“Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success.”
–Henry Ford

We are honored to introduce this special issue of the Teacher Education Interest Section (TEIS) newsletter, TEIS News, dedicated to student research. The spirit of the above quote encompasses the entire making of this issue: from the submissions received, through the editorial process, till its publication.

This year the TEIS editorial board has been enriched with two new members: Bridget Schvarcz - who worked as the content editor, and Raynira Tejada - who proofread the articles. Our interest in teacher education, enthusiasm for engaging in research, and passion for proofing and editing brought us together. Several weeks of prosperous collaboration unfolded into the realization of this issue - an issue which we can call a true success!

We are thrilled to have seen the large number of graduate students interested in sharing their research with the community on topics of significance to teacher educators. This is also reflected in the number of article submissions we received. Given this upsurge, we decided to publish two issues.

The articles selected for the first issue deal with crucial matters in 21st century education: the use of technology, international and refugee students, and bringing real-world experiences into the classroom. Below is a teaser of the rich jigsaw puzzle put together by the authors of the articles:

• Kevin M. Wong explores the creative use of Instagram in teacher education programs.

• Shunzan Li’s paper eloquently points out the drawbacks of online-courses for international graduate students in TESOL.

• Elif Burhan proposes auspicious solutions for the incorporation of digital social learning platforms into language teacher education.

• Babak Khosnevisian investigates the merger of augmented reality and education.

• Nicole Siffrina and Khanh Buib present a model for the use of backward design well applicable in any pre- (and even in-) service teacher education program.

• Einas Albadawi Tarboush crystallizes the educational concerns involving Syrian refugee pupils and offers valuable tips for teachers to help in their acculturation process.

We hope that this special edition of TEIS News will serve as a stimulus for graduate students around the world to present their studies, as well as for teacher educators, professors and advisors to encourage the future generation to publish their work.