The thing that gives me most pleasure is illustrating. When I first started making activity packs to complement literacy readers, I did not know how to easily create illustrations. My earliest attempts were simple black line drawings done in the free Paint application that came pre-loaded on my computer. I drew a scarf, hat, and boots using my finger on my laptop's trackpad.
Fast forward a couple of years, and I am using Google Drawing to create images such as this medical form and health card. I can't say enough good things about the online "Classy Graphics" course I took in Google Classroom with Tony Vincent. Without that class, I would not know how to use Google Drawing at all. Anyway, the image of a blank piece of paper on a clipboard was free for the taking on Pixabay.com. I send them a donation after every 20 or 30 images that I use. I also found the caduceus on Pixabay and simply shrank it down to fit in the upper left corner of the piece of paper. The rest of the form was created using text boxes in Google Drawing.
The image of a health card was created almost entirely in Google Drawing. I imported only Maria's face, which I drew using a Wacom Intuos Draw graphic tablet and Artrage software in trace mode over a photo from the reader.The walk-in clinic image started with a photo of an actual clinic in downtown Windsor that I believe my students are familiar with. I traced the sidewalk and greenery, made the canvas transparent, exported that as a PNG file, and imported it into Google Drawing in order to create the building, doors, and signs using shapes and text boxes.
For some images, I don't open Google Drawing at all, but just use the graphic tablet, such as was the case with this depiction of the nurse who calls Maria in from the waiting room. When I was originally given permission to create activity packs for the Bow Valley College readers, I was told I could not use their images. Yet one cannot follow best practices for the creation of materials and worksheets for literacy learners without images! So hopefully the number of images I replicate with modification falls within the scope of what in Canada we call 'fair dealing'.
So! Literacy teachers can look forward to my publishing this new activity pack before too long. It is my hope that you will notice the quality of my materials improving over time.
My own literacy learners are reaching the end of their five-month term with me. Many will be moving on to a mainstream CLB 1 or 1/2 class at the end of this month. I'm so proud that they can now tackle this level of reader and are asking for more challenging material all the time.
Second on my plate right now, aside from teaching itself, is keeping up with the research and latest developments in our ongoing effort to get the powers that be to listen to us, believe us, and respect us when we attempt to inform them of things that are wrong with (or are going wrong with the roll-out of) Portfolio Based Language Assessment experiment. Many problems are inherent, other problems are the result of certain employers' interpretation of the 'non-negotiables.' Either way, we still have a dire need for open, honest, mutually respectful and fruitful communication between front-line workers and the big fish at the top of the food chain. Since I was losing track of all the links, I decided to dedicate a page of my website to the curation of these resources, links to research, and so on. It is HERE. If you have suggestions for better wording or other links, you can comment below, email me, or message me on Twitter.
Thirdly and lastly, I am SO JAZZED that Tony Vincent, the one who taught me how to use Google Drawing, is offering a new course called Classy Videos in February. It's not too late to sign up. It's six weeks, but you do NOT have to be at your computer at a given time on a given day. You always have a week to watch the video and do the (optional) assignment.
All of this has me excited about the new year. How about you? Are you excited?
Thanks for sharing your passion and talents, Kelly. I am in awe of all you do. Much respect.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bonnie, for the feedback. This was a very lonely little blog for the first few years. Lol. I can't tell you how much it means to me each and every time someone takes the time to leave a comment. :) --K
DeleteEven writing with an idea makes me want to use anonymous because I don't trust that it won't be taken the wrong way. Does anyone know a list of really good paid membership resources that can help with the workload of PBLA. Canadian content needed for all skills in an ESL Adult Ed Centre. The workload isn't getting lighter as requirements keep changing. If I can find resources, atleast, I can say that they were good enough for someone else to publish, so they cant be all bad
ReplyDeleteSo tired. Going back to work after the Christmas Break was hard and it is getting harder.
Dear Needs Resources,
DeleteI hope you don't mind that I've given you a nickname to distinguish you from the other anonymous commenters. ;) If you are not super picky, as I am (and I think PBLA grinds us down to the point that we become less picky and more desperate to save time), then there are plenty of canned resources out there, both paid and free. If you want to private message me to tell me your level, I can help more. In the meantime, consider:
Tutela
ESL Library (paid)
LINC Classroom Activities 1-4, 5-7
Citizenship Resource (includes materials for many levels and different skills; includes audio files for listening activities)
Ottawa Dept. of Health / Ottawa-Carleton District School Board Collaborative Team's series of health modules for CLB 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 on Tutela. They include assessments for binder and reflection activity at the end of each module.
