Poverty: Blog Action Day 2008

Poverty.



80 Ways to do something about poverty #14: "Share your skill or knowledge, so they can improve their knowledge to increase their life/prosperity."

ESL/EFL teachers can do something about poverty. for instance, i will never forget volunteering as a teacher in a rural area, teaching ESL classes for migrant farm workers. some students had very bad experiences with formal schooling and were hesitant to try. some students couldn't read or write, yet they were there. some students didn't have a babysitter, let alone extra money or reliable transportation, yet they were there. students. workers. families. they came to class each week, hoping to learn English. my mentor told me that teaching students English meant not only that they could seek better opportunities for themselves, but also that they could reach out to their community and become a part of something bigger. education truly empowers people and can lift people from extreme circumstances. it helps people not only to help themselves, but to help others.

Follow-up to B4B Session

After the Blogging for Beginners session, Claudia noticed some similarities between a few of the participants and wrote about it on her blog, ELT Notes. You can read her post ELT Teachers Using Wikis

In this post, Claudia posed a few questions, including:
"How are your projects getting on? What are the difficulties you're encountering?"

My answer:
For the time being, my ESL for Migrants wiki project hasn't grown very much. The main reason I see for this is that the wiki wasn't developed for class use. Instead, I had an idea that former graduate students and current English language teachers would share materials that were successful with this specific learner population. Because of this reason, it has been difficult to motivate others to become involved and to get the project going, although I have had a couple of urgent requests for more information. There is a definite need for good material for teaching English to migrant farm workers and I will continue trying to continue this wiki project, although it could take much longer than I initially expected. Some time ago, Claudia and I discussed the phrase "under perpetual construction" and this would be a fitting phrase for ESL for Migrants!

I would be interested to find out how others have gotten collaborative projects not related to specific courses off the ground!

A New Wiki is Born

I'm proud to announce the birth of a new wiki named "ESL for Migrants". I've only just had the chance to develop it a little during this EVO session, so please be kind as this is just the beginning and it is my very first attempt to organize a collaborative endeavor through a wiki. This wiki is a dream come true and I hope it will be able to grow and grow!

For several years now, I've had a true desire to create an online resource for ESL teachers who work with the under-served migrant and seasonal farm worker population in the U.S., and especially in my home state of Ohio. When I was a graduate student, several members of the university's TESL program volunteered or worked with a local community-based social service agency to offer ESL classes and we noticed a need for appropriate materials and information. We worked together to create some resources, and I'm hoping to be able to share some of these via the wiki.

Right now, I've created pages on the wiki for teaching materials/resources; "Voices from the Field" (real life experiences of students, teachers, and others); and recommended print and online resources, but other related topics of interest are also welcome. If you have any information to contribute to this wiki or know of anyone who would be interested, please do get in touch. And visit ESL for Migrants soon!