MIDTESOL Interest Sections

MIDTESOL currently offers six Interest Sections (see list below). The Interest Sections are open to any member and are organized around different areas within the field of English language teaching. Members may be involved in more than one Interest Section. Interest Sections hold meetings at the MIDTESOL Conference each year.

As an Interest Section (IS) member, you can receive special notifications from the IS leader and communicate with other IS members. This will also help MIDTESOL tailor the annual conferences to best meet your needs. To indicate your desire to be a part of an Interest Section, login to our Membership site. On your profile page, click Edit to select an Interest Section under Lists that you would like to be associated with.

Community College / Adult Education Interest Section

MIDTESOL’s Community College / Adult Education Interest Section (CCAEIS) serves the interests of adult students in ESL programs, their teachers, and administrators. CCAEIS tries to bring together knowledge, precepts, and skills of two distinct but compatible areas: adult education and ESL. Teachers of adults with limited English proficiency work in a variety of non-traditional educational settings. Programs are administered by city, state, province, country, federal, and privately funded programs. Organizational structures, standards, and goals follow widely different patterns.

Successful adult educators have had to meet the following challenges:

multilevel and multilingual classes
irregular attendance of working adult students
continuous intake and exit of students
students with widely differing educational, social, cultural, and economic backgrounds and ages
lack of materials, resources, and equipment
low social status in the educational establishment
an uninformed public

Co-Chairperson:

Farrah Littlepage, Missouri

Farrah Littlepage has been joyfully serving and learning from multilingual learners of English for 16 years and has worked in education for 22 years. She currently teaches ESL at Metropolitan Community College, in addition to teaching English and Spanish in virtual reality at Immerse. She is currently a chairperson of the MidTESOL Adult Education and Community College Interest Section. Farrah has worked in a variety of settings, from a school district ELL program supervisor to an Intensive English Program instructor at the University of Missouri. As an English Language Fellow in Laos from 2018-2020, Farrah was involved in teacher training at universities, teacher training colleges, and secondary schools, and she later served as an Alumni Ambassador for English Language Programs. She has presented at international and regional conferences in seven countries. Her primary areas of interest are teacher training, pronunciation, and intercultural competence.

Farrah’s bilingualism and enthusiasm for connecting across cultures moves her to promote positive cultural identity in students. In her free time, she enjoys literature,
language learning, and meditation.

Co-Chairperson:

Sharon Gile

Dr. Sharon Gile has worked in education for thirty years and has taught English in the United States, Mexico, Taiwan, and Brazil. She also served as a global training coordinator for the German automotive industry, which allowed her to travel extensively and to develop courses for speakers all over the world. She is dedicated to advocating for her students and to learning from other cultures and seeks to help her students embrace their multilingualism both in and out of the classroom. In addition to teaching English, she advises the Creative Writing Club and writes poetry. She also dedicates much of her free time to helping with community organizations.

Educational Technology Interest Section

MIDTESOL’s Educational Technology Interest Section promotes the integration of technology while using the TESOL Standards as a foundation for pedagogically sound work. The Ed Tech IS works to develop a personal learning network in educational technology to demonstrate, share, and grow in the field. It is our mission to model effective technology uses and opportunities for members at large while inspiring curiosity and providing support for growth in the field.

Chairperson:

Amber Schrage, Kansas

Amber Schrage is currently an ESL coordinator and educator at Johnson County Adult Education at Johnson County Community College in Kansas. Before this, she served as an international principal in Brazil, a director at a private school, and has 15 years of experience in Elementary Education in Kansas. During all these experiences, technology was a focus, and she was placed in these positions to improve digital literacy, digital curriculum, and professional development for staff. Amber currently holds the following certifications: Google Instructional Coach, Google Educator levels 1 and 2, Microsoft Innovative Educator, Cognia Certifications as well as many other classroom technology certifications such as Adobe Creative Educator, Nearpod, Minecraft, Edpuzzle, and more. Her main focus is to help get devices into the hands of ESL students, students who have never seen a computer before, and provide them with the digital literacy skills they need to be successful in the United States culture.

Higher Education / Teacher Training Interest Section

MIDTESOL’s Higher Education / Teacher Training Interest Section (HETTIS) exists to serve the needs of those who work in higher education and/or teacher training. HETTIS advances effective English language instruction, promotes professional standards and practices, influences and supports policies of MIDTESOL and other associations, determines needs in the field and initiates projects to meet such needs, and considers all other matters relevant to ESL in higher education. It also provides a forum for ESOL teacher educators and other MIDTESOL members to raise, discuss, and address issues relevant to the education, preparation, and continuing professional development of teachers who work with ESL learners. It creates opportunities for ESOL teacher educators to learn, interact, collaborate, and share with one another. Visit the group on Facebook here.

