ARE YOU LOOKING FOR HOLIDAY GIFT IDEAS?

Stocking Stuffers? Hostess Gifts? Teacher’s Gifts?

Then come to the Heartwood House Holiday Sale!

The sale will feature Hand crafts from the Ottawa

Weaver’s Guild, handmade fashion bags from Eco

Equitable, Camino Brand organic fair trade coffee

and chocolate (as mentioned in our last newsletter!

All proceeds from the Camino sales will go to

ELTOC), good quality used books (all proceeds

from these book sales will go to People, Words and Change)

The sale will take place Tuesday, December 6, 2011 from 11 am to

2pm in the Heartwood House Gallery.

153 Chapel St.

We hope to see you there!

If you cannot make the sale, you can also place orders directly!

Again, all the proceeds of the Camino fair trade coffee, chocolate and oth-

er delicious Camino products purchased from ELTOC support ELTOC’s pro-

grams.

THE DEADLINE FOR PLACING HOLIDAY ORDERS IS DECEMBER 9

Download order forms from ELTOC’s website at eltoc.ca/coffeeorder/ and

payment must accompany the order (we accept cash and cheques, only

cheques by mail please, made out to English

Language Tutoring for the Ottawa Community.

Questions? Contact

fundraising@eltoc.ca

or

call Mike Barker

(613-263-9672) or

Ann Thompson (613-235-2992)

ELTOC

Your News

Welcome New Students 2

Student Submissions: “My Summer Trip”

2

Message from our E.D. 3

Congratulations 3

Featured Recipe 4

More Student Submissions 5

Counsellors’ Corner 6

Quarterly Quote 6

December 2011

Attention ELTOC

students!! We would like to start

s e n d i n g o u t t h e

newsletter by email as

much as possible. If you

have an email address,

and would like to receive

the newsletter by email,

please let us know! Just

send an email to

esl@eltoc.ca stating you

wish to receive the news-

letter by email, and you’ll

receive it in full colour

electronically from now

on. Thanks!!

- The ELTOC Staff

December 2011 Page 1

Inside this issue:

This summer I went to Afghanistan to visit

my family. First, I went by bus to Montreal.

Then I flew KLM to Holland.

The next day I took a plane to Dubai. Then I

took another plane to Kabul. It was a long

trip but I had not seen my family for four

years.

The best thing

about my trip was

being with my

sisters and

brothers. I was

surprised by all the

changes. My sister is engaged; my brother is

married; another brother has a new baby;

another brother has twins. A sad thing is one

of my brothers lost his finger in a machine

accident.

I will always remember the beautiful places

we went by the water and the twenty

wedding celebrations but most of all, I will

remember the fun of

being with my family.

The long trip was worth

it.

Your News Page 2

Student Submissions

New Students

Sirin Al-Natoor

Rania Al-Shaikhali

Salma Attaransl

Roxana Castro

Marie-Ansy Doiseau-

Joseph

Li Yao Gong

Ayan Hashi

Bouchra Khairi

Svetlana Komarova

Rocio Manzares

Maung Maung

Setty Messirdi

Claudine Murekatete

Kheela Naw

Sandra Ndayishimiye

Salma Noori

Mariam Hersi Ogle

Pream Lachi Rai

Rosa Rodriguez

Aisha Sanaye

Latefa Sbahey

Eline Surin

Rohma Tareen

Hewan Yilma

The staff at ELTOC would like to extend

a most heartfelt welcome to our

students who joined us for the first time between September and November 2011:

Written By: Shakila Ahmadi

My Summer Trip

New Tutors

The staff at ELTOC would like to extend a most heartfelt welcome

to our tutors who joined us for the first time between September 2011 and November 2011.

Gillian Badger

Renuka Bajgai

Linden Holmes

Joanne Maloney

Elena Monterrosa

Thierry Saintilus

Penny Sauer

Jessica St. Amour

Robyn Wheat

Congratulations to Zahra Isma’ail on passing her CAEL test with a score high enough to register as a student at Carleton University!

***And a very BIG

thank you to

all returning

tutors who’ve

taken on a

new student!***

Mona Safy got her driver’s licence!

Congratulations!

A word from our Executive Director!

Erika Carrera recently gave birth to a baby boy - Joaquin Andres Munoz

Carrera.

ELTOC also celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. Needless to

say, this highlighted the hard work of hundreds of people –

volunteer tutors and board members, staff members, donors and

funders. Of course, the steady support of Citizenship and

Immigration Canada enabled us to focus on our cause, helping

those who fall through the cracks of regular classroom style

program delivery. Along with language tutoring, our ELTOC

volunteers have also opened the window to a newcomer’s

experience of Canada. What a gift!

While this holiday season especially remembers those that are

gentle, kind and giving, ELTOC will never forget the gift of these

volunteers, who offer their time and service so selflessly all year

round. ELTOC also thanks its extremely hardworking Board of

Directors with Ann Thompson as the president, its ESL counsellors

Jane, Diane and Kelly, and its administrative assistant, Jeff, all

who have made ELTOC’s work such a success.

Have a WONDERFUL holiday season!

