eVALBEC May 2010
This is the electronic newsletter of VALBEC, the Victorian Adult Literacy and Basic Education Council, and is sent to about 850 practitioners on the first of each month (other than January). It is also available in the ‘News’ section of our web site http://www.valbec.org.au
Disclaimer: The activities, goods and services mentioned in eVALBEC are not endorsed by VALBEC in any way. People should make their own judgment about the suitability of each item.
How to submit items: http://www.valbec.org.au/05/news.htm
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IN THIS ISSUE OF eVALBEC:
1. 2010 Conference  I learn ...YOU learn ... WE learn
2. Fine Print Student Writing Edition 2010
3. Securing Jobs for Your Future - Skills for Victoria Implementation Review
4. Annual General Meeting – Friday 4 June, 4.00
5. Reading Writing Hotline update
6. Hands Up .. Hands On ...  Friday 10 and Saturday 11 September, Darwin, NT
5. RaPAL Conference 2010 Greenwich University, London
6. Australian Workforce Futures – A National Workforce Development Strategy
7. Page Turners!  
8. 35th ACEVic Conference
9. Subscribe to eVALBEC?
10. Unsubscribe?
11. Contact VALBEC
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1. 2010 Conference  I learn ...YOU learn ... WE learn
VALBEC Conference  – Friday June 4
Pre-conference workshops – Thursday June3
William Angliss Conference Centre
Early Bird registrations closed.
Keynote speaker: Kate Perkins, a specialist in the leadership and management of innovation and change with an extensive background in adult literacy and numeracy. She will share some of the models and strategies that have had a profound impact on her approach to professional learning. Come and see if you think about ‘real’ learning in the same way as she does, and share your insights with other members of our unique field.
ACSF Pre-conference workshops – Thursday June3
Registrations for ‘Understanding and Applying the Australian Core Skills Framework, ACSF’ close on May 13.
All at http://www.valbec.org.au/conf2010/reg.htm (2MB)
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2. Fine Print Student Writing Edition 2010
Theme : The Spice of Life – food and cooking
Deadline: Friday June 11th
Students
Ideas for writing could be: food traditions and culture; food abundance or privation; food issues such as food security and sustainability; flavour and smell; growing food including community gardens; food jobs; evocative food; learning to cook; what food or meal is the ‘spice of life’ for you and why ……….
Teachers
We want you to use your students’ writing as inspiration for writing about your teaching practice and the ways in which you develop learning activities that enable integration of curriculum to achieve learning outcomes.
For more information http://www.valbec.org.au/studentwriting2010.htm
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3. Securing Jobs for Your Future - Skills for Victoria Implementation Review
Ernst &Young has been engaged to conduct this review and seeks input from stakeholders on stage one and offers an opportunity to provide recommendations on early lessons learned. The VALBEC committee has been notified that contact will be made by telephone interview.
VALBEC members are invited to send comments to info@valbec.org.au
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4. Annual General Meeting – Friday 4 June, 4.00
Thinking about taking a more active role in VALBEC?
Are you a committed, active and informed practitioner? Do you enjoy engaging in dialogue with colleagues? Do you have strong ideas about how the adult literacy, language and numeracy fields have evolved and should continue to develop? The VALBEC committee is a dynamic and collaborative group who meet once a month to discuss, plan and take action on behalf of members and the ALBE field. Consider taking the next step and nominate for the VALBEC committee at the AGM.
William Angliss Conference Centre, Level 5, Cnr La Trobe and King Streets, Melbourne
More details to follow.
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5. Reading Writing Hotline update
Did you know that since its inception in 1994, the Reading Writing Hotline has received over 125,700 calls.
2251 calls were received April – November 2009.
The budget of $170,000 only sustained the running costs of salaries and infrastructure so no paid advertising has been commissioned. Television networks have continued to run the Hotline’s advertisement as community service announcements. The percentage of callers who sourced the phone number from the internet and phone book has increased. The proportion of callers who called on their own behalf decreased whilst the proportion of callers from agencies or employers increased.
Share your anecdotes and concerns with RWH to help them lobby for more funds?
http://www.literacyline.edu.au/
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6. Hands Up .. Hands On ...
Call for Presentations still open
Conference: Friday 10 and Saturday 11 September at Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT
Practitioners, researchers, program managers, project participants and policy analysts working in the field of adult language, literacy and numeracy are invited to submit a presentation proposal for the Hands up... Hands on… ACAL 2010 Conference.
There are three sub-themes:
Literacy and numeracy for everyday living
Literacy and numeracy for building strong communities
Reclaiming quality learning and teaching
More at http://www.acal.edu.au/2010conf/call.htm
Early bird registrations open in the next few days at http://www.acal.edu.au/2010conf/
Register your interest to get regular updates at http://www.acal.edu.au/2010conf/regint2.htm
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5. RaPAL Conference 2010 Greenwich University, London
15-17 July
Multiliteracies: Changing literacies, changing worlds
It is a decade since the New London Group used the term Multiliteracies in their groundbreaking volume of the same name (Cope and Kalantzis, 2000) to describe the diverse linguistic forms and multimodal media we now employ to communicate with each other.
For more information contact
Vera Hutchinson: v.hutchinson@ioe.ac.uk or Irene Schwab: i.schwab@ioe.ac.uk
http://www.literacy.lancs.ac.uk/rapal/conference/
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6. Australian Workforce Futures – A National Workforce Development Strategy
This recently released publication says that the additional funding which is currently being met by recent government programs, will need to be maintained until at least 2020 to provide a 3% per annum growth in enrolments in both higher education and VET. It also recommends that existing government programs that target language, literacy and numeracy be expanded by 50% to lift workforce participation and productivity. Read more by downloading a copy from
http://www.skillsaustralia.gov.au/PDFs_RTFs/WWF_strategy.pdf  (1.2MB)
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7. Page Turners!
Greetings Adult ESL and Literacy Teachers. You probably already know there are 3 series of Page Turners! the low-level reading texts suitable for ESL and adult literacy.
But did you know: Page Turners SERIES 4 is now available with10 New Titles!
And Also: Free Audio for Series 4 is available at http://pageturners.prace.vic.edu.au
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8. 35th ACEVic Conference
EmbrAC(E)ing the Challenge
Thursday 6th May 2010
Rendezvous Hotel, Melbourne
http://acevic.org.au/Content/category/2010-conference/
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9. Subscribe to eVALBEC?
Click this link <mailto:info@valbec.org.au?subject=eVALBEC_Subscribe> and we’ll put you on the list to receive this monthly enewsletter.
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10. Unsubscribe?
Just click this link <mailto:info@valbec.org.au?subject=eVALBEC_Unsubscribe> (no typing required!) and hit Send or, send an e-mail with the word Unsubscribe in the subject.
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11. Contact VALBEC
eVALBEC is the monthly electronic newsletter of (VALBEC) the Victorian Adult Literacy  and Basic Education Council.
E-mail: info@valbec.org.au
Web: http://www.valbec.org.au
Postal: Box 861 Springvale South VIC 3172
Ph: 03 9546 6892
Fax: 03 9546 0421