT (Getting Results Educating Adults in Texas) Center supports ABE/ASE, English as a Second Language (ESL), and family literacy programs in the Coastal area.