TEIS Newsletter - March 2015 (Plain Text Version)
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LEADERSHIP UPDATES LETTER FROM THE CHAIR
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:
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 |
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