CALP Connections: November 2016

Updates from Team CLN:
Welcome, Farewell and Congratulations!

Many of you may have heard that we have recently gone through some staffing changes, and we are delighted to give you the following updates:

In October, we welcomed Pat Halewich to the CLN Team in the new position of Events Specialist. Pat will continue to oversee the planning and delivery of the annual Literacy and Learning Symposium, as well as support the coordination of increased regional delivery of a variety of training opportunities. She will also play a key role in helping the provincial PD system collect, report on and reflect on the new Outcomes-Based Measurement and Evaluation framework for Professional Development throughout the province.

Here at the provincial office in Edmonton, we are also saying a fond farewell to Mahsa Jalali, who has been with us as our Program Support over the last 18 months. Last year Mahsa earned her license as a realtor, and is leaving us to dedicate herself to her new career in real estate. We have enjoyed her sense of humour and helpfulness, and she will be missed. We wish her all the best in her new adventure.

We will be welcoming a new member to Team CLN later this month to fill the Program Support position. Be sure to check out the December newsletter to meet our new staff member - we can't wait for you to meet her!

And finally, we would be remiss if we did not also update you on the change in Central Alberta. Not to worry, Cheryl is still your trusty Regional Support Staff, but she now has a new last name. Last month, Cheryl got married! Cheryl's phone number and email address remain unchanged, but she has now taken the name Cheryl Lovstrom. If you are in the Central region, be sure to update your contact information for Cheryl.

Experienced Staff Summit - October 20, 2016

On October 20th, CLN hosted a summit in Edmonton for over 40 delegates. Invitations were sent out to experienced senior staff from across the province - people who have been in their position for 10 years or more. The collective experience in the room was an amazing 637 years of service to the Community Adult Learning Program!

The day focussed on mapping the training and professional development opportunities that were identified as relevant and useful to the work these staff do, as well as on mapping out where there may be gaps, and what the priorities for new or updated training and PD might be for experienced CALP staff.

The room was full of laughter and an amazing generosity of spirit, as these dedicated practitioners shared with each other, and with the CLN staff and board, their experiences, their successes and their challenges.

Thank you to all who attended and participated so actively and so openly.

CLN will continue these conversations, to ensure we hear a broad range of voices and perspectives as we continue to improve the provincial Professional Development system.

CLN Prepares to Launch New e-Learning Workshop: CALP Financials

Over the last several months, CLN has been working on the development of four new microlearning workshops for the CALP Portal.

The first of these will be rolled out to the CALP system in early December.

CALP Financial Mangement Microlearning Workshop

The workshop includes modules on:

Understanding your Funding

Creating your CALP Budget

Managing your CALP Finances, and

Reading and Reporting on Financials

CLN Regional Support Staff, Val Rathjen, shares her own personal
learning journey throug CALP Financials as a former CALP Staff.

The e-learning includes brand new videos, tips, tools and templates to help you better understand and manage financials for your CALP grant. You will be able to download some handy cheat sheets around what expenses are eligible or ineligible, what the financial requirements are for the CALP grant, and key terms and definitions related to manging your CALP's money.

And be sure to watch for these new microlearning workshops coming in the Spring of 2017!

• Learner Assessment
• Essential Skills, and
• Learner Support Services

Alberta Workforce Essential Skills - Training and Resources for CALPs

Alberta Workforce Essential Skills (AWES) is currently presenting a series of workshops around the province to demonstrate new resources that have been developed for CALP Practitioners.

If you are thinking you can’t afford another second away from your office or you will fall beneath an avalanche of work so deep you will need a locator beacon to find you - think again! This day long training will make your life easier. It’s designed by Alberta Workforce Essential Skills (AWES), and delivered by Sue Oguchi, who is a leader in the field of Essential Skills and English Language Learning.

This curriculum and resource guide was written for those working with English Language Learners but this series of resources has been vetted by long time CALP members and CALP trainers. It is useful for anyone with Literacy, Numeracy, or Communication challenges. Workplace Essential Skills, as it has been drummed into us for years, are those skills we all need in order to succeed in the workplace in life.

This workshop involves hands-on training on the use of resources specially designed for CALP programs!

• Lesson plans laid out for individual and classroom use
• Employment and job search resources vetted by experienced CALP practitioners
• User-friendly cultural and Intercultural resources 
• Assessment tools that you can use quickly to get a read on where to start with your learners
• A current resource guide that will help you narrow down online resources, and trust they have been used successfully by our colleagues (No more getting lost on the internet for days!)

Fourteen people took the day long training in Grande Prairie on October 18th, and we were blown away.

Imagine that you have that learner walking into your office for a resume and you suspect they may have reading difficulties, but you’re not sure where to start.

• You have a resource guide that narrows down your research from days to hours.
• You have workbooks you can give to your tutors or instructors that will help set a curriculum specific to learner needs.
• You have a teacher’s guide that can give you background information and notes that will help you.

Imagine you have employers who come to you with challenges with their employees, and you suspect there may be literacy and language issues. This guide will give you a curriculum you can draw from to address specific issues to these learners and this employer.

Best of all, you have a way of teaching literacy, numeracy and language that gets results. Your learners are building language and foundational skills, and their “homework” is done by successfully completing day-to-day activities you have introduced to them and taught them to navigate.

