Two TLLC Volunteers receive honors from the Adult Learning Alliance in Little Rock:

 

This year was the 50th anniversary of the Adult Learning Alliance (ALA). Two of our veteran tutors were honored. ALA presented Audrey Dollar with the Tutor of the Year award. Audrey has volunteered with TLLC for over 20 years, and she has helped new Mountain Home neighbors with English and adults who need to learn the skills to read or read better. (Audrey also works with children, teaching them the Barton Reading methods.) 

Billie Seef was awarded the Win Rockefeller Leadership Award. Billie has continuously served TLLC for over 30 years. Billie has worn all the hats! She has tutored ESL students, taught math and reading, she has sat in the Director-hotseat, and she has trained all of us at some time or another. Billie's service to literacy and to this community are exemplary, and it shows her passion to help people learn and move forward in life.

 Congratulations to two fine ladies! thank you for all of the years of compassion and patience you have showered upon the Twin Lakes Community!

 

 

 

 

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TLLC has won another award from the Adult Learning Alliance in Little Rock!

 

This year, 2019, one of our volunteers was honored at the ALA State Literacy Conference. Randi Horsley, niece of our beloved Penny Ellis, has captured the heart and admiration of ALA. For the past nine years, Ms. Horsley has dedicated 60-70 hours of her time, as well as the resources, to craft a different, one-of-a-kind quilt. Randi has a special place in her heart for TLLC's mission to improve literacy in our community; she lives in Arizona!

We are honored by Randi's generosity. This has been a memorable  and eagerly anticipated fundraiser each year. Thank you, Randi, for all you do for TLLC, our students, and our volunteers. Congratulations on being awarded the second (ever) ALA Volunteer of the Year award. We can not think of anyone more deserving.

 

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TLLC’s Microsoft Word & Excel Classes Win Literacy Award!

 

Due to the hard work of a computer tutor, TLLC received the 2017 Arkansas Literacy Council Innovative Project Award. The award recognizes TLLC’s computer classes in Microsoft Word and Excel, a project initiated in 2016 by TLLC volunteer Laura Johnson.

 

The Problem

 

In the past, we often received phone calls at TLLC from people anxious to learn Excel or Word in order to succeed in a job.  They had difficulty accessing computer classes in our community that met during the day.  We could see the need for increased instruction, but we didn’t know what to do about it. 

 

And then in February 2016, we received a phone call from a woman named Laura Johnson. Laura had recently moved to Mountain Home from Dallas, where she’d had a career in technology, creating instructional video, being a job coach and teaching classes of computer students.  Laura asked if we would set up a class for her to teach advanced computer skills, such as Microsoft Word and Excel.

 

We don’t have books to teach Excel or Word, we said.  That’s okay, Laura said.  I’ll write them. 

 

How can students come to classes?  They work during the day, we said.  I’ll teach the class in the evenings or on Saturdays, Laura said.

 

TLLC doesn’t have a classroom with multiple computers in it, we said.  We thought about this.  Let’s ask the Library, we decided.

 

The Start-up

 

So we got to work. Laura wrote two textbooks to serve as her curriculum.  (They took countless hours and are a work of art in themselves).  Other agencies helped us.  The Donald W. Reynolds Library let us sign up for their beautifully-outfitted computer room.  The Baxter Bulletin published ads, and KTLO made announcements. 

 

The Result

 

Since then, Laura has led seven six-hour classes.  She has taught three classes in Microsoft Word to 16 adults, providing Certificates of Completion to 13 of these students.  She has also taught four classes in Microsoft Excel, with 40 adults attending and 35 receiving Certificates of Completion at the end of the class. 

 

We are proud to offer such useful skills to people in our community.  Thanks to Laura Johnson and the local agencies who have helped us, we can.

 

The Innovative Project Award was presented to Laura Johnson on May 19, 2017 at Arkansas Literacy Council’s Annual Luncheon at the Clinton Presidential Center.