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Teacher takes fear out of adult computer class
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Published: November 22, 2008
Students in Ellen Wass Beckerman's Computer Skills for Employment class hung on her every word during a recent lesson on creating the perfect resume.
And, frankly, it's hard not to.
The enthusiasm Beckerman has for her job may be linked to her undergraduate degree in theater.
But exuberance of the kind she exerts twice a week at the South Statesville Skills Center to her dozen or so, mostly middle-aged students is hard to fake.
"Writing a resume can be exciting," she tells the group. "It's about who you are and your qualifications. If you're a qualified bungee-jumper, put it down."
Smiling and nearly effusive during her presentation, she clearly likes what she is doing.
Later in the class Beckerman tells a handful of students to be consistent in the way they develop the resume.
"She's great," said Lisa Badgley of Troutman who, at 27, is easily the youngest member of the class.
"She explains everything down to the smallest detail," Badgley added. "And if you don't get it she'll go over it again until you do."
Like almost all the students Beckerman has taught in the past year and a half, Badgley's biggest challenge was conquering a fear of computers.
"My knowledge of computers was a bare minimum," Badgley said. "But I know my way around it a little bit better now."
Those a little older, however, have arrived with much more trepidation.
"I had one student who was literally afraid to walk in the door," Beckerman said. "She stood in the doorway about to leave and I had to go over and walk her in and tell her everything was going to be OK. That student later admitted to me that she had been told by someone that she was too stupid to learn."
That student was Tyna Redmond, who made it through both the introductory class (Computer Skills for Employment) and the advanced class.
"I learned a lot in those classes," Redmond said. "I didn't know a thing about computers when I got there. I was scared of computers."
Paula Glaspy knows the feeling.
"I was scared, I'll admit it," said Glaspy,a 45-year-old line worker at Ingersoll-Rand. "I just didn't think I'd be able to learn how to do it. But Ellen goes over it until you get it."
At the base of those fears, Glaspy said, was a discomfort with just sitting in front of a keyboard.
"I never typed a day in my life when I got here. Just key," she said, then added with just a hint of pride. "Now I can type 17 words a minute."
Eura Stevenson's experience is similar.
Stevenson is 53 and prior to her experience in Beckerman's class, the last time her fingers touched lettered keys is when they were connected to a typewriter in 11th grade. That's when Richard Nixon was getting geared up for his second term in the White House.
"It was in '71 or '72," she recalled. "I got pregnant around then and had to drop out of school."
Stevenson said she re-enrolled in high school after the birth of her daughter and earned her diploma.
But she dedicated her time raising her daughter and another one who would come along a couple of years later and the computer age snuck up on her.
And it was quickly passing her by until she entered Beckerman's class.
Stevenson said her two daughters, who are now in their 30s, are both computer savvy and that what they don't know they can learn quickly.
"My oldest daughter, Tanya, could read a book and, in no time, she could do all of this," she said.
But for momma, it's taken a little more time but she says she's getting there.
"It's funny but that typing all started coming back," she said. "Now I think I'm getting pretty good at it."
And, according to Beckerman, that's the goal of the program and the entire Iredell-Statesville Technology Institute.
Beckerman is on her eighth class in the computer training classes, a program that is funded by grants from Microsoft and is offered as a partnership of Mitchell Community College and the Boys & Girls Club.
"Our classes become like support groups," she said. "We talk about things, like jobs and interviews, and we work our way through them."
And they do amount to a support group, its motto would likely be something to do with persistence.
"I think it's OK to get frustrated and even through things, as long as their not breakable," Beckerman said. "Do anything but don't quit. Eventually you are going to get there as long as you don't quit."
To qualify for the free programs, a person must be unemployed, under-employed or currently receiving some sort of governmental assistance.
For more information at the programs contact Beverly Hedrick, MCC's director of occupational extension, at (704) 878-4266. To find out more about the South Statesville Skills Center, call (704) 978-2460.
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