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| January/February 2008 Issue
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 More than 100 project directors, scholars, storytellers, and library coordinators from across the country attended a PRIME TIME FAMILY READING, Inc. training workshop in New Orleans at the Louisiana Humanities Center at Turners' Hall Jan. 17-20, 2008. Five states were selected to participate in the next phase of the bilingual national expansion, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Team members from Michigan, Florida, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and New York attended this training along with affiliate participants from Georgia, Kansas, Oregon and New Mexico. Experienced team members from Nebraska, New Mexico, and Florida served as trainers along with Louisiana presenters and the LEH staff. Dr. Robert Becker, Professor of History, Weber State University, and author of “Agamemnon Among the Bunnies, Finding the Humanities in Children's Literature” delivered the keynote address. Concurrent sessions addressed the logistics of implementing a bilingual program as well as the "best practice" strategies for discussion leaders.
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|  As the Orleans Parish public schools reinvent themselves, the PRIME TIME methodology may be one key to the enhancement of the new humanities curricula. From July 7th to July 31st , approximately 25 New Orleans teachers who teach kindergarten through eighth grade will have the opportunity to be involved in a Teacher Institute for Advanced Study (TIAS) that will provide instruction in the PRIME TIME FAMILY READING TIME® methodology. The TIAS will be co-directed by Dr. Nancy Dixon, who teaches at the University of New Orleans and has been a PRIME TIME scholar for several years, and Dr. Olivia Pass, who is the Associate Director of PRIME TIME and has served as a PRIME TIME scholar for 7 years as well as a Program Coordinator for PRIME TIME. The Institute will be held at the Louisiana Humanities Center at Turners’ Hall. Guest instructors include Jack Heflin, Endowed Professor of English at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and a PRIME TIME scholar and Cindy Treme, a PRIME TIME storyteller from Lake Charles.
In this TIAS, teachers will employ PRIME TIME methodologies and books to enhance their ability to teach reading and critical thinking skills in grades K-8. They will also learn techniques for character education. According to Nancy Dixon, “Teachers will learn to foster discussion, focus on real-life issues, and explore humanities issues by means of award-winning children’s and young adults’ books.”
The PRIME TIME methodology, which is based on Socratic Dialogue, will be used throughout this Institute. The content area of this proposed Institute corresponds with the State Department of Education’s benchmarks and standards of both language arts and character education.
Teachers who are in this Institute will receive a $750 stipend and are eligible to receive 3 hours of graduate credit from the University of New Orleans, as well as 45 CLU’s. Furthermore, UNO has waived its tuition fees for these teachers.
Teachers who are interested in participating in this Institute should contact Olivia Pass or Miranda Restovic as soon as possible as the Institute is limited to only 25 teachers. Olivia Pass’ contact information is as follows: pass@leh.org or 225.635.0092; Miranda Restovic’s contact information is as follows: restovic@leh.org or 504.620.2486. View the brochure in PDF.
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 Presenting PRIME TIME to a bilingual audience comes with certain challenge, from the basics such as timing to the more ubiquitous elements such as cultural differences, and there is nothing like the advice of experienced team members to help guide future bilingual team members toward a successful execution of PRIME TIME. “Recommended Guidelines for Working with Bilingual Audiences” was prepared by experienced PRIME TIME bilingual team members, Janine Gomezjuardo Demerath and Carol Hill de Santos, and is the latest article addition to the PRIME TIME Site Support Manual, an article deemed necessary to bolster preparation for bilingual programming. The article is a practical guide that presents effective strategies in presenting PRIME TIME to a Spanish-English audience as a fun, fulfilling and rewarding experience. Read it here!
Read Recommended Guidelines for Working with Bilingual Audiences by Janine G. Demerath and Carol Hill de Santos.
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 The Zemurray Foundation continues to support the in-state expansion and development of bilingual (Spanish/English) family literacy programming. Recently the Zemurray Foundation made a $25,000 contribution to PRIME TIME, with a pledge for an equal contribution to be made in 2008, bringing the total amount to $50,000 over two years. The Zemurray Foundation has championed the funding for PRIME TIME’s bilingual (Spanish/English) programming since 2006, making it possible for PRIME TIME to be presented to bilingual audiences in seven programs across five parishes.
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 A $50,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Shreveport-Bossier will fund the continuation and expansion of a pilot project begun in 2007 at Bethune Middle Academy, a Caddo Parish low-performing middle school. Grant funds will support three PRIME TIME FAMILY READING TIME programs in 2008 in Shreveport, La., as well as three teacher workshops. The teacher workshops will be led by Dr. Helen Taylor, Director, Master of Arts in Liberal Arts Program, LSU-Shreveport and experienced PRIME TIME scholar. Dr. Taylor will be assisted by Janine G. Demerath, who is a Spanish instructor at Centenary College. The workshops are designed to promote the PRIME TIME model of developing critical thinking skills and high-level comprehension strategies. The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities funded the pilot site at Bethune in fall 2007 and trained 17 faculty members in the PRIME TIME methodology in October.
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 The Almar Foundation of New Orleans will fund a PRIME TIME program at John Dibert Elementary School in the spring 2008. The generous contribution to PRIME TIME in the amount of $5,000 was received after a foundation representative visited another program site. The John Dibert Elementary School will present PRIME TIME to students and their families on Tuesday evenings at 6:00 p.m. beginning April 1. John Dibert implemented a very successful PRIME TIME in Spring of 2007, and hopes to build on that success by reaching out to new students and families.
View the schedule of upcoming PRIME TIME programs in Louisiana!
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Lisa Brown-Olsen, a PRIME TIME scholar from Nebraska, wrote the following to express her feelings about the National PRIME TIME Training Workshop in January.
Dedicated to everyone at the 2008 Prime Time National Training in New Orleans that took place January 18-20. You touched me deeply. As a visual artist I use images to convey feelings. Poetry is a new and unwieldy medium for me. But I am confident, because we have a shared bond, you will be able to see the picture my words are painting.
Can You Feel It Lisa Brown-Olsen
Frenetic. Kinetic. Ready to move.
No longer chaos. No longer fear.
We have direction.
We are bold. We are strong.
Ready to share our gifts.
Inside, a quiet place surrounded by the power.
Calm, contemplative, metamorphosis.
We look out.
We ask,
What of those we hope will come?
Reservations reign.
This is not our home.
Why are we here?
What is to gain?
“Extranjeros todos”. Strangers all.
Do you feel the change?
We reach out.
Faces talk, eyes speak.
A spark ignites.
The air dances and sings.
Our voices rise and mingle with their eyes.
Thoughts meet. Ideas grow.
“I don’t agree.” “Good talk to me.”
From diversity truth.
Friends as unique as their stories.
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