From the President
by Rebecca Herman / Del Valle ISD
We are very proud of our past year's success in TexTESOL III, which was headed by our immediate Past President, Alex Báez. Under Alex's leadership, we celebrated another cycle of springtime Excellence in ESL Teaching Awards and a terrific annual conference on September 23 at St. Edward's University in Austin. Alex has overseen every one of the many committees that comprise TexTESOL III, and we have each thrived under her enthusiastic encouragement. Alex has kindly agreed to continue on the Board as Past President and will chair the Exhibitor Committee for the 2001 TexTESOL State Conference. She has also begun her tenure as Advertising Manager for our TexTESOL State Newsletter, which all members receive twice a year (in addition to your affiliate newsletter). Alex's dynamic energy will surely motivate all of us toward another successful year.
Our best highlights of the past year begin with the year-long, successful revision of our constitution. The constitution committee was partly comprised of two valuable outgoing Board members, Mary Lou Price (a past Advocacy Representative and Secretary of TexTESOL III) and Charlotte Gilman (a past president of TexTESOL III). Another contributor to this project was John Schmidt, our continuing TESOL Liaison, and a founding member of TexTESOL III. John has served on the Board for over 20 years, so his historical perspective combined with his knowledge of other TESOL affiliates contributed to a greatly refined and more efficient constitution. On behalf of everyone on the Board, thanks to all of you!
New board members
At our Fall Conference on September 23, we inducted several new members to the Board. We welcome our new First Vice President, David Schwarzer, from the Foreign Language Education Program in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin. Born in Argentina, David attended college in Tel Aviv, Israel, where he earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Counseling, with an emphasis in first language literacy. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Arizona in the department of Language, Reading and Culture. David has served as National Superintendent of Literacy in Israel and has published research in the area of early multi-literacy development. He is presently a teacher-trainer in ESL at UT-Austin.
David will co-chair next year's TexTESOL State Conference, which will be held here in Austin on Nov. 2-4, 2001. He has already honored us by presenting at our regional conference last September, and he has been eagerly volunteering in other capacities. We're very grateful that he is willing to play such an important role in our upcoming conference!
Another new member to the Board is Terri Wells, an ESL instructor in the International Office at the University of Texas at Austin, and a Ph.D. candidate in Applied Linguistics in the Foreign Language Education Program at UT-Austin. Terri is our new Newsletter Editor and has already done significant volunteer work for our organization, including serving on the Presenters Committee and designing our excellent program guide for our fall conference. Many thanks, Terri, and welcome aboard!
We are glad to welcome back Alice Chu, who will serve as Secretary to the Board. Alice served as TexTESOL III Newsletter Editor in 1997, when she also produced the program book for the TexTESOL State Conference. She is a graduate student in linguistic anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin. For the past two years, Alice has been conducting dissertation field work in Taiwan to determine how language use and ideologies shape social relationships. Thanks for joining us again, Alice!
We would also like to recognize an important member and active volunteer at our Board meetings, Shannon Verver Sherwood. Shannon is the Bilingual/ESL Specialist for ESC Region XIII. In addition to her enthusiastic contributions to our monthly Board meetings, Shannon has offered to help coordinate our pre-conference site visits on Friday, November 2, 2001, which will kick off the 23rd Annual TexTESOL State Conference. Shannon has broad experience with a variety of public school programs. Her expertise will help us design a thoroughly meaningful strand of site visits. Other visits are bound to include some of the many college and adult education programs in our central Texas region, as well. Welcome, Shannon!
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We welcome back our continuing board members:
Alex Báez (Past President) has a background in publishing, journalism, advertising and public relations. She lived in New York City for 17 years, ten of which were for UNICEF at the United Nations. Alex holds an MA degree in ESL from the Division of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She has taught ESL in the Austin area for the Texas Intensive English Program, Austin Community College, and Even Start. She is a teacher-trainer for Texas A & M University-Kingsville.
John Duke (Second Vice President) handles membership and conference registration. John received his BA in Russian from The University of Texas at Arlington and an MA in Slavic Linguistics from The University of Texas at Austin (UT). He is presently a doctoral candidate (ABD) in Foreign Language Education at UT. He spent six years studying and teaching in Russia. In St. Petersburg, he served as Director of the USIA English Teacher Education Program and was an Assistant Professor at St. Petersburg State University. John currently teaches ESL in the International Program at the University of Texas at Austin.
Teresa Baker (Treasurer) earned an MA in TESL from the University of Illinois and has subsequently taught courses and designed materials in grammar, communication, TOEFL preparation, reading, writing, and English through current events. She has also presented at TESOL International in 1998 and 1999, and coauthored an article for TESOL Journal in 1997. Teresa is currently Assistant Coordinator of ESL Services at The University of Texas at Austin.
John Madden (Webmaster) holds degrees in English and Journalism from the University of Illinois, and an MA in Foreign Language Education (TESOL) from The University of Texas at Austin. John has taught Spanish and English in the Texas public schools and has worked as a reporter and photographer. He served in the Peace Corps in Kenya where he taught ESL and learned Swahili. John is currently a doctoral student at UT-Austin, where he also teaches AEP, ELP, and test preparation courses, as well as managing the ESL Services computer lab.
