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Dear Colleagues,
It is my pleasure to be chair-elect in the International
Teaching Assistants Interest Section (ITAIS) for the 2020–2021 period. I
have been involved with the ITAIS for several years now. I was a
member-at-large for the ITAIS during the 2018–2019 period. Putting
together the InterSection session with the ITAIS and the Speech,
Pronunciation, and Listening Interest Section, I found myself feeling so
proud of what every educator and administrator is doing in their
programs. What all of you do is what inspires me to be a better
instructor. I have so much respect for what you do and with
what—sometimes little—resources that you have.
I am happy to work with both Maria Mendoza and Mo Burke as we
navigate these uncharted waters due to the COVID-19 outbreak. What I am
already seeing is how resilient everyone is in how we instruct and
administer within the ITAIS. For all of us, we have had to shift from
in-person classes to online instruction during the middle of the
semester. Even assessments have had to be administered online, which
pose more challenges for us. I know that more changes will come as we
look toward the future, but I am encouraged to see how supportive we are
all to one another, which is yet another reason why I love this
interest section.
While we didn’t get an opportunity to meet face-to-face during
the 2020 TESOL Convention, we did get to see so many of you during our
virtual social gathering hosted by our member-at-large, Cynthia DeRoma.
It was nice to see so many familiar and new faces. I enjoyed getting to
talk not only about work, but also about how you are doing personally.
We got to tour each other’s homes and, later, some even took videos of
their daily commute to work. This interest section is not only a
professional community, but it is also a community where long-term
relationships are cultivated through our activities as an interest
section.
This interest section is what it is because of the people
involved in it. Again, I am so thrilled to be part of it. I know that we
will all have our challenges as we shift our programs to online
instruction, but I couldn’t have asked to be in a better community
during this time.
Thank you,
Stacy Suhadolc |
