Notes from Project Money Workshop for Tutors

On Thursday, August 17, Project Read presented a continuing education workshop for volunteer tutors on the subject of helping adult learners achieve their financial literacy goals. This workshop focused on the learner-developed information (handbook and website) created by the Project Money team.

Highlights from the evening's workshop included:

A discussion of the barriers which prevent tutor-learner teams from working on financial goals. An excellent resource on this topic can be found on the Project Money website - www.projectmoney.org - in the Teaching Tools section. It's called "Feeling Comfortable Talking About Money" and it reviews reasons why adult learners may be sensitive about financial issues, and what tutors can do to make the learner feel safe in order to promote an open discussion of the topic. You can view this document at the following link: http://www.projectmoney.org/teaching/talking.html

We also discussed tools available on the website to help tutor-learner teams assess what the learner already knows about banking, credit, savings, etc., and what they need to learn: http://www.projectmoney.org/teaching/gettingstarted.doc (MS Word document) is a link to "Getting Started, a Self Assessment Tool". After working through this resource, you can go on to the next step of putting together a "Project Money Learning Plan": http://www.projectmoney.org/teaching/learningplan.doc (MS Word document).

Remember, the Project Money website has easy to understand information on many financial literacy topics. The information included on the site was researched and edited by adult learners themselves with the expert assistance of community advisors from financial institutions as well as volunteer tutors who then road- tested the instructional material.

Tips for Tutors from August Tutor Round Table

A newly-trained tutor from the July tutor training class joined the round table for the first time on Tuesday, August 1st. This turned out to be an excellent opportunity for her to get some great advice from the more experienced tutors at the table--exactly what the Tutor Round Tables are designed to do! Here are some of the questions she posed and the excellent responses she received.

• How did you break the ice with your learner during your first meeting? One experienced tutor mentioned that it's always a good idea to talk a little bit about yourself and what brought you to Project Read as a volunteer. Another good suggestion was to bring the learner's Goals Sheet, which you received from the office, and have a discussion about which goals are most important to the learner and need to be worked on first.
• How will I learn which instructional techniques work best for my learner? The experienced tutors all said that patience is the key. It doesn't happen overnight, but after a few sessions, you will get to know how your learner learns best and the techniques that resonate with his/her learning strengths.
• How do I encourage my learner to use the computer lab, especially if he/she has never used computers before? One tutor mentioned that the process by which a new learner receives a Lab License is designed to make any learner comfortable with the hardware and software found in the Project Read computer lab. This step-by-step introduction to the lab can be completed with the help of a staff member, or with the tutor there as a coach. Another tutor made the comment that the computer lab is there to reinforce what you are already doing in your tutoring sessions, and learners that have the motivation and time to utilize the lab in between tutoring sessions can make even more progress towards their goals. There are adult learners who do not regularly use the lab, so it is not absolutely necessary to the one-to-one instructional program. A tutor at the Round Table mentioned that she and her learner had not yet gotten around to working in the lab, but she was intending to go to the lab with him at an upcoming tutoring session.