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Dear TEIS members:
I am pleased to update you on our TEIS activities over the past few months.
First, I would like to introduce two new members of the TEIS
team. Elections were held in November for the incoming chair-elect-elect
position (Chair in 2017–2018), and Dr. Andrea B. Hellman was chosen.
Andrea is a teacher educator at Missouri State University College of
Education, where she prepares teachers to support ELLs in the mainstream
classroom. We also plan to include more book reviews in our newsletter.
To this end, we have recruited a book review editor, Jillian Baldwin
Kim. Thanks to both Andrea and Jillian for stepping forward to serve
TEIS in these positions. As you know, all the work for TEIS is performed
by volunteers!
The TEIS newsletter has published some noteworthy articles. Two
articles from our last newsletter were referenced in the 15 July 2014
edition of the National Clearinghouse for English Language
Acquisition (NCELA) Nexus online newsletter. These two articles were
Megan Madigan Peercy’s “The
Teacher Educator and Reflective Practice: How can Self-Study and Core
Practices Inform Us?” and Angela Thevenot’s and Teresa Dalle’s
“Challenging
Preservice Teachers to Become Culturally Competent.” It is fantastic to see that the articles from
our publication are catching the attention of others and are being more
widely disseminated.
The Electronic Village Online (EVO) offers virtual professional
development, free of charge, on a wide range of topics over a 5-week
period. TEIS was the sponsor of two EVO sessions this year: “Information
and Communication Technology for English Language Teachers”
(ICT4ELT) and “Flipped
Learning.” I hope some of you have been able to take
advantage of this event. If you have learned anything from participating
in the EVO that you have been able to incorporate into your teacher
education practice, please consider sharing by posting on the TEIS
listserv or writing an article for our newsletter.
The TESOL 2015 International Convention & English Language Expo
is being held this year in Toronto, Canada, 25–28 March 2015. TEIS
received 371 proposals for sessions at this year’s conference. These
proposals were reviewed during June and July. Thanks to all of you who
submitted proposals and to those who participated in the review process!
The TESOL International Association allotted TEIS 82 spots in the
conference program. To identify TEIS sessions while at the conference,
look for sessions marked with the TEIS symbol (“TE” inside of an oval)
in the conference book. The TEIS leadership team has also organized some
stimulating panels for you:
- Check out our academic session on “Hot Topics in Teacher Education” on Friday, 3 pm–4:45 pm.
- Our primary InterSection is in conjunction with the Materials
Writers Interest Section (MWIS). The panel, “Teaching Teachers to
Evaluate and Design Materials,” is scheduled for Friday, 1 pm–2:45 pm.
- We are collaborating with the Secondary Schools Interest
Section (SSIS) for an InterSection panel on “Building Bridges and
Crossing Borders in Preparing Secondary Teachers for ELLs” on Thursday,
9:30 am–11:15 am.
- Finally, our TEIS Business Meeting will be held on Thursday from 6:45 pm–8:15 pm.
Hope you will join us in some of these TEIS events!
The TESOL
International Association Research Agenda 2014 has been
released. It is great to note some teacher education topics listed under
the Directions for Research Inquiry (p. 10). For instance, “What role
does preservice and/or inservice training have on a teacher’s teaching
practice?” and “What learning community support do
nonnative-English-speaking teachers want in order to make improvements in their
language skills?” are just two of the questions relevant for teacher
education researchers. Be sure to share the Research Agenda with your
TESOL students who are completing theses and dissertations.
As always, if you have any suggestions for TEIS, you can
contact me at gonikki@hotmail.com.
Sincerely,
Nikki Ashcraft | 
