My personal project: WIN Program

So I signed up to become a volunteer literacy tutor for an organization called ReadOC and they are directly related to the Orange County Public Library.

http://egov.ocgov.com/ocgov/Read%20OC/About%20READ%20OC

http://egov.ocgov.com/ocgov/Read%20OC/Volunteer%20Information

http://egov.ocgov.com/ocgov/Read%20OC/

They have a variety of different programs available for volunteers, but the one program I chose was the WIN Program.

The Working for Inmate Literacy Now (WIN) Program is a "One-to-one tutoring to help inmates in the Orange County jail system gain a second chance by demonstrating their ability to learn and letting them know that there are programs and people available to help them improve their reading and writing skills."

But my overall goal is not one-on-one tutoring; my goal is to go above and beyond all that and create a workshop that would benefit a wide range of inmates. A writing workshop that will gradually help them with academic writing (concentrating on overall literacy--writing, reading, and speaking).

Therefore, I sent the following email to the appropriate person:

"Hi Rebecca!
... Regarding becoming a literacy tutor, I believe I signed up mainly for the WIN program (and have already submitted the clearance form awhile back for a background check).

I was actually going to ask you as well as the others in charge of the ReadOC program if we could work on a long-term project together that would benefit the WIN Program?

I've been in the process of developing a few writing workshop curriculum (three different ones to be exact) and would like to introduce all the curricula to you all at a set date in January? I'm hoping to be able to provide workshops for the inmates in the Orange County jail system (that way, instead of just tutoring one inmate at a time, I would be able to concentrate on a group instead?).

Of course, when going over the curricula, I would have project proposal ready and can even model an actual lesson plan with everyone. The workshops would include about five-ten lesson plans each. As for measuring whether the workshops would be successes or not, I would do a pre-writing test and a post-writing test to look for any improvement.

I know it's a lot of work, but I do have a teaching credential in Social Science and a supplemental in Language Arts. I have been very passionate in teaching academic writing. Of course, all this would be done as a volunteer.

I believe this project has a lot of potential, but in its beginning stages, it's more of a work-in-progress.

Please tell me what you think. If it's not practical, I will totally understand. If ReadOC would enjoy trying out this new project proposal, which day in January would be best for me to present it?

Sincerely,
Diana Nguyen"

I'm extremely confident in getting this program/project to work. I've always been complaining about how great my resume is and how it befuddles me how I am not able to find a full-time teaching position. I then came to the conclusion that instead of moping around and whining about it, I should do something more that would allow me to stand out from the other applicants.

This is my chance...
And who knows, if it turns out successful, maybe it'll turn out to be my calling instead.