Chairperson:

Andrea Hellman, Missouri

Andrea B. Hellman, Ed.D., is a Professor of Linguistics/TESOL in the English Department at Missouri State University. She teacher graduate courses in TESOL and directs a National Professional Development grant project, Show Me Multiliteracy. Andrea has been an active member of TESOL International Association serving in various leadership roles, which includes the Standards Committee, Chair of the Teacher Educator Interest Section, The 6 Principles Writing Team, Series Editor of TESOL Press, and Strand Coordinator of the TESOL Convention for Teacher Education. When she is not teaching or writing TESOL books, Andrea enjoys digital painting and publishing children’s books for multilingual readers.

Intensive English Program Interest Section

MIDTESOL’s Intensive English Programs Interest Section exists to serve the needs of those who work in intensive English programs (IEPs), which serve students who need to acquire proficiency in English in a relatively short time, usually for academic and career success. The concerns of the membership include methodology, curriculum design, materials development, placement, evaluation, program administration, technology-assisted instruction, English for specific purposes, culture, learners’ concerns, and members’ employment concerns.

Chairperson:

Dr. Joe Scott, Missouri

Dr. Joe Scott was born in Columbia and, after teaching English as a foreign language in Taiwan and Poland, he has returned to Columbia and has been studying and teaching at the University of Missouri-Columbia since 2003. He has a Bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in French from Drury University in Springfield, Missouri; a Master’s of Education degree from Framingham State University in Framingham, Massachusetts; a Ph.D. in English with a specialization in 20th century American literature from the University of Missouri; and a graduate certificate in teaching English to speakers of other languages from MU. He is particularly interested in teaching grammar and academic writing, and in his free time, he enjoys hanging out with his cats, watching movies, baking homemade bread, and playing guitar.

K-12 Interest Section

The MIDTESOL K-12 Interest Section (K-12IS) represents kindergarten, elementary, and secondary school teachers and administrators. K-12IS supports children from non-English-speaking backgrounds who enter school (K-12) with a need to acquire fluency in English. The task of K-12IS members is to ensure that K-12 ESL students develop the linguistic, cultural, and cognitive skills necessary for success in an English-speaking context. K-12IS members accomplish this task by facilitating the exchange of information and expertise among teachers and administrators.

Co-Chairperson:

Lesley Mathews, Missouri

Lesley Mathews is currently a K-5 ELL teacher at the Blue Springs School District in Missouri. She has a BS in Elementary Education and a MA in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). She started my career teaching 3rd grade and transitioned into the role of elementary English Language Teacher in 2019. She loves her position of supporting students with language development in social and academic settings. In her school, she hosts various student clubs and English language tutoring and connects with multilingual families about outside support and activities. She is passionate about her ELL department and fostering student growth. She is excited to be a co-chair for this interest section to learn more and collaborate with other K-12 teachers in the field.

Co-Chairperson:

Rachel Shellenbarger, Missouri

Rachel is an ELD teacher at Carthage High School in Carthage, MO, where she has been since 2020. Currently, she teaches courses in English Language Development for Year 2, sheltered Health, sheltered Theater Appreciation, sheltered Personal Communication, and sheltered Personal Finance. She has been teaching in secondary schools since 2007 in rural/suburban southwest Missouri. While her previous schools had a range of over 12 different linguistic backgrounds, her current school has an overall student population of over 40 percent Spanish-speaking heritage.

B.S.Ed. (2006) Missouri State University, Speech and Theater Education

Certification in Teaching English (2006)

Certification in TESOL (2011) Missouri Southern University

M.S. (2017) University of Kansas, Curriculum & Instruction, Reading focus

Program Administrators Interest Section

MIDTESOL’S Program Administrators Interest Section (PAIS) serves the unique needs of administrators in the field in a variety of settings from K-12 education, adult education, stand-alone language programs, to higher education. PAIS gives administrators a place to connect and support each other with ideas, research, and current issues in the field. This group also facilitates opportunities for the collaboration and sharing of ideas specific to the concerns of PA’s at the MIDTESOL conference and other events.

Chairperson:

Kelly McClendon, Kansas

Kelly McClendon is faculty at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas where she serves as the coordinator of the Intensive English Program. She also serves as a member of the university Academic Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She received her MA in TESL from Oklahoma State University and has taught in Tianjin, China and Tokyo, Japan. Besides experience teaching English at the university level, she has also taught in K-12 and Adult Basic Education contexts. Recently, her career has focused on international student integration into campus life, promotion of inclusive classroom environments, program accreditation, and faculty professional development.