New Jersey Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages/New Jersey Bilingual Educators (NJTESOL/NJBE) is happy to share some of our highlights for the past year and our goals for the upcoming year as it is our 50^th anniversary as a TESOL affiliate!

NJTESOL/NJBE Spring Conference

Our 49^th annual Spring Conference Cross-Curricular Conversations for ELLs was held on May 30, May 31, and June 1, 2018 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. We had over 2,000 attendees and over 120 presentations at our three day conference. Our keynotes speakers were Dr. Pedro Noguera, Professor of Education at the University of California Los Angeles, who discussed Equity and Deeper Learning Opportunities for English Language Learners; Dr. Malcolm Butler, Associate Professor of Science Education, University of South Florida who spoke about Engaging EL Readers and Writers in the Academic Language of Science; and Cheryl Urow, co-founder of the Center for Teaching Biliteracy, who addressed Teaching for Biliteracy: Strengthening Bridges between Languages. At our President's Awards Reception, we honored ELLs and educators for their dedication to the teaching profession. Thank you to our board members and volunteers for making this conference so outstanding.

We are looking forward to our 50^th annual Spring Conference, cELLebrate, which is scheduled for May 29, 30, & 31, 2019 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Registration and call for proposals will be online by September 15^th at http://njtesol-njbe.org/spring-conference/.

Advocacy

NJTESOL/NJBE provides opportunities for the voices of teachers and ESL and bilingual students to be heard to make changes through alerts about legislation that will affect them. Our advocacy website is constantly updated. Our most recent position paper is the 'Statement Against Bigotry, Harassment, and Bullying.' There is also an annual Advocacy Summit in conjunction with our annual Spring Conference where our members come together with legislators and community leaders to discuss advocacy issues that affect our ESL and bilingual students and teachers.

Publications/Social Media

NJTESOL/NJBE's quarterly newsletter, Voices, is emailed to members. Nonmembers can access the archives here. We have an active Facebook page that is open to the public. We are also on Instagram (#njtesolnjbe) and Twitter (@NJTESOL_NJBE).

If you are interested in collaborating with NJTESOL/NJBE, please contact me at cschlessinger@njtesol-njbe.org.

Bio:

Caia Schlessinger, NJTESOL/NJBE President, is an ESL teacher at the Irving Primary School in Highland Park, New Jersey.