For our Community Action Project we decided that we would focus on English language

learning for refugees and other nationals who had come to Nanaimo. The reasons why we
chose English language learning as a particular area for the centrepiece of our project was
for two central reasons. Firstly, a member of the learning pod had already established
relations with the Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society. The society is a charitable
organisation which helps people arriving from overseas to integrate into Canadian society
via support network. The aim of the network is to help people who have come from overseas
flourish in Canadian society. We felt as a group that having a member of the POD who had
established connections with an organisation provided us with logistical support, space
(classrooms) in which and most importantly of all, students. While all important aspects,
having students with which to put into practice the activities we had organised made the
project more concrete. This had the effect that there was always an ongoing process subject
to commitments which was actionable and therefore meaningful. In terms of educational
impact and professional development, this delivered tangible results as opposed to a more
abstract and theoretical project. Secondly, in terms of my personal interest, I have some
experience with teaching students from overseas. Therefore, using my experience my role
was mainly one of consultation. I provided my peers with for example: guidance regarding
building productive interrelationships within and between the student cohort, appropriate
activities and games, and finally advice regarding the groupings of students according to
their different abilities.
One of the central issues that guided our decision making in terms of having a longer term
impact with our community action project was that the time allocated to achieve things was
short. In terms of community action projects, or indeed any projects that intend to have
meaning via the establishment of long term relationships, five weeks is a very short space of
time. Through research, I discovered that these type of projects can take a minimum of three
months at least. The time factor was one of my central reservations when it came to deciding
the content and aims of the project. I considered that getting involved for such a short period
meant that there was a danger the project may ultimately lack meaning. Specifically, the lack
of time was a particular issue because in order to effectively learn, relationships between the
teacher and the student(s) need to be nurtured through regular contact and most importantly
consistency. Without this notion of connectedness and familiarity, students find it especially
difficult to learn. This is exacerbated by the fact many of these students had experienced
profound social upheaval; the aforementioned students have come from war torn Syria and
while not trying to generalise, it is reasonable to assume that there had been some level of
upheaval the majority of us have not come close to experiencing. The issues of
connectedness were not applicable to one member of our POD, as mentioned earlier, who
had been involved with the Multicultural Society for a longer period. However, for the rest of
the group we thought it was vital that our project was representing the start of a much longer
and ongoing process. This manifested itself in the creation of a website which could be
added to beyond the limited timeframe we had been allocated in order to complete our
community action project. The intention is that over time and for an unlimited period, ESL
activities and games could be put onto the website. The idea being that an online resource is
being created in which the Multicultural Society could gain access to and use post our
involvement. This has obvious benefits in terms of time and resource management. Also,
because it is editable by the administrators (i.e. the teachers/employees of the Multicultural
Society) it can be made situation appropriate according to the mandates of the institution. It
also has built in autonomy which allows the Multicultural Society to maintain its identity and
accountability. In the context of achieving TRB standard 8, I believe that the key element of
continuing the legacy of website illustrates a contribution to the profession.