CETE staff helped organize, volunteer, and present at the Coalition on Adult Basic Education/Ohio Association for Adult and Continuing Education (COABE/OAACE) Regional Institute in Cleveland, Ohio. The Coalition on Adult Basic Education/Ohio Association for Adult and Continuing Education (COABE/OAACE) Regional Institute to represent and serve the providers of adult education in Ohio.

Last month, CETE staff helped organize, volunteer, and present at the Coalition on Adult Basic Education/Ohio Association for Adult and Continuing Education (COABE/OAACE) Regional Institute in Cleveland. As board members for OAACE, CETE staff members Jody Angelone, Adrienne Boggs, and Bobbie Sin contributed significant time and effort into making this conference a success. Additionally, Jody Angelone, the Vice President for Membership for COABE, coordinated efforts to make the conference a joint event between COABE and OAACE.

CETE staff members presented the following six sessions at the conference:

Formative Assessment Classroom Techniques (FACTs) for Adult Education

Presented by Tricia Hughes-Fitzgerald (Program Specialist at CETE) and Julie Thumann (Aspire Teacher at Cincinnati City Schools)

Session description: Have you ever heard the saying, perfect practice makes perfect? So then, what does imperfect practice make? Frustrated students who are not making progress and frustrated teachers who don’t know where and when the disconnect is happening! This is not good, especially in an adult education classroom….enter “formative assessment classroom techniques.” Formative assessment is a planned process of gathering assessment elicited evidence from students in order to adjust instruction and improve student learning. And, while sometimes barely noticeable to students, it can have a mighty impact on your teaching and student learning!

Working It Out: Critical Thinking in a Career Context

Presented by Katherine Bradley Fergus (Program Specialist at CETE)

Session description: Any individual with the desire to join the workforce, including adult education students, must demonstrate critical thinking skills – whether in the classroom, the workplace, or in their own lives. Adult education programs, administrators, and instructors can assist students in the development of these skills while simultaneously preparing them for the workforce. This session will explore and identify strategies for helping adult basic education educators integrate critical thinking tasks into instructional activities, workplace scenarios, and everyday life within the context of career readiness. Participants will gain insights for implementation, strategies for instruction, and tools for assisting students in developing the critical thinking skills demanded of the 21st century workforce.

New Teacher Orientation – From Process to Products

Presented by Tricia Hughes-Fitzgerald (Program Specialist at CETE) and Alicia Willis (Instructional Development Specialist at CETE)

Session description: The kiss of death for any and every professional development event? “This is great and all but…this doesn’t apply to me and/or my job.” New Teacher Orientation – From Process to Products will literally take you on our journey of exploring the job of an Ohio Aspire teacher and discovering what aspects of the job are the most critical through designing and delivering professional development to address the wide range of need-to-knows.

Learner-Centered Practice in Adult ESOL

Presented by Christina Terrell (Program Specialist at CETE)

Session description: In this interactive ELL-U workshop, participants will explore various ways to implement learner-centered practices in their teaching including through conducting needs assessments, drawing upon students’ stories, and engaging learners in meaningful and authentic language tasks and projects. Practitioners will be invited to grapple with common dilemmas that arise in classrooms around this issue. They will also choose an area related to the topic to explore in their practice. The presenter will model learner-centered practice by drawing upon the many experiences of participants.

Educate and Elevate: Adult Education, an Investment in America’s Future

Presented by Jody Angelone (Program Specialist at CETE)

Session description: To help you advocate for Adult Education as an investment in America’s future, COABE and NCSDAE have assembled campaign outreach tools. These tools can help you showcase your success stories, garner press coverage, and motivate stakeholders to support adult education by contacting their legislators. We will share how you can participate in the Educate & Elevate campaign and provide examples of how your program, staff, and students can weigh in on and impact important legislative discussions. Presenters will provide basic advocacy information and share practical ways that instructors can incorporate advocacy in their classrooms and become better advocates for their students. Participants will be provided with the Educate & Elevate Campaign Toolkit, resources, lesson plans, and examples of advocacy activities and events that can be replicated in the ABE and ESOL classrooms.

Designing and Delivering Effective Professional Development

Presented by Traci Lepicki (Associate Director at CETE) and Adrienne Boggs (Program Manager at CETE)

Session description: Do you determine the professional development (PD) for your program, region, or state? How do you choose PD? In this session presenters will provide an overview of Ohio’s PD system and highlight our model to designing and delivering effective PD—training, resources, and technical assistance. We will discuss a consultative approach to gathering information to inform PD decisions and invite session participants to share their experiences with PD as both PD consumers and as PD providers.

Contributor: Alicia Willis