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Tracey McGee
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Lleij Schwartz
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Dear PAIS Colleagues,
Welcome to this edition of the PAIS Newsletter!
At the time of composing this letter, it has been a little more than a year since the COVID-19 pandemic first began to disrupt all aspects of our lives. While it has been a year of struggle, despair, and tragedy, it has also been a year in which we have seen the best of humanity. So many have met the challenges the pandemic has brought with courage, selflessness, and ingenuity.
It is the ingenuity that arose as a response to adversity that serves as the theme of our upcoming academic session and roundtable discussion that will be presented during the TESOL 2021 Virtual Convention - “Effectively Administrating Language Programs in a Remote, Socially Distance World”. We sincerely hope you will be able to join our interest group’s academic session where our panelists (Rosario Giraldez, Kateryna Forynna, Lleij Schwartz, Kirti Kapur, Amanda Yousuf-Little) shall present ‘lessons learned’ from a year of program development, management, planning, marketing, and innovation during a global pandemic that has forced us all to perform these functions through email or a webcam.
Additionally, we also hope that you will attend all the other sessions that are part of the Program Administration strand where our colleges will share their insights, experiences, and expertise concerning our shared interest in the effective leadership and administration of language programs.
While the TESOL Convention is just once a year, the exchange of innovative ideas, networking, and professional growth that our organization facilitates is year-round! We strongly encourage you to join the PAIS Community on MyTESOL to communicate and collaborate with our colleagues throughout the year by sharing thoughts, ideas, strategies, and comradery.
We wish to thank the authors that contributed articles to this issue of the PAIS Newsletter. By sharing insights as to the challenges and opportunities throughout the many aspects of our work, they help to further professionalize our field and fuel our entire community’s professional growth. If you would like to share your thoughts on best practices, a recounting of a successful innovation, or a book review related to language program administration, we invite you to submit an article for consideration in the next issue of our newsletter.
Finally, please join us in welcoming our incoming PAIS Co-Chairs for 2021-2022, Brad Teague and Pamela Smart-Smith! We are thrilled that they have agreed to give their time to oversee the functioning and growth of our Interest Section. If you would be interested in giving back to our IS by serving as a leader, we would encourage you to attend the annual PAIS business meeting that will be held during this year’s Virtual Convention. It is involvement by our members that drives the work of the IS and helps us deliver meaningful programming and resources to you.
See you online this March 24th to 27th!
Best Regards,
Lleij Schwartz and Tracey McGee
PAIS Co-Chairs, 2020-2021 |
