Changing Lives Through Literacy

Computer Lab Tutor: Jason Sugimura

Table of Contents

Featured

Computer Lab

Tutor: Jason

Sugimura

1

Literacy

Month

Events

2

English

Summer

Classes

Wrap-up

3

Reporting Hours

Tutor Training

4

Featured

Learner

Featured Tutor

5

September

Calendar

6

Jason Sugimura volunteers at Belle

Haven and Project Read – Menlo Park

computer labs. Jason grew up in the

East Bay and is a lifelong Bay Area

resident. He is passionate about

helping people learn to use technology

to make their lives easier. In his spare

time he exercises and does distance

running. He has competed in official 5K,

10K, and Half-Marathon distances, the

2014 Bay to Breakers, and the Spartan

obstacle race at AT&T Park. He

believes that training to achieve race

goals is exactly like practicing to

achieve goals of speaking English or

using technology.

One sport he follows closely is

automobile racing, specifically

NASCAR. His favorite team is the

Lowe's #48 Chevrolet driven by 6-time

champion Jimmie Johnson.

"The best part is seeing the big smile

on a learner’s face when they learn and

understand something for the first time."

- Jason Sugimura

Roberta Roth - Literacy Program Manager & Co-Editor

Elibet Jimenez - Literacy Outreach Specialist & Co-Editor

Jan Lin - Office Assistant & Production Manager

Mercy Nuesca - Computer Lab Coordinator & Co-Production Manager

Sara Tevis - Beginning Speaking Teacher

Vicki Vozza - Intermediate Literacy Teacher

Maria Lozano - ESL Classroom Coordinator

Doug Booth - Office Volunteer, Salesforce Administrator & Co-Editor

Project Read - Menlo Park Staff

Volume 1, Issue 7 September, 2014

800 Alma Street Menlo Park, CA 94025 650-330-2525 projectread@menlopark.org

Photo provided by Mei Li

Changing Lives Through Literacy

Project Read Raises Literacy Awareness in September

This September, California Library Literacy

Services celebrates 30 years of helping low

-literate adults improve their reading

through free programs at our public

libraries, including our very own Project

Read – Menlo Park. According to the

National Center for Educational Statistics,

23% of adult Californians lack basic literacy

skills. That’s 4.5 million Californians!

This is a challenge we can

overcome. Somewhere

between 10 and 15 million

Californians possess the

amazing ability to help an

adult learner improve his

or her reading skills and

ensure future generations

don’t fall into low literacy’s

vicious cycle. If you can

read, you can change a

life, and the lives of those around that

person.

Project Read – Menlo Park is celebrating

literacy awareness by hosting various

activities throughout the month. You may

have seen the flyers posted around and

may even have received an invitation in the

mail. Here is a recap:

First up is a proclamation. In honor of

CLLS’s 30th anniversary, a City

Proclamation will be made on Tuesday,

September 9th at 7 pm. The proclamation

will be presented by the Mayor of Menlo

Park, Ray Mueller, at the City Council

Meeting in Council Chambers located at

701 Laurel Street, Menlo Park. Before the

proclamation, there will be refreshments

offered at the downstairs program room at

the Menlo Park Library at 6 pm.

A few days after the proclamation, we will

be hosting a Tutor &

Learner Recognition Event

to acknowledge all the hard

work and time both

volunteer tutors and

learners have put into

improving their literacy

skills. The event will take

place on Saturday,

September 13th from 4 to 6

pm at the home of a

longtime volunteer tutor.

Please call the Project Read office or email

Elibet Jimenez at

esjimenez@menlopark.org to RSVP by no

later than Tuesday, September 9th. Also,

we are in need of greeters for the event so

if you can smile and are available to help,

please give us a call!

You can also show your support of this

worthy statewide program and the work that

we do by “Liking” the CLLS and Project

Read – Menlo Park’s Facebook pages.

Together, California Reads.

Our News Page 2

Changing Lives Through Literacy

English Summer Classes are a Hit!

Our News Page 3

This summer, Project Read – Menlo

Park held its very first summer session

for the English classes. The classes met

twice a week for 10 weeks and were

held at the Belle Haven Branch Library.

During the session the Beginning

Speaking class studied transportation

and phrasal verbs, while the

Intermediate Literacy class focused on

having lots of discussions to increase

their vocabulary. “I thought the summer

classes were pretty successful and that

people really enjoyed them!” says Maria

Lozano, our classroom coordinator.

“Although we were a little tight for space

we still managed to have a good class and

it was nice to be next to the computers. It

was a good bonus for students to be able

to learn more about computers this

summer.”

We want to express our heartfelt gratitude

to Judy Fagerholm, Heriberto Madrigal, and

the rest of the staff at the Belle Haven

Library for opening their doors for our use

after hours. We also want to thank Sue

Kayton for coming out to our classes to

speak about computers.

The fall session began on Tuesday,

September 2nd. If you are interested in

becoming a class tutor, please contact

Elibet Jimenez at

esjimenez@menlopark.org.

Above: Students in the Beginning Speaking class gather together for an impromptu discussion game.

Changing Lives Through Literacy

Our News Page 4

Keeping Track of Time: Reporting Volunteer Hours

by Doug Booth

One of the primary ways Project Read monitors what is happening with the program is by collecting and totaling the hours that are given to the Adult Literacy effort. There are a couple of ways that hours are collected. Onsite volunteers report their efforts monthly via an online application. There are sign-in/out forms at events and activities. As a Tutor, soon after you start meeting with your first Learner, your email is added to a distribution list and a monthly email asks you to respond with the number of hours you and your Learner have accrued (please report one month at a time).

