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:

Georgia Demming, Kansas

I’m Georgia Deming. I am the ESL Program Manager for Johnson County Adult Education with Johnson County Community College. We are grant funded and under the umbrella of the Kansas Board of Regents. I have been with the College for 20 years, and for 15 of those years, I have been the ESL Program Manager. I live with my husband Mark and my two dogs, Ivy & Lily, in Shawnee, Kansas. I have lived in the Kansas City area since 1988, but am originally from Lincoln, NE. I can be contacted at georgiademing@midtesol.org or gdeming@jccc.edu.

Co-Chairperson:

Lorraine Gardner, Missouri

Lorraine Gardner is an ESL instructor at Ozarks Technical Community College (OTC) in Springfield, Missouri, where she has been teaching since 2007. She began her teaching career in adult education as a volunteer literacy tutor at Metro Community College in Omaha, Nebraska, over 30 years ago. Lorraine then taught English and French in South Korea. She first joined MIDTESOL in the mid-‘90s while working on her MA in TESOL at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). She taught in the Culture and Intensive English Program (CIEP) at UNI and ESL at Hawkeye Community College. She is the current Past President of the Missouri Association for Adult Continuing and Community Education (MAACCE). In addition to teaching, Lorraine loves music, technology, and travelling. Contact her at lorrainegardner@midtesol.org.

(Fun fact: Lorraine has lived and taught in community colleges in three of the four MIDTESOL states!)

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 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.

Co-Chairperson:

Jacob Rigal, Iowa

Jacob received his M.A. in TESOL from the University of Northern Iowa, where he conducted research for his Master’s thesis on the pragmatics of naturally occurring conversations on campus, and how this and other pragmatically annotated data can be leveraged for learner-centric data-driven learning (DDL). He is currently doing research on the linguistics of humor.

Co-Chairperson:

Karolina Achirri

Bio to come

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.

Chairperson:

Elissa Jones, Kansas

I am the ESOL teacher at Topeka West High School, where I have been since 2017. Currently I teach courses in English language development, I co-teach with core content area teachers, and I coordinate other aspects of the program on our campus. I’ve been teaching in secondary schools since 2003 in varied settings, from Chicago to Wisconsin to Iowa and now Kansas. I am passionate about teaching for equity and excellence.

B.S.Ed. (2003) Oklahoma Baptist University, English Education, TESOL minor
M.S. (2008) University of Wisconsin-Madison, Curriculum & Instruction, Literacy Studies and ESL/Bilingual Education focus
NBCT [National Board Certified Teacher] (2020), English as a New Language, Early Adolescence-Young Adulthood

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.