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At Minnesota TESOL (MinneTESOL), our motto is “educate,
advocate, elevate.” The year 2018 provided us with many opportunities to
do this, online and in-person and outside the state. Statewide
partnerships with the Minnesota Department of Education, boosted social,
affiliate, and professional communication, and mentorship in Advocacy
Statewide Partnership Helps Grow an Affiliate
MinneTESOL has been growing steadily in recent years thanks to
our collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) at
this annual conference. Our first joint conference took place in 2014
when the former MinneTESOL fall conference and the MDE Bilingual and
Migrant Education conference combined to become MELEd -- the Minnesota
English Learner Education Conference. In November 2018, Minnesota TESOL (MinneTESOL)
hosted our largest ever annual Minnesota English
Learner Education (MELEd) Conference, with more than 1200
attendees over three days, 113 breakout sessions, and two keynote
addresses and follow-up sessions from Bonny Norton and Ester de Jong.
Amy Hewett-Olatunde, pictured here with
MinneTESOL Past President Sam Divitam, was presented with the Mary Diaz
Advocacy Award at the 2018 MELEd Conference.
The impetus for combining our conferences was to allow
Minnesota ESL professionals one fall event to fulfill their professional
development needs. Previously, attendees had to choose to use their
limited funding and substitute days on either the MinneTESOL or MDE
Bilingual/Migrant conference. By combining conferences (and conference
resources), we can have a bigger, more comprehensive event. Now, MELEd
includes one day of K-12 coordinator programming, and two days of
breakout sessions, interest section and standing committee meetings, and
keynote speakers. This conference merger has also allowed MinneTESOL to
grow from less than 400 members in 2014 to more than 1000 members in
2018.
(MinneTESOL Past President Sam Ouk with
“Mini TESOL” onesies and T-Shirts at the annual MELEd Conference.
The membership grew mostly out of the inclusion of
paraprofessionals, volunteers, and teachers in training groups from the
greater Minnesota area outside of the Minneapolis-St Paul metro area.
The increased revenue from the larger conference has allowed us to give
back to the membership, too, in the form of the following: travel and
first-time presenter grants to allow more people to attend the
conference. sponsorship of the growing SLIFE
spring conference, donations to local organizations, and increased
mini-grants and funding for Interest Section and Standing Committee
events.
Governor Mark Dayton proclaimed the week of
Nov. 11-17, 2018 “Minnesota English Learner Education Conference Week”
in recognition of the conference and our affiliate.
This partnership has allowed amazing growth for our
affiliate and positive benefits for our membership. We look forward to
continuing this fruitful collaboration.
Bigger and Better: the MinneTESOL Journal
One key to staying in touch with our members is using a variety
of communication media. We use Social Media, Letters from the
President, and the MinneTESOL Journal to
connect with membership. The Journal recently released its Fall 2018
issue on an updated website, which we redesigned for easier navigation
and content delivery. The Journal is published in Spring and Fall and
includes invited, peer-reviewed and editorial board-reviewed articles in
both issues, giving authors flexibility to submit manuscripts for
either editorial board or blind peer review for either issue.
International students pause for a photo
between taking notes and sampling products from Heather Camp’s article
“Enhancing International Students’ Language Learning through Venturing
into the Community” in the 2018 MinneTESOL journal.
The mission of the MinneTESOL Journal is to provide a
meaningful benefit to members by sharing relevant, thought-provoking
content linking theory and practice of interest to teachers,
researchers, teacher educators, and the many others whose work touches
the lives of English learners.
Two Members Attend Advocacy Summit
Each year MinneTESOL funds two members to attend the TESOL
Advocacy Summit. As MinneTESOL Past President Sam Ouk says, “We feel
that advocacy is very important and crucial in our work. It is important
that we advocate for our students, our colleagues and the continued
elevation of our field at every level. This is why our organization
feels that it is extremely important to continue to support and
participate in TESOL’s Advocacy and Policy Summit.” Each year,
MinneTESOL sends a junior and senior member to attend the summit. The
senior member mentors the junior member about how to make the most of
the summit; the following year, the junior attendee becomes senior, and
the mentoring process begins anew. For the writeup of the 2018 trip to
the Summit, attended by Sam Ouk and Southwest Regional Officer Rachel
Casey, see our
website.
(From left) MinneTESOL Past President
president Sam Ouk, Southwest Regional Officer Rachel Casey, and
Legislative Staffer Margaret Callahan (Sen. Amy Klobuchar) visit
Klobuchar’s office in Washington.
All in all, 2018 was a productive, positive year of growth and
strength for our affiliate. We look forward to continuing to find ways
to “educate, edvocate, and elevate” English language learners and
professionals in 2019 and beyond.
Catherine Clements is a teaching specialist in
the Minnesota English Language Program at the University of Minnesota in
Minneapolis, Minnesota. She received her M.A. in ESL and Graduate
Certificate in Online and Distance Learning at the University of
Minnesota. She has taught ESL and CALL to undergraduate and graduate
students for more than ten years. Clements has been active in MinneTESOL
for more than ten years, acting first as a vice-president and since
2014 as executive assistant. | 
