Project Mentoring in Ohio for Reading Excellence, which is in need of more mentors, is a volunteer mentoring program that organizers say has helped improve students’ reading results. Elgin West is one of more than 200 schools around Ohio enrolled in the scientifically-based reading project offered through the Putnam County Educational Service Center.

Students enrolled in the program at Elgin receive at least 30 minutes of one-on-one mentoring four times a week. Coordinator Christine Kepler, a Title I reading instructor at Elgin West, said teachers are trained how to write individualized lesson plans for the students and monitor content taught during each lesson to make sure the students are making progress. (more…)

Over the summer, Chambersburg Area School District will institute a program designed to reach ESL students and their families. The district has ordered 75 Amazon Kindles to send home with students over summer vacation. The district received a $16,000 federal grant for a one-time expenditure.

“Chris Bigger (director of curriculum) and I talked and we both wanted it to be literacy-based,” said Sarah Herbert, K-12 English as a Second Language Supervisor. “He suggested Kindles to incorporate the technology piece into it. We have over 100 students in the district classified as immigrants – which means they’ve been in the U.S. for less than three years.” (more…)

Studies show that children who begin learning a foreign language early in elementary school outperform students who start later and also show a more positive attitude toward learning the language. There’s also evidence that children who learn a second language early do better in school in general.

Even if your child doesn’t attend a school that offers a foreign language, there are other ways to give him or her the gift of learning. Check with neighbors or baby-sitters to see if they can teach your child a few words in a language they know. Point out foreign words on labels or signs. Look them up together. Watch shows on television – like Sesame Street or Dora the Explorer – that use non-English words. (more…)

Using the latest in e-learning technologies and developments, BridgeTEFL, a Denver-based TESOL provider, released a new, interactive online TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) certification course this month. The BCELT, Bridge’s certificate course in English Language Teaching, meets the 100-hour international benchmark for English teacher certification, with the additional benefit of graduate credit from the University of Northern Colorado for qualified participants.

Unlike many online TEFL-training courses, the BCELT is a virtual classroom experience, delivered via an easy-to-use platform through Moodle, a well-known VLE (virtual learning environment). This highly interactive format allows for active discourse and debate between classmates through online forums. (more…)