Volunteer Hours This School Year: 4882 | |
Literacy Source teachers celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week: Back Row, L-R: Leesy Latronica, Laura Kalmanson, Cari Hastings, Cat Howell. Front Row L-R: Megan Dalton, Allie Azersky, Niusha Shodja, Elena Jounina | |
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With spring quarter in full swing, we have so many updates to share with you! Firstly, it was wonderful to see so many of you at our first in-person annual breakfast in five years. You all are instrumental not only in ensuring we can effectively serve our students. You also get the word out to the community about how important our work is and why we need supporters like you to make such a powerful impact on the lives of our students. Although we didn't reach our goal (yet!) of $150,000, we were able to raise nearly $135,000, and so much of that is thanks to you. You all also showed up in so many other ways: from helping the day of for the breakfast in set up, tear down, registration, to writing thank you post-cards. And a big thank you to the volunteer breakfast planning committee that did a tremendous amount of work making it possible to shift to an in-person event this year.
This past weekend, we had our board and staff retreat, which always provides a wonderful opportunity to revisit our priorities as an organization and celebrate the community we've built together. This year, we focused on our annual plan, our Intercambio DEI training, and, in light of teacher appreciation week, celebrating our incredible teachers (see the very cool cake in the above pic!).
We'd also like to say a big THANK YOU to the 29 classroom assistants who make sure our classrooms are running smoothly, and the 56 tutors that spend valuable personalized time with our students to make sure that we are meeting all their needs. Both our instructors and students continually remind us that both the virtual and real world classrooms would be so much harder to manage without you.
We look forward to sharing student projects with you next month, and hopefully we will see some of you at the World Dance Party event this upcoming Saturday (more details below in the event calendar). Thank you for being such an integral part of our community of lifelong learning.
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In community,
Liz Wurster
Communications Coordinator
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Upcoming Training: Volunteer Roundtable Discussion
Pick Your Battles: Helping Students with Pronunciation (1.25 hrs)
Join us for the spring volunteer webinar and following online discussion.
1) Watch the recorded training online, in the link above, in your own time
2) Join other volunteers for the online discussion on Monday, May 20th 5:30 – 6:30pm, with Cat Howell, Co-Ed, Educational Director and Cari Hastings, Conversation Class Coordinator. Open to all volunteers.
Join the meeting with this Zoom link
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This Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month (and every month!), we reflect on the many ways in which local AANHPI history is Seattle history. Many local landmarks remind us of this, and the Wing Luke Museum is one of the most celebrated.
Located in the Chinatown-International District, the Wing Luke Museum is named for Wing Chong Luke, whose legacy includes being the first person of color elected to the Seattle City Council (in 1962) and the first Asian-American elected to public office in the Pacific Northwest. As a council member, Luke championed social justice and anti-discrimination causes including the housing ordinance that eventually formed the Seattle Human Rights Commission.
As the only pan-Asian Pacific American museum in the United States, the Wing embraces diverse Asian-American experiences in the diaspora and beyond, representing cultures from all across Asia and the Pacific Islands.
And its significance runs even deeper. Did you know that the building where it is located once housed a hotel that served as a crucial resource center for some of Seattle’s earliest Asian-American immigrants?
From the early- to mid-1900s, many new Americans received support including housing, meals, and community at this very site. The original building was central to the founding of Seattle’s Chinatown, as several organizations shared the space to offer services to ease the transition for Chinese immigrants in the late 1800s. These groups helped community members find homes and jobs, advocated against discriminatory laws of the time, and served as a cultural hub for celebrations and connection.
Today, the museum upholds much of this original vision, adapted to embrace the victories and hold space for the struggles of modern-day AANHPI community members in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Bonus: all Seattle Public Library cardholders can reserve a free museum pass to visit year-round!
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Literacy Source Superheroes! | |
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Instructional Advisors
As part of our teacher appreciation week we want to take a moment to focus Literacy Source Instructional Advisors and what makes them unique.
Firstly, they are Teachers. Did you know that all our instructors are professionals, who bring years of experience and skills in adult basic education and ESOL? Every term the instructors do what teachers do, design 8 – 12 weeks of lesson plans that are crafted for maximum student interaction (you won’t see lecturing in our classrooms!) Their online or in-person lesson plans are centered around student interests and goals, bring in life skills, work skills and the basic skills of reading, writing, conversation, digital literacy, and math...
To read more about our instructional advisors, go here.
Thank you so much for all that you do to support our students!
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Attention Volunteers!
We have FREE BOOKS available in the center office!
We are working on improving what is offered in our office library and are currently removing books from our shelves. These books are now available for anyone to take home and we encourage you to. They are still great learning materials and will make a great edition to your personal library. We are only removing books that are no longer relevant to the classes we offer or simply just not checked out as often.
