Greetings!

Teacher Education Interest Section (TEIS) is presenting you with a preconvention issue of the newsletter. Hope you are getting ready for another successful convention in Philadelphia. This issue includes a variety of articles covering a range of topics. The targeted students’ age level varies, from elementary school through higher education. The diversity of topics reminds us of how broad is the scope of teacher education, within which we, as teachers, can make critical changes for our learners. The issue’s topics include teacher professional development, classroom instructions, one school’s academic support for a struggling adolescent student, how to deal with college students’ cultural sensitivities, and critical pedagogy.

Faridah Pawan’s “Research-Informed Stages of a Collaborative Professional Development Program for Indiana ESL and Content-Area Teachers” reports on a successful professional development program, Tandem Certification for Indiana Teachers, designed for both ESL and content-area teachers. Pawan shares the details of how research has contributed to improving program effectiveness and increasing the number of ESL-certified teachers in Indiana.

Annmarie Jackson’s article “Whose Job Is It Anyway? A Look at the Reading-Writing Connection” discusses the effectiveness of having a reading-writing connection approach in literacy instruction. She shares her own experiences in working with struggling readers as a reading specialist at an elementary school, and provides us with an activity for effective student learning outcomes.

Donna Villareal’s “Supporting Young Adolescent English Language Learners With Low Literacy Skills” examines the academic support provided to an 8th-grade bilingual student with deficits in English reading and writing. To enhance the student’s literacy skills, the school’s student support team provided intervention, taking into account (a) the student’s knowledge, (b) the connections between home, school, and community, and (c) supportive learning environments.

Christine Smart-Wiseman reviews bell hooks’s Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom (2010). Smart-Wiseman vividly describes how hooks encourages readers to examine pedagogical encounters from a critical perspective and highlights how beneficial the book would be for adult ESL teachers seeking critical approaches for their teaching.

In TEIS Voices, Susan Morris-Rutledge shares her current position and a course she teaches at the California University of Pennsylvania.

The TEIS Newsletter seeks to share your insights, perspectives, and expertise with TESOL professionals around the world. Please share your voice with the TEIS community by submitting your article. For submission details, contact Hyunsoo Hur.