There are four types of hours that we ask Tutors to report: 1) Tutoring hours - this is the time that you spend working with your Learner; 2) Prep hours - this is the time you spend getting your study plan together and

even traveling to the tutoring session (both you and your Learner); 3) Instruction hours - this is the hours that you spend in Project Read workshops or training; and 4) Non-tutoring hours - this can be the off-time that you spend with your Learner or that a Learner gets additional instruction, such as touring a museum or getting together to cook a meal. This also includes the hours that a Learner might spend in other types of training – such as Cañada College, Sequoia Palo Alto Adult School, miscellaneous formats (as long as it's given in English and your Learner uses their English).

Note - Please let us know if you don't receive the email reminders monthly so we can get you on the list. If you don't use email, there are paper reporting forms just outside the Project Read office door. If you have questions, please ask.

Thank you for all you do!

Upcoming Tutor Training in October

Project Read - Menlo Park is growing and

so is our waiting list. There are learners

who want to learn English to improve their

lives, but without more volunteer tutors, it is

a challenge. This year, California Library

Literacy Services has set a goal of

recruiting 5,000 new volunteer adult literacy

tutors. That’s an average of 50 new tutors in

each library community—in order to meet

the needs of the learners and work towards

this goal, Project Read is hosting training

sessions in October for potential new tutors.

Please share with anyone you know who

might have an interest in becoming a

trained volunteer tutor. Free training

provided. They will be on Tuesday,

October 7th from 5:30 to 8:30pm and

Saturday, October 11th from 10 am to 3

pm. A follow-up session will take place on

Tuesday, November 18th from 6 to 8 pm.

For more information, stop by the office or

call us at 650-330-2525.

Changing Lives Through Literacy

Our News Page 5

Tutor Focus: Dave Yeo

Learner Focus: Jose Siliezar

This month’s featured learner is Jose

Siliezar. Jose works one-on-one with his

tutor Dave Yeo and also attends the

Intermediate Literacy class. Before joining

Project Read, Jose said that English was

very difficult for him and that he struggled to

understand people. Since joining Project

Read, Jose has “made giant leaps” and is

now able to express himself better. He feels

that being able to speak well and more

comfortably is the biggest reward for his

time spent with the program. He also

recommends that other learners attend and

participate in the Conversation Club. He

says he enjoys listening to everyone and

hearing the different ways people talk.

Besides practicing his conversation and

reading and writing skills, Jose also works

on learning more about computers and

typing. In fact, nearly every week you will

find him and Dave working in the computer

lab using News for You Online, Rosetta

Stone or USA Learns. Jose’s favorite

activity is learning new vocabulary from the

News for You Online website and

completing the weekly crossword puzzle.

Dave Yeo has been a tutor with Project

Read–Menlo Park since April of 2010. He

and his learner Jose were matched shortly

after he started and have been working

together ever since. Besides tutoring one-on

-one, Dave also volunteers as a tutor in the

literacy classroom. His favorite thing about

tutoring is seeing Jose learn new things and

how he makes progress in new and

unexpected ways. What he finds most

challenging about tutoring is keep things

fresh and coming up with new approaches

and activities. Like many other tutors, Dave

has discovered that tutoring brings its own

rewards simply from interacting with the

learner, and witnessing the strides that the

learner makes. He knows that he leaves

class smiling because of the fun he’s had,

participating and working with such good

people who have positive attitudes and are

very self-motivated. Dave believes that the

key is to get involved with the learner you’re

tutoring. His advice for tutors is “Don’t be

afraid of it, just get into it!”

Dave and Jose in the Project Read - Menlo Park computer lab.

Changing Lives Through Literacy

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

8

International

Literacy Day

PRMP Comp.

Lab Tutoring

10AM-2PM,

6-8PM

9

PRMP

Proclamation, City

Council Chamber,

7 PM

Fall English

Classes, BHS,

7-8:30PM

BH Comp. Lab

Tutors, 5-7PM

10

Conversation

Club, DMR, 5PM

PRMP Comp.

Lab Tutors,

10AM-2PM, 6-8PM

11

Fall English

Classes, BHS,

7-8:30PM

12 13

Tutor and Learner

Recognition Event

Home of Tutor Susan

Speicher, 4-6PM

15

PRMP Comp.

Lab Tutoring

10AM-2PM,

6-8PM

16

Fall English

Classes, BHS,

7-8:30PM

BH Comp. Lab

Tutors, 5-7PM

17

Conversation

Club, DMR, 5PM

PRMP Comp.

Lab Tutors,

10AM-2PM, 6-8PM

18

Fall English

Classes, BHS,

7-8:30PM

19 20

22

PRMP Comp.

Lab Tutoring

10AM-2PM,

6-8PM

23

Fall English

Classes, BHS,

7-8:30PM

BH Comp. Lab

Tutors, 5-7PM

24

Conversation

Club, DMR, 5PM

PRMP Comp.

Lab Tutoring

10AM-2PM,

6-8PM

25

Fall English

Classes, BHS,

7-8:30PM

26 27

29

PRMP Comp.

Lab Tutoring

10AM-2PM,

6-8PM

30

Fall English

Classes, BHS,

7-8:30PM

BH Comp. Lab

Tutors, 5-7PM

Key BH=Belle Haven PRMP=Project Read-Menlo Park

BHS=Belle Haven School DMR=Downstairs Meeting Room