You can find the free book cart in the lobby, which has a variety of student workbooks, tutoring guides, YA novels, and more. We also occasionally have a handful of student workbooks scattered around the office too. Any book that is free for you to take home will be kept separate from the library bookshelves, labeled, and will not have a barcode on the inside cover.
If you have any questions about our free books or are looking for a specific book in our library, please email Alex.
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Literacy Source partnered with six individuals who became new citizens in the past month: one from the Democratic Republic of Congo, two from Ethiopia, one from Ireland, one from South Korea, and one from Venezuela.
Congratulations!
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Guy is standing next to and holding a large American flag. He is wearing a white suite and sunglasses. | |
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Yohelsi is standing in the grass outside in front of the US Dept of Homeland Security sign. She is wearing a white suit and holding a small American flag. | |
Literary Mixer Recommendations | |
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Thank you to all volunteers and staff who joined us for the spring quarter Literary Mixer at the center! We gathered on a warm Wednesday evening to discuss our favorite titles and authors to add to our reading lists, to share our experiences at Literacy Source, and to graze on some snacks and beverages.
We look forward to seeing you all (and you, reader!) again at our next mixer. A very special shoutout to longtime conversation class volunteer Leah, who will be moving out of state soon. We appreciate all your hard work and will miss your smiling face in class!
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Featured Event: World Dance Party
Literacy Source is participating - and inviting our volunteers! - in an event this Saturday May 18 from 5-8 pm at Akin Family Center (North Seattle Family Resource Center, 12360 Lake City Way NE , Seattle, WA 98125)
The World Dance Party is an event showcasing cultures around the world through food, dancing, and resource booths. We will have food catered by small businesses in the area, dancers who will showcase dances from various parts of the world, and each organization participating in the event's planning will also be tabling at the event to display the resources available at each of their organizations. The event is open to all ages and abilities and the goal is to allow people of shared identities to find each other and create meaningful connections in the community.
Ephemeral Bloom: Celebrating Spring
Sunday, May 19, 2pm (Great Hall, Town Hall Seattle, $5-$20)
Ephemeral Bloom is a new work by composer Yifeng Yvonne Yuan, inspired by the fleeting life and death of a magnolia flower at midnight. In just one night, the buds awake with the arrival of the spring breeze, and after a gentle drizzle, they vanish without a trace. Yvonne draws inspiration from the sound of nature and the ritualistic practice of humans before language was invented. Seattle Festival Orchestra presents their final concert of the season opening with Ephemeral Bloom, followed by Seattle youth soloist Eric Schindler playing Elgar’s challenging Cello Concerto and Johannes Brahm’s enigmatic Symphony No 3. The orchestra will be led by music director and conductor Bobby Collins
Emerging Ideas: Embracing Artificial Intelligence in our Classrooms and Colleges
Tuesday, May 21, 1:00-2:30pm (Online, FREE)
The emergence of artificial intelligence has taken hold rapidly for the general public and our colleges. Join us to hear about what two of our colleges are doing to support their faculty on the use of equitable and accessible uses of AI and improving student learning with AI. Bellevue College and Highline College will share their faculty development work around these topics. Registration Link.
2024 Wing Luke Museum Spring Market
Saturday, May 25, 11am-3pm (Wing Luke Museum, FREE)
Meet amazing local artists at WLM's annual Spring Market! The Second Annual Spring Market in the Museum Community Hall will highlight Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander local vendors, artists, and organizations. Meet and shop with local small businesses and artists Iwalani’s Creations, Melted Porcelain, Heliaki Co, and Roldy Aguero Ablao. Visitors can experience a free lei-making craft table and a free resource table with community partner United Territories of Pacific Islanders Alliance Washington (UTOPIA Washington).
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Literacy Source Center: New Parking Regulations
Due to many parking management issues, effective May 15th Diamond Parking will be monitoring the Literacy Source/Seattle Mennonite Church (SMC) parking lot. If you park at the center you will need to sign in to park for free.
New Regulations:
- M-Th, 7:30am-5pm - the parking lot will be reserved for Literacy Source staff/students/volunteers and SMC. There will be no general public parking available.
- There will be a sign with a QR code outside the Literacy Source entrance where you can scan and register your license plate for the day.
- Outside of the hours M-Th 7:30am-5pm, you can still park free of charge at any time, but the lot will also be available for the general public.
- If you receive a citation (i.e. you forget to scan the code) let us know and Diamond will waive it for you.
No Literacy Source staff, volunteers, students, or guests have to pay for parking at any time!
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Our next New Volunteer Orientation (via Zoom) will be on June 5 at either 1pm or 7pm.
Potential volunteers are invited to register online here.
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Spring Term: April 8 - June 13
Do you have questions or comments about volunteering at Literacy Source?
Volunteer Question/Feedback Form
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Miss any of our past volunteer newsletters? You can access archived newsletters at the bottom of the Volunteer Resources of our webpage. | | | | |