CLEO.on.ca ESL resources on employment law and landlord-tenant law for many levels
I'm not sure what YOUR employer says, but all my PBLA trainers and workshop facilitators swear we do not HAVE to make rubrics. We just have to use an assessment tool of some sort, but that tool has to meet certain requirements, such as definition of success, etc. That being said, I do use the Conestoga College assessment toolkits that are on Tutela. Now that the strike is over, perhaps we will see the same toolkits for the literacy levels soon. Feel free to email me if you want me to tailor a list for your specific class. I truly feel for teachers for whom the joy has gone out of teaching because of this horrendous experiment gone wrong. Hugs. --K
Hi, Claudie,
ReplyDeleteThank you, as always, for never losing your sense of what's most important. You write: "The time is ripe for experts in Political Science, Government and Administration and Education Theory and Policy to look at the hopeless experiment through the eyes of critical theory...."
I wonder how we can bring this fiasco to the attention of such folks.
When I see a question such as the one posed by Anon above, I am always torn. I'm angry that this even has to be asked anonymously, but I also want to rush out and rescue this person by helping in any way I can in the short term.
For others who might read, we should note that each of us is in a slightly different boat. I'm not really 'doing' PBLA full on with seniors, thank Heaven. If I'm not mistaken, you (Claudie) are not currently doing PBLA, either. The real challenge right now for a teacher who must do PBLA and also wants to be in bed before 2 a.m., wants a life and does not want to have a heart attack from stress and fatigue is finding materials for modules where most everything is included: the teacher notes, the worksheets, the rubrics or checklists, the reflections. If Anon can get his/her hands on that, s/he can at least escape the wrath of overbearing administrators for the time being. So that was my goal with what I answered above. I'm tossing out a life preserver for now (or trying to) until we sort this out.
P.S. So nice to hear that you used the collection activity! --K
Has anyone considered going to the media about the disaster that is PBLA? We need action. Our school has more and more jobs listed every day - teachers are quitting in droves and so are students!!
ReplyDeleteAnon,
DeleteYes, I have heard talk of going to the media and one person even suggested a journalist whom I had not heard of. I worry about a reporter doing a slapdash job of it. This deserves some in-depth reporting and lots of thorough fact-checking because a poorly written story could do more harm than good. Yes, teachers are quitting in droves! When I attend holiday parties and workshops or talk to teachers online, I hear about a lot of misery and disappointment, disagreement with the entire premise. I only know of perhaps two or three teachers who claim to like it, and one of them only has to do it with literacy, which really isn't even the same animal. Still not theoretically sound or ethical, but not as burdensome as with higher levels. Do you have a paper or journalist in mind? --K
I don't have anyone in mind unfortunately. I think of programs like Market Place (inappropriate) or the investigative work on Global News - also not right. As you say a reporter could wind up doing more damage. sigh. It's so hugely frustrating. At our school, management has (due to many complaints) a) dropped student numbers for classes resulting in a backlog / waiting list for nearly every class - to try to keep the workload under control b) dropped teaching hours dramatically so that we have PDs far too often and the students rapidly lose interest in regular attendance (shortened class lengths, days off for writing report cards (!!! and 'binder organization' - who knew I'd be educating myself, accumulating years of work experience only to be spending hours upon hours looking at binders!!! and c) assigned a "PBA helper" - aka one of the teachers - which has not been particularly successful because who's interested in PBLA? Nobody. We just want to teach. I do not know what the solution is. People pay lip service. PBLA 'tasks' are all over the place so there is no consistency. Binders continue to accumulate as students have no interest in them - none. Students leave the school in hopes of finding someplace that doesn't 'do PBLA" . Students leave the school woefully unprepared for academics (um teaching higher level students 'real life' tasks such as how to fill out an application form etc. when they desperately need to learn to write a paragraph.....? Students' basic skills are deteriorating because they're not learning what they need to learn at the lower levels. Classes are jamming up (bottle neck) because nobody can move students until they've completed the requisite 8 absurd tasks in every skill. Teachers 'fake' tasks just to say they've done it in order to move them on (okay let's call this a speaking task). It's horrible. The only way many of us can teach is to pretend that PBLA doesn't exist, try to do what we used to do, and pay lip service. I'm beginning to look forward to an early retirement unless this mess goes away. The saddest thing of all is that the students are losing valuable learning time (every moment wasted on organizing a binder) , teachers are losing interest in teaching, and the ESL schools are deteriorating rapidly. Who can help us? : (
ReplyDelete