Online ESL Resource Portal

Across New York State, many Adult Education Programs rely on federal and state grants to create effective, valuable and consistent instruction to meet the needs of thousands of adults. These students’ goals include learning English, acquiring a High School Equivalency Diploma, enrolling in vocational programs and/or entering post-secondary education. While the endeavor is noble, it is no easy task for programs functioning under these strict financial grants to meet the needs of the ever growing and diverse educational needs of their communities. A major challenge of such Adult Educational Programs is securing qualified, effective and empathetic teachers. These teachers must be willing to work below a salary warranted for their area of certification and education, will have limited time with their students and need to be able to effectively use restrictive classroom spaces.

As an administrator of a large Long Island Adult Education Program, it is my responsibility to instructionally support 46 English as a Second Language teachers and six High School Equivalency teachers with an average of 30 students in each class. Morning and evening classes are held in eight locations across Long Island. I am proud to say that our 52 educators check every necessary box and work above and beyond to meet the needs of a vastly diverse population. As an instructional administrator, I strive to ensure all teachers have quality resources and materials at their fingertips, as it is nearly impossible to afford them preparation time with such strict and financially thin resources.

In addition to adopting an English as a Second Language text and computer based series, I found myself collecting resources from the internet in an effort to further support instruction. Utilizing a free website program, I began to post these findings in one place and update it with new materials as I came across them. The internet is full of fantastic (and free) ideas and resources our teachers can use to enhance student learning.

To view some of our collected resources, simply go to www.portaportal.com and type in “teachesl1” in the guest box. Feel free to share the resources with your colleagues and consider developing a similar portal within your program.

Lisa Carboy began her educational career in 1989 as an ESL teacher for the New York City Board of Education. In 1995 she began teaching Adult ESL classes for the Hempstead School District. She completed her second master’s degree in School District Administration in 2008. After serving as Dean of Students in both Lindenhurst middle and high school, she served as The Director of ESL and Foreign Language for the Lindenhurst School District from 2010-2014.

In 2014 Lisa moved back into the world of Adult Education to serve first as Program Specialist for the Nassau BOCES Adult Learning Center’s ESL and HSE program and now as Program Coordinator. Nassau BOCES Adult Learning Center currently serves approximately 1800 students at seven locations throughout Nassau County, NY.