Sincerely,

Mita Basu

Page 3 Your News

On behalf of ELTOC I wish you all a wonderful holiday season!

This was a very busy year for ELTOC. We started the year with an uncertainty of a 20% cutback

to our funding. Fortunately, with the help of all our well wishers, especially our volunteer tutors

and board members, we were able to minimize the cutback to a manageable 3.6%. Cutting a few

corners, ELTOC successfully maintained its previous level of service in terms of quantity and

quality. Between April 2010 and March 2011 we worked with 250 student and tutor matches, and

with 171 tutors. We are very fortunate to have been touched by volunteers who give so freely.

Ottawa is a better place for the support of these wonderful people.

Amal Khiri got a job at the Qatar Embassy!

Linh Tran got at job as an Aesthetician!

Samah Hussein, ELTOC’s new office volunteer!

We need student submissions!

Our Next Issue will be published in March 2012

ELTOC’s NEXT ISSUE : “I think English is...”

How are your English studies coming? Do you find studying English easy or difficult?

We are also always looking for more yummy recipes!

Please send us your submissions by March 05, 2012

Student Submission - Yummy Recipe!

Page 4 December 2011

NAFEESA’S CAKE

One of our students gave us this recipe for a delicious cake which she enjoys making! We

hope you find it as tasty as she does! Just in time for the holidays.

ELTOC would like to give special thanks to all those students and tutors who contributed to

this newsletter!

Directions

(grease 2 loaf pans)

Mix milk, oil, eggs, and lemon juice.

In other bowl mix flour, sugar, and baking powder.

Mix milk into flour mixture.

Whisk together 1 minute.

Bake in loaf pan until brown and puffy for about

1 hour at 350o F. Check for doneness with

toothpick.

Ingredients

3 cups flour

1 cup sugar

½ tablespoon baking powder

3 eggs

¾ cup oil

½ cup milk

Juice of 1 lemon

All About me!

Page 5 Your News - December 2011

Student Submissions

My name is Sopha Hon. I have one son and one

daughter. My son’s name is Reaksmey. He is four

years old. He goes to nursery school. The name of his school is Nanny

Goat School. He likes school.

He knows the English alphabet. He loves the letter W. He does not

love the letters M and N.

My daughter’s name is Pisey. She is one year old. She likes to sleep.

She is happy. She likes to smile. She has four teeth. She likes cookies.

I am Rama and my age is 27 years. I have been married three years to Hichan.

I come from the Middle East and I live in Kanata. I have a little daughter;

her name is Naomi. I am ready for another baby in one week. I want to learn

English for my babies - for school - because I want to help them understand

at school. I want to learn English for me so that I can be friendly with my

neighbours, and also to know about Canada and to read books. In the future, I

want to go to university, to learn.

I like winter in Canada. In February we went

to Winterlude, looked at what

people made (sculptures) and took pictures.

As well, we like to watch the

ice in the river and to play in the snow - me

and my husband like to throw

snowballs at each other! At the weekend we

like to drive and go to other

places and see what's happening in the snow.

I like Xmas with snow: I'm

happy when I see the houses lit up in the

snow.

By: Sopha Hon

My life in Canada By: Rama Hamoud

Counsellors’ Corner

Page 6 Your News - December 2011

Mark Your 2012 Calendar!

Literacy Round Table Workshop

Tutoring a newcomer with very low literacy skills is a challenge,

particularly if the learner also has low oral communication skills in

English. Additionally, many of our literacy learners are dealing with

far more than having to learn to read and write in a new language:

some are dealing with post traumatic stress disorder, some are

advanced in years, still others have enormous demands placed on their

time and energy by large, young families or dealing with elderly,

disabled or ill family members.

Progress in literacy learners who are learning to read, write and speak in English is notoriously

slow and many tutors burn out from the effort of working with a literacy student. At ELTOC we

are finding that an increasing number of literacy learners are being referred to us, but we are

often unable to find tutors who are willing or able to work with them.

We will be hosting a Round Table Workshop on February 25, 2012 to share best practices in

working with literacy learners. We encourage any tutor who is currently working with a literacy

student or who is interested in doing so, to attend.

We will be exploring

Theoretical distinctions between phases of early literacy

Case studies of selected ELTOC literacy learners (country of origin, first language, years

of schooling, phase of literacy, family situation) where progress has been observed

Challenges in working with literacy learners and factors to consider in planning and teaching

lessons

Resources and techniques that work well with literacy learners

Measuring progress

Keeping student and tutor motivated in the language learning journey

We would like to compile the observations and best practices into a manual or a short DVD that

could be made available to current and future tutors. Your participation will be instrumental in

helping us better support our tutors who take on the challenging, yet rewarding, task of working

with a literacy student.

Tentative date: Saturday February 25, 2012

Time: 2 – 4 p.m.

Venue: Heartwood Gallery, 153 Chapel Street, Ottawa, ON

We’re on

Facebook!

Look us up:

ELTOC Staff

ELTOC Inspirational Quarterly Quote:

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not

the truth. “

- Marcus Aurelius

16th Emperor of the Roman Empire,