Americorps*VISTA : Shlonda Brouchet
The Durham Literacy Council
(DCLC) works to assist Durham adults achieve personal goals and experience
positive life change through increased literacy. We help under-educated adults gain the reading, writing,
math, English language, and educational credentials (GED) to earn a living
wage. In addition, as computer
literacy becomes the 4th proficiency, we are implementing and
creating ways to integrating technology into our instructional programs, using
technology to accelerate the achievement of literacy goals.
As an Americorps*VISTA volunteer my duties are to
support and enhance Family Literacy “Parents’ Powered-Up project, Techcelerated
GED, PC Basics, English as a Second Language and train community volunteers and
professionals in technology.
Parents’ Powered-Up Family Literacy Project
I have successful
implemented Parents’ Part into two Durham public elementary schools. A total of twenty-five families have
graduated from the course. All
families were furnished with upgraded IBM or Macintosh computers. I have expanded the manual to include
professional development skills and an element that focuses on story sharing as
a way to teach with early childhood & adult education components with a
foundation of using learner-centered instruction.
On April 18, 2002, a
wonderful group of eight families graduated from the Parents’ Powered-Up project
were awarded computers and education stipends. Four parents from the group have agreed
to continue Parents’ Powered-Up in their community. I will train them in:
Ø
Using children’s
software
Ø
Teaching PC
Basics
Ø
Selecting topics for
motivational speaking
Ø
Effectively demonstrating how
to share stories to your child (ren)
The workshop concluded with the families graduating and a column in the Herald-Sun newspaper admiring their successes.
"Cornwallis Powered-Up Parents"
Techcelerated
GED
The Durham County Literacy Council is in partnership with the
Center for Employment Training and we offer Techcelerated Pre-GED and GED
programs, a computer based GED tutorial to students without high school
diplomas. Under my guidance I have had 8 students to earn their GED's and
have trained 20 tutors to use Techcelerated in their one-to-one and/or group
sessions.
PC
Basics
Through a partnership with Easy Web Inc. In have assisted
their web designer in preparing students in the computer basics courses that
were pursuing a career in web design. These sessions extended for four
months. The lessons included PC Basics, Internet and Web
design.
ESL (English as
a Second Language) Tutor
As a ESL tutor I
have instructed classes which includes creating lesson plans, leading small
group conversations, and train new tutors to teach traditionally and using
computer based ESL software (ELLIS and SAS).
Durham County Literacy Council
1410 W. Chapel Hill
Street
Durham, NC 27707
http://www.durhamlit.org/