I'm spending much of this month observing our new-er tutors in action. (And I'm spending much of this spring meeting with other ABE staff to talk about observing and coaching)  So I've been thinking about what it is I hope I see, when I watch a volunteer in action.  Which leads me to google "the difference between simple and easy" &n...

​Every month, I email our volunteers about their hours. Last month I also asked about moments. Specifically, favorite moment from their time in adult education this fall.And they came back with some beautiful responses: I read these responses and thought... Yep. It's powerful to see students learning. I probably would have said 'ah ha mom...

Our teachers are busy. Really busy. There's a lot to do and never enough time and they're running in 17 directions doing it all anyways. And, here's the honest truth.... free volunteers aren't entirely free: the cost is the time and mental energy to figure out how to use them. It's worth it, though, because volunteers can also help with big sticky ...

Thoughtful, a small collection of links to inspire your thinking. V.9. We talk a lot about growth mindset -- believing that our abilities grow as a result of our actions -- but the tricky part for many of us is remembering that we do most of that growing through our mistakes.  Some encouragement, for ourselves and our students...A Simple Tool ...

Thoughtful, a small collection of links to inspire your thinking. V.1. So much of learning (and life)  is facing not being good at something (yet!) and moving through that.  And so much of adult ed (and life)  is reckoning with past mistakes. So, thoughtful people facing and re-thinking failure: On Being Wrong (Kathryn Shultz at...

I started our training cycle with Overview sessions in August, and calendar setting in July. I've been following that calendar with announcements, lesson planning, training sessions and follow up ever since. Some months I do a lot of training, some months, less, but as of 3 weeks from now, I'll be done for the year (until the next calendar setting ...

Thoughtful, a small collection of links to inspire your thinking. V.6. I spent the week preparing for and holding a workshop on tutoring English for Speakers of Other Languages, so I have language on the brain. (And have been inspired to practice my Spanish a little more frequently. I'm listening to Spanish music as I type this) So, for this week'...

Thoughtful, a small collection of links to inspire your thinking. V.4. If I were an undergrad again I'd be A) thrilled (full time liberal arts student is probably my dream job) B) busy with a quadruple or quintuple major (so many interesting things I didn't know to study when I was 19). Among my multiple majors would be psychology, so a f...

Thoughtful, a small collection of links to inspire your thinking. V.2.  LearningI love being in education because I love learning, myself. (I've learned I also love learning how we learn) So this week's thoughtful links on learning. How our brains imagine new things(Huge) round up of websites to learn almost anything  6 learning stra...