Practice is real life. And practice makes perfect.

If you have the opportunity, don’t miss the training. It’s currently being piloted around the province, at no cost to CALPs who participate. It is definitely well worth a day of your time.

Kelly Schram, Executive Director
Manning Community Adult Learning and Literacy

** For more information on the resources that are in development, or the upcoming training opportunities, contact:

Sue Oguchi
sue@awes.ca

CALP Database - Privacy and Security FAQs

Over the last several weeks, as many of you have been completing the CALP Final Report for the 2015-16 programming year, the CLN has been receiving an increased number of inquiries and questions about the CALP Database, and how it can help you track and report on the indicators associated with the Logic Model and Evaluation Framework for the CALP program.

The CALP Database is a web-based registration and data collection application, with custom reports that have been built to mirror the information you are asked to report on to Advanced Education in the CALP Final Report. We have heard great feedback from CALPs who used the program this past year and used it to compile statistics for their final reports quickly and easily.

We have also, however, heard that there are a number of questions and concerns that have come up around security and privacy, with the move to an online platform for tracking learner data. We'd like to take this opportunity to tell you a bit more about how CLN is ensuring the integrity, safety and security of your CALP's data when you choose to use the CALP Database.

Here are a few of the most frequently asked questions:

Q: Is our data safe online?

A: The CALP Database is protected using technology called SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). SSL is the industry standard used to ensure the integrity and security of data that is accessed or transmitted online, and is used for e-commerce websites, online banking sites, etc. In plain language, "SSL" means that when you connect to a server on the Internet, the transfer of data between your computer and the server is encrypted. The data is encrypted, or "scrambled" so that, without authenticated credentials, the data looks just looks like nonsense as it is being transmitted over the Internet.

Q: Who has access to our data?

A: System administrators, including select CLN staff and the system's software developer, are able to access data.

• Only CLN staff who have been trained in the administration of the Database may be given access. All CLN staff are required to sign a code of conduct annually, with includes a confidentiality clause.
• CLN has also put in place a "Data Protection Agreement" with the company contracted to develop and host the Database, Ignite Web Solutions. The agreement outlines the responsibilities and requirements that have been agreed to ensure the utmost protection of personal and confidential information, and to ensure compliance with relevant legislation. You can read the full agreement here.
• Each organization using the Database ONLY has access to their own records, and not to any other information.
• Government of Alberta staff do not have access to any of the data on the CALP Database.

Q: Where does our data "live"?

A: Data for and from the CALP Database is stored on a secure server, located in Montreal, Quebec. It is backed up to a separate secure server located in Ottawa, Ontario.

Q: I'd like to know more.... Where do I start?

A: If you have additional questions about the CALP database, or if you are interested in setting up an account for your organization, please contact Odette at news@calp.ca or call 1-877-485-4926.

The CALP Database is available for use to all CALPs at no cost.

Centre for Family Literacy Launches Flit for Andoid

The Centre for Family Literacy is pleased to announce that their free family literacy app Flit (families learning and interacting together) is now available to Android users. In addition to launching the Android version of the app, the iOS version, available since January 2016, has been updated with 16 new activities. Flit is an app that provides parents with ideas and tools to help their children develop early language and literacy skills during the critical preschool years.
 
As we all know, research shows the strong influence that parents have on the literacy development of their children. Parents who talk with and read to their children from birth prepare them to learn at school. The activities featured on the app encourage these important interactions between parent and child.

Parents will find specially tailored and curated activities to do with their preschool children in eight categories: books, rhymes, games, crafts, writing, numbers, cooking, and reading. Each activity is rated for age appropriateness, allowing parents to support their children’s development at different stages.

The app provides suggestions for activities that parents can incorporate into their everyday lives, from sorting laundry to making grocery lists with pictures. Each activity also has a section that explains the why of the activity—how it supports a child’s early language and literacy development.

The app is also a useful resource for CALP practitioners and their clients. We hope that everyone in the CALP Community will take a moment to download the app and explore a few of the activities to see how you can use them in your programs. We would greatly appreciate it if you could share the app with your colleagues, partner organizations, and families.

To download the android version of the app, please visit http://bit.ly/2eLuiGf.

To download the iOS version, please visit http://apple.co/2e22xb9.

Coming Soon: Literacy and Learning Symposium Call for Presenters

Planning for the 2017 Literacy and Learning Symposium is already well underway. If you haven't marked your calendar yet, be sure to 

Save the Dates!

September 25th - 29th, 2017

DoubleTree by Hilton, West Edmonton

We want to make sure that next year's Symposium program is designed to meet your needs with high quality training and professional learning opportunities.

Next week we will be publishing a Call for Presenters. We are looking for interactive learning sessions that can be anywhere from a 90 minute break-out session to a half day or full day training session.

We are excited to be able to expand the training program in 2017, so you can access more in-depth learning opportunities, and still take part in shorter sessions, regional meetings and other networking.

Please put your thinking cap on, and be sure to share the call with speakers and trainers YOU would like to see at the Symposium!

Quote of the Day

There is no end to education.

It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education.

The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.

- Jiddu Krishnamurti