Our E2, E3, W2, and W3 students learned effective reading strategies to use at home with children from a children’s librarian from Seward Park Library. She taught how to read to children by demonstrating some interesting ways using a musical egg shaker and a puppet. Even some skeptical students at the beginning became absorbed in her demonstration smiling and singing as she proceeded with reading a story. Some parent students filmed the demonstration for their reference. We hope our students will have a happy family bonding time reading books together!

Last Wednesday, the 1B, 1C, 2A, and 2P students also learned how to interview a partner and write a biography based on the interview with our other partner, Heather, an associate professor at BMCC. The students learned what biographies are, read a sample biography about Nelson Mandela, and made a list of their interview questions that they will ask their family members as homework. Today, they will participate in the workshop, part 2 to write their own biography based on their homework.

Our 3A, 3P, CCR-A, and CCR-P learned how to interview a partner and write a biography based on the the interview from Corinne who is our Advanced Creative Writing Class Teacher and the Associated Director of the Gallatin Writing Program of NYU.

• Students are learning what biographies are and brainstorming their interview questions.

• Students are interviewing their partner.

• Students are writing a biography based on their interview.

• Some students are reading their biography.

It was a full house last Tuesday during our Job & Resource Fair! Our participants had the chance to learn about job openings, training opportunities, and other resources available in the city. A very big thank you to our partners that participated in this fair!

Our E3 and E4 students also had a workshop about scams and identity theft with Chase Bank last Wednesday. We want to thank Chase for visiting us nine times to host a series of financial literacy workshops. It was very informative and useful!

Our W2 students had a virtual workshop with Tenement Museum on a theme titled Making a Living. Our students could learn about a part of immigration history and related it to their own immigrant life.

Last Wednesday, our 2A, 2P, 3A, and 3P students learned effective reading strategies to use at home with children from a children’s librarian from Seward Park Library. He introduced what services our students can use at the New York Public Library and taught how to read to children by demonstrating his way of reading. During the demonstration, our students were laughing and smiling as if they were children. I hope they learned it very well and can do the same with their own children at home.

The next day, our E3 and E4 students learned about how to make financial decisions that help maintain good credit with Chase Bank.

And, last Saturday, Chase Bank returned to teach our W2 and W3 students about how to identify and avoid financial scams. They not only learned about different types of scams but also shared their or their acquaintances’ experiences to prevent themselves from falling victim.

Chase Bank came back to teach about how to make financial decisions that help maintain good credit. Both our students and teachers had a lot of questions about credit. They learned what they should and should not do to keep a good credit score. Thanks to the workshop, one student said he got to check his and his wife’s credit scores for the first time since he moved to the USA, and his wife who is not our student also thanked the workshop. It’s great news that our workshops not only benefit our students, but also their family members.