Big Draws!

In the photo on the left, Sylvia Wiebe Mason, Chairperson and Joan Macdonald, Vice Chair are pictured pulling the winner for one pair of 2008 Winnipeg Blue Bomber season tickets, courtesy of the Bombers. The lucky winner is Masami Giesbrecht of Winnipeg. 

All Literacy Partners of Manitoba members who hold non-profit organization memberships were entered into a draw to win one of three certificates to use to purchase resources and/or books for their programs. Sylvia and Joan pulled the following organizations:

$400 certificate - Military Resource Centre, Winnipeg
$300 certificate - Community Adult Learning Centre, Flin Flon
$200 certificate - Samaritan House, Brandon

Sylvia and Joan join LPM in congratulating the winners. (Winners, you will receive a letter with more details about your prize.) We also want to express our thanks to all of you who purchased calendars. 

Proceeds from the sale of the calendars will allow LPM to repeat the draw in September to mark Literacy Month (LPM's non-profit organization members are automatically entered) and purchase some new resources for LPM's library and resource centre.  Debra Litkowich, Resource Centre Coordinator, will be contacting you for suggestions of what you would like to see added.  The resources are here for our members use. 

Manitoba Reads literacy calendars raised just over $9,000 net for literacy. Thank you Sylvia, Joan, Angela (graphic designer) and Merlin (photographer) for bringing Sylvia's idea, Manitoba Reads, to fruition.

Sylvia and Joan are both school teacher/librarians.  Seeing first hand the importance of literacy they are already talking about working with LPM to do another project to raise funds to support literacy.  Stay tuned!  

Submitted by Lorri Apps, Executive Director, Literacy Partners of Manitoba

Shauna Fay, the coordinator of the literacy program at the John Howard Society, is this year’s recipient of the professional development bursary for practitioners.  Shauna plans to take courses at Mediation Services to help her develop a greater understanding of her communication style and to develop new techniques to use with her students and staff at the Winnipeg Remand Centre. 

Congratulations Shauna, we look forward to hearing about your courses at our Annual General Meeting in November!

At the February Board of Directors meeting the executive for 2008 was selected.  Remaining on the executive for a second year are:

*LPM is proud to have new board members join us this year. These new faces were officially welcomed during LPM's Annual General Meeting on November 27, 2007. 

Board members will represent the membership until the first meeting following LPM's Annual General Meeting which is usually held in November.  They can be contacted by calling 947-5757 or by sending an e-mail to their attention at literacy@mb.literacy.ca.

On Friday, February 8, 2008 LPM hosted a breakfast for practitioners. Guest speakers included Marilyn McKinnon, Executive Director of Learning Disabilities Association of Manitoba and Lorraine Kaczor from Literacyworks.

Both Marilyn and Lorraine presented on learning disabilities, learning assessments that are available and clarified the services their organizations offer.

It was also a great opportunity for practitioners to meet, mingle, share ideas and browse books to borrow from LPM’s resource centre.

We want to hear about what your program did to mark Family Literacy Day. Please email communications@mb.literacy.ca with your recap of events and digital photos (if available). Thank you!

If you have something special planned during I Love to Read Month, we want to hear about it. Email communications@mb.literacy.ca with details about your program’s event.

Ministers McGifford, Bjornson and Irvin-Ross read to first grade students at Mulvey School on January 29, 2008. Read more here about how Manitoba intends to support literacy.

The Adult Secondary Education Council of Manitoba (ASEC) is requesting proposals for presentations for ASEC 2008, a conference to be held on October 16 and 17, 2008. Of particular interest are proposals for workshops in content areas (Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English, World Issues, Literacy/Numeracy, etc.). Proposals should include: 1. Your name, occupation (teacher etc), place of employment (school etc). 2. A brief description of the proposed workshop. 3. Contact information. Submit proposals to Marc Schaeffer, ASEC Manitoba President.

ASEC is sponsoring a March professional development event. It will take place March 7, 2008 at the Caboto Centre. A forum on adult education and learning is presented in collaboration with the Manitoba Education Research Network. The forum brings researchers and interested parties together to discuss topics associated with adult learning. Presentations are generally based on research conducted by the presenters. Interested in presenting? Please submit a proposal to asecman@merlin.mb.ca.

Free diabetes education tools are available for download at: http://www.learningaboutdiabetes.org/englishBooks.html.

A surgery in mid Wales has launched podcasts about flu vaccination and cervical screening to advise patients. Visit http://www.builthsurgery.co.uk/pages/gallery/video.htm to view.

Click here to read an article about peppermint and its impact on test takers.

A teacher from Sacramento, California has compiled a list of the best websites of the year: http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/about/websites-of-the-year/ . Included on this list are the best online learning games, sites for English language learners and websites to help beginning readers.

A new issue of The Learning Edge Online Newspaper for Adult Learners, which focuses on goal setting and exploring apprenticeships, is available at http://www.thewclc.ca/edge.

A free website where students can create their own comic strips – http://www.makebeliefscomix.com.

Have you ever heard of The Internet Picture Dictionary? If you are working with ESL students, you may want to visit http://www.pdictionary.com/.

If you've visited LPM's website, you've seen our very first Featured Learner Writer, Rhonda Pelletier.

We invite learners to submit their work. Please see the submissions guidelines and poster.