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Upcoming OTAN Activities - Week of April 13
Posted on 04/13/2026
Check out this month’s OTAN digest for our most recent Adult Ed news! April OTAN Digest
This Week’s Upcoming Activities
Tuesday, April 14, 10:00 am - 11:30 am | Microsoft Word® Mail Merge | Penny Pearson, OTAN Subject Matter Expert | Mail Merge shows Microsoft Word® Mail Merge including built in templates to provide quick personalized messages, certificates, email messages, mailing labels and more. Teachers and administrators can also create learner folders with critical information visible at a glance and reward achievement with elegant certificates of achievement or recognition.
Saturday, April 18, 9:00 am - 10:30 am | Clicks to Careers: Digital Tools that Power CTE + ESL Success Part 1 | Alisa Takeuchi, OTAN Subject Matter Expert | Clicks to Careers is a two-part webinar series designed for adult educators supporting learners in Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways, with an emphasis on integrating digital tools for both technical instruction and ESL scaffolding. In Part 1, participants will explore practical, high-impact tools that simultaneously enhance hands-on CTE learning and support language development, helping multilingual learners access and engage with complex content.
Coming soon!
Tuesday, April 21, 10:00 am - 11:30 am | Curious about Google’s new NotebookLM but not sure where to start? | Farzana Cassim, OTAN Subject Matter Expert | This beginner-friendly demo introduces how this AI tool can read your own documents and help summarize, organize, and explain information. You’ll see how teachers, administrators, and support staff can use it to make sense of lesson plans, reports, and meeting notes—all without complex setup. Perfect for anyone ready to explore AI but unsure where to begin.
Thursday, April 23, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm | Putting English to Work in Canvas | Francisca Wentworth, OTAN Subject Matter Expert | Putting English to Work (PETW) was created by teachers at LAUSD several years ago as an ESL Distance Learning video series. Episodes cover real-life situations many of our English Language Learners encounter in their daily lives. With the statewide adoption of Canvas, the complete English as a Second Language series, Putting English to Work 1-3, has been revised and updated with many interactive exercises that cover all language competencies. This session will walk you through the course and share the various interactive learning activities.
Thursday, April 23, 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm | Northstar Digital Literacy User Group | Anthony Burik, OTAN Subject Matter Expert | Join this user-driven group of adult educators using Northstar Digital Literacy at their agencies. Some possibilities for regular meeting topics: hear about the different ways educators are using Northstar, share best practices and things that work, address and get advice on concerns and challenges, and exchange tips and ideas. Let’s discuss using Northstar for the benefit of our students, staff, and communities!
Friday, June 5, 8:30 am - 3:30 pm | OTAN Regional Bay Area Canvas Summit | Join adult educators and administrators from across the Bay Area for a free, one-day, hands-on professional development event focused on meaningful, practical use of Canvas in adult education. This regional summit is designed to bring together colleagues from across the Bay Area to learn, collaborate, and share strategies for supporting instruction, student engagement, and program management using Canvas.
OTAN Satisfaction Survey
OTAN would like to invite you to participate in our new Satisfaction Survey to help us improve our services in the following areas:
- Trainings and Presentations
- Website Resources
- Curriculum Offers
- Digital Learning Guidance
- Canvas
- and additional OTAN services
Please take some time to complete this survey as soon as you have a chance! This survey should not take more than 20-30 minutes of your time. As with all OTAN surveys, the results will be kept completely anonymous. You can find the survey here: Survey Link
Thank you for your time and your feedback!
