MIDTESOL Matters
Winter 2001-02
A Publication of Mid-America Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages

Postcard from Missouri

By Jane Robison, Missouri representative

ESL educators can now take advantage of the following online resources from the ESL Advisory Services: an FAQ page, a list of suggested items for schools that are setting up resources for their teachers and administrators, and some of the handouts most frequently distributed at workshops. Visit the website at www.eslas.org. ESLAS Project director Ron Long and Jackie Mattonen have scheduled December visits to the four sites of the pilot Adult Ed and Family Literacy with ESL Focus Programs sponsored by DESE. Other news from DESE is the addition of Sherry Fetzer as a supervisor in Adult Ed and Literacy. This is the first time that Missouri’s AEL has had, as a member of its team, a teacher educator of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Ms. Fetzer has extensive experience both in teaching and administrative positions in the U.S. and abroad, having served as Teacher Educator and Country Coordinator for Romania, Hungary, and Macedonia under the USIS and the US State Department.

The number of LEP students in Cape Girardeau public schools has doubled since last year and, as a result, Lana Andrews has been hired as the first ESL teacher in the district’s history. The surrounding community is seeing a rise in the Hispanic population, prompting an excellent article in the Southeast Missourian (newspaper), in which several connections were made to the growth in the local ESL program.

Charlotte Daniel (Monett High School) will be presenting at the NABE conference in Philadelphia in March. In planning her presentation, which focuses primarily on the TACTICS program through SEMO, Charlotte asks for input from ESL teachers. Her email address is cdanie02@mr1.mo-net.com. She also reports that a group of 14 ESL students from Monett High School attended the SMSU Board of Governors meeting in November. They were invited by Dr. Robert Norton to see his presentation on the Bridges program and to tour the campus. A second group of 24 toured the campus recently and a final group is planning to visit SMSU soon. These ESL students are excited about the opportunities offered them through this program that links SMSU Spanish students with area Hispanic high school students for mutual enrichment.