We are now midway through the second year of the NYSDE’s grant project for the Professional Development for Educational Interpreters.

By now you all should have received your personal Personal Plans (PP) for the Educational Interpreters Knowledge Assessment (EIKA). If you have any questions or concerns about the EIKA or your PP, please call my office: 631-451-4546. When you read over the PP, I suggest you look at each section of your plan rather than concentrating on your overall score. The majority of training that was recommended was for "book knowledge" (laws, history, models, etc). To cover all of the EIKA competencies, we will be using different methods: workshops, reading (articles and books) and videotapes. I am also looking into the distance learning capabilities here at SCCC, posting information on the web page and on-line discussion groups.

The next phase, Educational Interpreters Performance Assessment (EIPA), began with an orientation. The orientation introduced you to competencies covered, the EIPA procedure and how the assessment is scored. If you were unable to attend any of the sessions, please contact my office. We videotaped one session and that tape will be available on loan to you for one week. I believe if you enter the EIPA with full knowledge of the procedure, you will be able to focus more on the task at hand. The EIPA is used to guide us when writing your PP.

Training workshops should begin in December 2000. In the meantime, all of the Sites have office lending libraries of tape and printed materials. Materials may be kept for a period of three weeks. Let me know the topic you wish to study; I will find the resource and send it to you if it is not already out on loan. We will maintain a waiting list for materials.

If you are taking advantage of your "time off" by attending non-grant related workshops, these workshops may count toward your training. Just send me information prior to the workshop so that we can coordinate with your prescriptive plan. After the workshop is completed, send me documentation of attendance, and we will both give you credit on your PP.

I would like to thank you all for your cooperation, feedback and support. You are so enthusiastic about the opportunities being offered; I appreciate it.

Sincerely,
Sallie

Page created July 24, 2000