Portland ESL recently updated and reorganized their website (a huge shout-out to volunteer ESL Network teachers & web developers, Deana Jackson & Stephanie Roth) so that all this information is in one place. The Portland ESL Network is an all-volunteer effort, and Portland Literacy Council has sponsored ESL Network activities since 2014.

For questions, or to submit a new class or update information, contact Portland ESL Network at heidi.dryden@gmail.com.

Administrative and Program Assistant Deborah Shimkus

Deborah Shimkus joined the PLC team in August to support the administrative and program needs of the organization.

“I am so excited to join the amazing team at the Portland Literacy Council. This is a fantastic organization with dynamic, dedicated people doing such good work,” said Deborah.

Deborah has called the Pacific Northwest home for over 25 years and is an avid hiker and kayaker. But it is her international travels and volunteer work that ultimately brought her to PLC.

It was when she was living among the locals in the Amazon rainforest of Peru, and later in a small village in Kenya, that she became keenly aware of the challenges of not being able to speak a community's language. Later, in Oregon, she opened her home to two Syrian refugees, neither of whom spoke English. This experience opened her eyes to the limitations, roadblocks and injustices experienced by non-English speakers in the U.S. And so, Deborah jumped headfirst into teaching ESOL in Tigard, and took her first class in tutor training through PLC.  She has been a volunteer teacher ever since, and like so many PLC volunteers, recently learned to navigate Zoom to reach students.

When the opportunity came to support PLC's work, there was no hesitation, “I am a 100 percent believer in what the Portland Literacy Council does and the amazing opportunities it provides for the students, tutors and community.”

Deborah comes to the PLC with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in public policy.  She has dedicated her career to working with nonprofit organizations including international, national and local organizations, serving from executive director to program manager, volunteer coordinator and event planner. Most recently she contracts her nonprofit expertise in organizational development, strategic planning and executive support for various nonprofits, now including PLC.

While Deborah will be focusing on the administrative side of things, PLC looks forward to her active engagement in the continued fulfillment of our mission.

All teachers are welcome to use it and contribute to it. BLC encourages users to submit comments, feedback and suggestions for content and have guidelines for acceptable submissions. BLC asks that submissions be categorized by level, topic, and resource type (audio, best for use in person, online exercise, game, photos, text, video). A great deal of thought, planning and work went into the development of this bank, and we encourage all our members to take a look, and make use of this creative resource.

Registration open now 

Wednesdays October 13 & 20 1:00 – 2:20 p.m. Instructor: Linda Bonder

Teaching Low Level Learners

Mondays November 8 & 15 1:00 – 2:20 p.m. Instructor: Linda Bonder

Edited by Sara Urch. You can reach me at: sara@portlandliteracy.org