INFORMATION FOR TEACHERS

Teachers please explain the following to your students the first week of class.

CULTURAL UNITY-We welcomes you as a volunteer teacher at Cultural Unity. Your work and service are greatly appreciated. Unidad Cultural / Cultural Unity Inc. is a grass-roots, volunteer-run organization that was created to address the needs of the immigrant Latino population in the greater New Brunswick area. Emphasizing popular education techniques, Cultural Unity provides English as a Second Language classes to persons with various educational backgrounds and different levels of English comprehension. Cultural Unity Inc. not only provides educational opportunities in ESL, math (for GED preparation) and Spanish language arts (for students seeking to increase their linguistic understanding). In the near future Cultural Unity Inc. hopes to expand their class offerings to include Spanish for English-speakers, literature, and complete GED preparation. We also have a folkloric dance group formed of approximately 30 young people whom rehearse the traditional dances of Mexico.

SITES: Cultural Unity is currently working out of several sites in the New Brunswick area. These are:

Mario Gonzalez Day Care Center at 287 Townsend Street

First Baptist Church at 226 Hale Street

Christ Church at 5 Paterson Street

Roosevelt School on Livingston Av (dance)

Teen Center on Morris St (dance)

Day Care 18 Drift (Computers)

Every site has Cultural Unity in-site person please contact this individual if you have problems regarding space, accessibility or any other site related problem. There is also a Site Coordinator in charge of reserving space for other events and communicating with Site Owners.

STUDENTS - Students vary in age and nationality. They come various places throughout the greater New Brunswick area. Many economic and job related problems force many students to be absent and miss doing their homework. We encourage our students to attend classes at all time but we also urge you to be understanding of these situations help students catch up.

SAFE ENVIRONMENT - We do not tolerate any type of harassments within our school. If you have someone in your class who behaves in a disruptive manner towards others students or yourself, please contact your In-Site person. Students are encouraged to sign a CONTRACT where they agree to maintain a safe environment for all.

DONATIONS - Students are asked make a $25.00 donation to Cultural Unity per semester to conduct administrative tasks. We will use this money to further the development of the organization and aiding with teachers' supplies. All the teachers are volunteers and do not charge for their service. This is not a mandatory donation and students are never turned away if they cannot afford it. Student representatives should collect donations during the first 4 weeks of classes.

EMERGENCIES - In case you have an emergency and have to miss class please call other teachers to request a substitute. (Contact sheet). If you cannot find a substitute please inform your in-site person. If you know you are going to miss class, please contact a substitute with at least 3 to 4 days in advance.

MATERIALS: Please maintain receipt for all copies that you make in order to be reimbursed. There is a limit amount of money that can be reimbursed per semester. Please contact Francis Julian (Treasurer)(732) 805-3426 for any questions or email francisjulian@yahoo.com.

SURVEYS - At the end of each semester we want to know how we can improve things. Students are given a survey on the class and their teacher and his or her performance. Teachers are also evaluated by other teachers in order to learn from our strong points and our weaknesses.

STUDENTS REPRESENTATIVES -We promote active participation from everyone in the schools, we urge you to encourage your students to participate in meetings or events of interest and benefit to them. Every class should have students representative, so students can voice their opinions and suggestions, we ask that you allow for students to make announcement either at the beginning or end of the class.

CERTIFICATES Please advise students that once they have completed the entire course theyr will be given a certificate of achievement during a celebration or event to take place at the end of the semester.

SEMESTERS We have three working periods of time during the years. Spring, Summer and Fall. The Spring and Fall semesters are 14-15 weeks long and the Summer programs is about 10 week long. Please refer to your calendar for specific dates. Contact your In-site person or Vanessa Colon at 732 745 6747 for any other questions.