Literacy – Spanning North America :: Wagoner OK :: Duncan BC :: Pleasantville NJ

The Gift of Knowledge: Emalou Bias overcomes challenges to earn GED

Tulsa World: 12.21.2016 by Christy Wheeland

Sometimes the best gift a person can receive is one she gives to herself. For Emalou Bias of Porter, that gift came in the form of a High School Equivalence Diploma that completes her high school education requirements.

Bias earned her GED this winter after completing a year’s worth of studies with the help of tutor Beth Johnston at the Wagoner Literacy Center.

The road to achieving her goal of completing high school was rocky at times. Bias attended Porter Consolidated School through the sixth grade, and said when she had issues with being bullied, her parents pulled her out and home schooled her.

Money then became an issue, so when she turned 18 in November of 2015, she decided to pursue her GED. She found help at the Wagoner Literacy Center.

Bias worked full time, so she only came to the center once a week for an hour and a half tutoring session.

“In English I was almost ready. Beth helped me with a little bit of English and my family did too,” Bias said. “Math was my main concern. I started out in 8th grade math, so I worked from that point through 12th grade math while I was here.”

“When I first started, I as like, ‘Oh my God, I have to learn all of this.’ I don’t think I want to do this,” she continued. “Beth said, ‘We can do it, it’s okay. We’ll get through this, just take it day by day.”  READ MORE @

Literacy Now

Cowichan

Duncan Lions donate $5,000 for literacy work

Cowichan Valley Citizen: 12.23.2016 Lexi Bainas

The Duncan Lions Club has donated $5,000 to Literacy Now Cowichan, aiding its efforts throughout the region.

“This support and endorsement for our adult literacy program means so much to our tutors and learners,” said LNC executive director Kathleen Erickson.

The Lions agree.

“We believe in support for literacy and many of us know people who face challenges with reading and writing. Therefore, we can connect with all that,” explained Lyne Moreau, president of Duncan Lions Club. “We like that the support LNC provides for computer literacy, too.”

Erickson said Literacy Now is experiencing something of a renaissance in its downtown learning centre.

=“Men and women, who for years have felt so badly about their reading or spelling, are working with tutors and are telling us that this experience is changing their lives,” she said.

The Lions’ funds will help adults “get the support they need to set goals, to learn in a safe, encouraging environment and to gain the confidence they need to plan for their future.”

Pathways to Learning, a program serving some 250 Cowichan region adult learners each year with free one-to-one literacy lessons with highly trained volunteer tutors, is where the funds will end up.  READ MORE @

@Literacy609 

A Pleasantville grandmother helps adults read

Press of Atlantic City: 12.27.2016 by Vincent Jackson

Kay Vigue, of Pleasantville, honed the skill of explaining things in a simple manner when she raised five children and worked as preschool instructor for 15 years.

Instead of running away screaming at the prospect of ever having to teach someone something ever again, Vigue, 68, brought her expertise to Literacy Volunteers Association Cape-Atlantic Inc., where she has served since 2002.

“I absolutely love teaching. It’s my passion,” Vigue said. “You have to be very delicate to introduce things without insult (to her English students).”

A lot of people want to give back when they are retire, Vigue said. Retired teachers, police officers and lawyers have all donated their time with Literacy Volunteers helping adults learn how to read or write in English, or both, she said.

Vigue is teaching her current student at the Absecon Public Library, but over the years, she has worked out of the Egg Habor Township, Galloway Township and Pleasantville branches of the Atlantic County Library system, she said.  READ MORE @  VIDEO