John Schmidt (TESOL Liaison) is a charter member of TexTESOL III, actively participating in and providing leadership for the organization since it was founded over 20 years ago. John has served on the TESOL International Awards and Membership Committee. A past President of TexTESOL III, John earned his Ph.D. in Foreign Language Education from The University of Texas at Austin. John currently supervises and teaches at the Texas Intensive English Program (T.I.E.P.) in Austin.
Frank Cronin (Delegate-at-Large) has served on the board of TexTESOL III since 1997. He teaches Developmental Writing, Study Skills and ESL at Austin Community College, specializing in ESL writing courses, with an interest in teaching students editing skills. Frank has a Bachelor of Science degree in Linguistics and a Master of Arts degree in ESL, both from the University of Texas.
Greg Thompson (Delegate-at-Large) taught ESL and developed curriculum for many years in the Adult Education Program at Austin Community College. Greg also developed, produced, and starred in the ESL educational video series, "At Home with English," which has been broadcast in Austin as well as in other cities. Greg was a 1999 TexTESOL III "Excellence in Teaching" award winner for his work in Adult ESL. Greg currently teaches and tutors ESL in the Austin area.
And now a word about me, Rebecca Herman, your new President of TexTESOL III. I have served TexTESOL III for two years as Newsletter Editor and then as First Vice President. I am presently teaching ESL in Del Valle ISD (Austin) in grades pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, after having taught in Malaysia and Ohio.
During my tenure with TexTESOL III, I feel that my major influence on the Board has been to expand communication between this organization and the many ESL teachers in the public school arena in order to supplement the existing strengths of intensive English college and workforce education programs already represented and served by the Board. We have done extensive mail-outs to key contacts in the central Texas area, and as of this past summer, we have obtained our non-profit bulk postage rate, so our mailings are much cheaper (although more time-consuming to process!). This outreach has been significantly enhanced by our new-and-improved website, modified over the past year by John Madden, our Webmaster. Also, John Duke, Second Vice President and Registration coordinator, has helped to remind members and readers of when and how to renew their membership. John has greatly clarified and simplified our databases and made them more accessible. Many thanks to their dedication!
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TexTESOL Conference 2001: An ESL Odyssey
Please mark your calendar for the 23rd Annual TexTESOL State Conference, beginning Friday, November 2, 2001, for site visits and other pre-conference activities, followed by a full roster of presentations on Saturday and Sunday, November 3 and 4, 2001. Diane Larsen-Freeman, Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of Language Teacher Education at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, will be a plenary speaker. An engaging presenter who has lectured around the world, Dr. Larsen-Freeman's publications include
 | The Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL Teachers' Course (with Marianne Celce-Murcia) (1983, 1999) |
| Discourse Analysis in Second Language Research (1980) |
| Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (1986) |
| An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research (with Michael Long) (1990) |
| Grammar Dimensions: FormMeaning, and Use (Series Director, 2000) |
| Teaching Language: From Grammar to Grammaring (Forthcoming in 2001) |
Since we are planning a major state conference for November 2001, we are inviting everyone to sign up as a volunteer. Are you talented at creating place settings for luncheons? Would you like to introduce a speaker? Can you host a site-visit tour of your program? Would you spend a couple of hours helping out at a mailing party? These are some of the many volunteer activities we are planning. Please send us an e-mail about how you might like to volunteer, either on a committee or as a conference-day volunteer. See our newsletter roster or our website for our contact information.
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Calendar
November
TexTESOL State Conference, "2001: An ESL Odyssey". 23rd Annual TexTESOL State Conference. November 2-4. Doubletree Hotel (IH-35), Austin. http://www.textesol.org/region3/
National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). 91st Annual Convention. "Teaching Matters". November 15-20. Baltimore. http://www.ncte.org/convention/2001/
Planning Ahead?
AAAL. April 6-9, 2002. Salt Lake City. http://www.aaal.org/
AERA. April 1-5, 2002. New Orleans. http://www.aera.net/
TESOL. 2002. Salt Lake City. http://www.tesol.org/
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TexTESOL III 2000 Fall Conference
We would like to thank everyone who made the TexTESOL III Fall Conference at St. Edward's University a success. In particular, we'd like to thank Lydia Stack for her wonderfuf plenary address and informative session on Writer Workshops. I know many of us who attended her workshop sessions began to implement her ideas intoour classes on Monday morning! A special thanks also to Alex Baéz for her hard work in planning the conference. We would also like to extend our thanks to the student volunteers from the Texas Intensive English Program who helped direct traffic, pass out flyers, and generally help out in all areas of the conference. Thanks!
Many thanks, also, to the publishers who provided items for our drawing at the end of the conference. Congratulations to all you lucky winners!
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Call for contributions
If you would like to contribute an article to this newsletter, please contact the Newsletter Editor at the address below. Please send your contributions as a document of up to 500 words.
Newsletter Editor,
TexTESOL III, Dexter Hall
1103 West 24th Street, Austin, TX 78705
You may contribute to any section, including book reviews, research, teaching tips, literature reviews, job announcements, and the calendar. If you would like to volunteer to read books and review them for our newsletter, please contact the editor at the above address. Our newsletter is published at least four times a year.
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Visit the TexTESOL III Board!
You are also invited to visit any of our monthly Board meetings. We usually meet at the same location:
Texas Intensive English Program
1103 West 24th Street
Austin, Texas 78705
The time and place of each meeting is posted on our website. If you telephone anyone on the Board in advance, we will be glad to greet you and introduce you to the other Board members. We value your input! We are planning for several exciting events, and we hope you will join us!
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