It’s All in How you Sell It! Sheila Butler, Broadview Learning Center, Bloomington, IN.

Introductions A little about me: 16 years teaching Adult Education, 12 years teaching Special Education I also have a math license. I teach in Bloomington, Indiana with Rob Moore. Currently I teach 3 classes, one at Work One multi levels (7.5 hours a week), one for teens ages 16 to 19 multi levels (12 hours a week)and an evening class called Fast Track for reading levels 9th grade or above (9 hours a week). I sit on the IAACE Board as the Professional Development Co-chair and I am the Region 8, PDF. I have been married for almost 25 years to my Prince and I have 3 adult sons and one mini dachshund.

Let’s Learn About You Raise your hand if you are: Teacher? ELL? ABE? DOC? Administrator? Work One? Teaching Assistant? Anyone I missed? Who has problems getting people to stay and finish? Getting Level Gains? What are you hoping to get out of today?

CASE STuDies Break into Groups and Look at your Case Studies. Answer the following questions about each student. If this student came into your program what would be the estimated time of completion given your average? What would be your course of action for this student?

My Data Work One (7.5) Fast Track (9) Teen Learning Class (12) 12.5-95 75% of all Students complete within 36 hrs. 80% within 40 hrs. Work One (7.5) Teen Learning Class (12) Fast Track (9) Range of Hours 12.5-95 13-161.25 12-38.25 Average Hours 39.19 39.78 32.10 w/o outlier 24.79

Begin with the End in Mind First day in my class, I do the following: Introductions and hearing their Why and goals for the future. Go through the scores generically with entire class. Sign their Adult Learning Plan, this will be completed during interview. Create an Indiana Career Connect Account Create their Indiana Career Explorer Account and take the interest inventories. Apply to Ivy Tech if that is their goal. Assign computer accounts and teach how to access. Sign up for Remind.com for communications.

Day 2 All students sign on to computers and work on Soft Skills or academic area of their choice. I then take one student at a time in next room to have a private goal setting interview with them. I go through their scores, assign remediation tasks and discuss a realistic goal and see if that fits their vision. We look at the testing calendar and put a HSE goal date on their folder and layout all of the goals they can meet in our program (such as IETs, Ivy Tech Accuplacer, WorkIN, Work Keys Testing, Employability Training.) If time allows we do our first Math Lesson and Essay Lesson.

Day 3 till End We review their calendar goals almost daily to remind them what we need to accomplish today. Students work on their computer accounts focusing on their own areas or prepping for Work Keys test or Accuplacer. If they are good readers I begin with the readiness tests in Science, Social Studies and Reading. If not, they are assigned a remedial reader (The hooked on Phonics SRA series readings) and encouraged to work on WIN Reading. We do 1 math lesson daily as a class following my math list. At least once a week we do a writing activity that is often paired with an employability skill. Once they have taken readiness tests I use the Kaplan Big Blue book and assign specific readings to focus on weak areas, or I assign them work on Plato or out of other books.

Urgency is Necessary Goal setting creates a sense of Urgency. If there is a long way to get to ultimate goal, choose closer targets and give them a date and talk about them every class.

Follow up is Key If a student misses class, it is important to send an immediate message. Make sure students are trained and have a way to contact you if they must be absent – have someway they can make up the time if desired. If student is under 18, communicate with parents as well. Encouragement and giving the parents back the dream of graduation is wonderful. I use remind.com which keeps your personal number private and with the app, it keeps the school messages separate from personal.

Reward and Honor ALL Effort I display all of their accomplishments on graduation hats hung on my door. They can earn a nomination to the National Adult Education Honor Society. They get a cap and gown graduation. They can earn a Soft Skills Certificate. They can earn an IET Certification in various areas. They can earn reward for perfect attendance with a reference letter. They can earn a National Career Readiness Certificate. They can apply and earn college level scores on their Accuplacer test. They can get help applying for and getting a job.

Problems? Queries? Concerns? Questions? Problems? Queries? Concerns?

Take Away If you are not post testing until after 40 hours and you are losing people, or not getting completion. Plan and prep to post test sooner. Take advantage of their initial motivation and urgency to start class and try to keep it going with goal setting and follow up. Focus on Reading and Weak areas first. Eliminate strong areas from preparation quickly. Know you do not have to be perfect and you can’t teach everything but you can teach enough. Begin with the end in Mind and remember – It is all in how you sell it.

Contact Info and Web Pages: Sheila Butler, ABE Teacher and PDF Region 8 Broadview Learning Center Bloomington, Indiana 812-327-8531 sbutler@mccsc.edu https://www.facebook.com/groups/IndianaAE/ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIk9aJHQg4WID_odByv9A_s5cUYu_0a 2J