As the housing crisis felt across Maine has driven some of Maine’s newest multilingual residents out of urban areas and into rural parts of our State, the Maine Department of Education (DOE) and Maine’s adult education multilingual learning programs are right there to provide the support they need. 

The first-ever, “Teachers of Adult Multilingual Summer Institute” was held in Sugarloaf and virtually recently. Hosted by Maine DOE’s Adult Education Team and endearingly referred to as, “Camp Sugarloaf,” the gathering featured nationally renowned educator and speaker Jayme Adelson-Goldstein who led a workshop, which took place over the course of the three-day institute, on implementing high-leverage practices and differentiation in virtual and  in-person multilingual classrooms with interactive activities that enabled participants to get to know each other and dig into valuable content and best practices for educating adult learners who are multilingual. 

In addition to Adelson-Goldstein’s full group sessions, the institute also offered various breakout sessions led by educators working in some of Maine’s more urban adult education programs.  

While Rochelle Yanike Hale from Portland Adult Education led a session on “How to Increase Student Writing in a Remote Class,” Virginie Akimana from Portland Adult Education hosted a session on, “Considerations for Working with Adult Multilingual Learners,” and Tekia Cox from Augusta Adult & Community Education hosted participants for a Roundtable Discussion on Orientation for Multilingual Learners. Also offering sessions were Kelli Park from University of Southern Maine (USM)/Merrymeeting Adult Education, Elizabeth Cuccinello DiLalla from RSU 13 Adult & Community Education, Moira Taylor from Portland Adult Education, Lisa Parisio from Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Amy Hatch from Lewiston Adult Education, and Anya Enright from EnGen. 

Members of Maine DOE’s Adult Education Team also hosted various other sessions on everything from CASAS (assessments) to community resources, and the Teaching the Skills That Matter (TSTM) Toolkit. In addition, the institute also provided participants with ample opportunities for networking, relaxing, and communicating and collaborating with each other across the three-day event.    

Meet the Adult Education Team: 

Back row: Kelley Heath- Adult Ed Data/High School Education Coordinator, Amy Hatch-Adult Ed MaineStars Data Entry, Christy Le-Adult Ed Micro-credential Assistant, Tammy Ranger- Director, Workforce Development & Innovative Pathways 

Front row: Megan Dichter- Adult Ed Workforce Development/ESL Coordinator, Amy Poland- Adult Ed Prof Dev/ME College Transition Coordinator, Monique Roy-Director Adult Education 

While this is the first official Summer Institute hosted for Maine’s adult educators, the Maine DOE’s Adult Education Team hopes to plan a summer institute annually each year going forward.