Originally published in The Learning Center Exchange June 2008 Issue, by Michael Ruwe, University of North Carolina Wilmington

It is that time of year when learning center administrators begin to think about the Fall semester. That said, I have mixed emotions as I begin this essay about learning center preparedness: sad that it is necessary; apprehensive that I am able to do something; certain that I must. Perhaps by the end I will have found, if not a solution, then a sense of preparation.

During a regular workday, the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s (UNCW) University Learning Center will host approximately fifty tutors and one hundred tutees. In light of tragic events such as those at Virginia Tech in the Spring of 2007 and Northern Illinois in the Spring of 2008, many questions have been occurring to me with regard to my Learning Center’s preparedness for dealing with an emergency situation:

• What is the university’s role?
• Am I responsible for my tutors?
• How do I prepare myself and my tutors for a threatening situation?
• Are my tutors responsible for their tutees?
• The University Learning Center has emergency plans in place for fire, and because we are located on the coast, a hurricane, but do we need a plan for
• for this “threat”?
• Each of our 8×10 tutoring rooms has a glass window in the door—how do we prepare it for “lockdown”?
• Our Learning Lab is a large room that can have up to three tutors and twenty students in it at one time (it also has a glass window in both doors)–how do we prepare it for “lockdown”?
• Our lobby area, which two front desk workers occupy, has a glass wall front that faces a central hallway–how do we prepare it for “lockdown”?

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Originally posted on CSNYS on 7/11/08

A number of tools, such as TeamViewer, DimDim, Yugma and Acrobat Connect, let you display information over the Web. You can show everyone the applications or documents on your computer, interact via text chat, or even video conference, all for free. They might be just the thing for your next team meeting.

How do they work? The basic function of online conferencing tools is to provide an online “meeting room.” Typically, a moderator creates the “room,” and participants enter via a particular Web address. Some tools require participants to download a small application the first time they're used, an important consideration if many different people of different technical skill levels will be participating.

Participants who join a meeting can see everything the presenter displays, and interact with the presenter and with each other. Features vary substantially between applications, but may include the ability to see the presenter’s desktop, text chatting, displaying slide shows or documents, or video conferencing. Some even let presenters hand over control of their desktop to one of the participants.

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Program helps kids keep up with studies 80 volunteers work in 3 cities

By Rachel McGrath, Correspondent, Ventura County Star, Originally published 5/27/08

An addiction to methamphetamine cost Jennifer Long her marriage and, for a while, her children.

But the 28-year-old mother from the San Fernando Valley has managed to turn her life around. She completed a yearlong rehab program, was reunited with her children and, for the past two years, has been living at the Salvation Army Transitional Living Center in Ventura with her daughter Tabitha Masl, 8, and 10-year-old son Sage Masl.

While most parents would agree that it can be hard to make sure their children are keeping up at school and doing their homework, for Long, the emotional and physical upheavals of the past several years have made that task even more challenging.

"When it's the mother trying to help the kids, with some families that might work, but for mine it doesn't," she said. "They get frustrated with me, and I'm not doing it right, and it's just crazy."

So when Long was asked if she'd like her children to get some free tutoring through the nonprofit organization School on Wheels, she jumped at the chance.

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Originally published 7/18/08 on the San Diego County Office of Education website

The Tutor Connection Program created by the County Office of Education’s Michelle Lustig with California State University San Marcos was recently awarded a $10,000 check from former President Jimmy Carter at the National Community Service Conference in Atlanta.

The program is the only one in the state to utilize students from the university’s College of Education to tutor foster children, who range in age from 5 to 18.

Initiated in 2002, the Tutor Connection qualified as one of three national finalists for excellence in academic campus-community collaboration. More than 1,250 student teachers from CSUSM have participated in the program. Over 1,500 students in foster care have received tutoring services. Academic outcomes include 70 percent of students improving their reading scores and 80 percent improving their performance in at least one subject area.

Lustig, who worked with CSUSM professor John Halcon to devise the program, said, “The Tutor Connection Program is unique and valuable in that it is increasing the knowledge of a generation of new teachers,” said Lustig. “This program changes the perception that many have of at-risk kids. It gives people a better understanding of where the youth come from, and bridges those two worlds together.”

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Tribune story jars state into action

By Stephanie Banchero and Patricia Callahan, Chicago Tribune reporters, originally published 7/21/08

State education officials launched an investigation Monday into dubious after-school programs following a Tribune story that exposed questionable spending and political patronage.

The chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education vowed to reclaim misspent money and ratchet up oversight of the grant program.

The board already has begun looking into the $20,000 grants awarded to three groups that employed ex-cons, a violation of the state contract.

"The Tribune story raised the bar for us, and we plan to make these grant awards a much more rigorous process," said Jesse Ruiz, chairman of the state Board of Education. "We have to go and try to retrieve funds if people are not doing what they promised us they'd do."

The Tribune investigation, published Sunday, found that taxpayer money was wasted on questionable programs, including many that rewarded one lawmaker's political supporters.

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