June 2026 Newsletter

MinneTESOL June 2026 Newsletter

Greetings MinneTESOL Members,

My goal to bring the MinneTESOL board to full capacity is taking shape, and I am ecstatic to welcome our new Treasurer Pete Rogan (read more about Pete below), Northeast Regional Officer TyAnne Rezac, Central Regional Officer Esraa Kadhem, Southwest Regional Officer Renee Ullom, and Metro Regional Officer Shana Lee. We are still looking for three more Regional Officers to represent Northwest, South Central, and Southeastern Minnesota, so if you or anyone you know would be interested, please reach out to me at president@minnetesol.org.

Last month, I had the privilege of attending MinneTESOL Advocacy Standing Committee Leader Dr. Yacoub Aljaffery’s book launch at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Narratives of Success and Resilience of Students from Refugee Backgrounds in U.S. Schools: From Invisible to Valuable is a “book that highlights the powerful assets that students from refugee backgrounds bring into our schools. It explores their cultural and linguistic strengths, the depth and power of translanguaging, and how educators can implement more humanizing practices in their classrooms. It also addresses the hidden curriculum—the unspoken rules, expectations, and systems that refugee students are often expected to navigate without guidance—and shows why teaching it explicitly can make a meaningful difference in students’ lives.” It’s on my summer reading list, and hopefully it will be on yours now too!

I hope you all are enjoying your summer!

All the best,

Nick Reishus
President, MinneTESOL 2026

MinneTESOL Events News

MinneTESOL Summer Reading Group – Happening Now

Join us for our Summer Book Club! We are reading ‘Integrated Literacy for Experienced Multilinguals’ by Tan Huynh and Beth Skelton. We will meet on Zoom (https://district196-org.zoom.us/j/7955248784) on Wednesdays at 4:00 PM.

Schedule:

July 1: Units 3 & 4 (pages 167-206)

Questions? Please contact Katie Miller at Katherine.Miller@district196.org.

TESOL Advocacy Summit June 22-24

The TESOL Advocacy Summit serves as a crucial yearly gathering in Washington, D.C., where educators unite to advance the interests and requirements of English Learners. During previous summits, delegates from MinneTESOL have met with members of Congress to push for essential school funding and the preservation of the U.S. Department of Education. For the 2026 session, MinneTESOL sponsored two representatives; watch for their forthcoming reports.

MinneTESOL at the State Fair September 7

Join us at the Great Minnesota Get Together! On Monday, September 7 (Labor Day), MinneTESOL representatives will be stationed at the Education Minnesota booth within the Education Building. Our team will engage fairgoers with questions from the U.S. Citizenship exam and distribute MinneTESOL-branded gifts to successful participants. Please keep an eye on your inbox for a message regarding volunteer opportunities for this lively community outreach event.

🌟 Save the Date: The MinneTESOL Conference 🌟

November 20-21, 2026 | Saint Paul RiverCentre

The MinneTESOL Conference brings together the brightest minds in ESL, Migrant Education, and Dual Language Immersion. As we celebrate our 50th anniversary, MinneTESOL is going back to our roots by rebranding the event from MELEd back to the MinneTESOL Conference. While the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) will no longer provide direct funding for keynote speakers, they continue to support the conference through sessions and speakers focused on WIDA standards. The conference will be held Nov. 20-21 at the Saint Paul RiverCentre.

The MinneTESOL Call for Proposals is Open Now. We encourage educators to submit proposals and share their expertise. Registration will open in August.

Other Events

Literacy Action Network Summer ABE Institute Aug. 12

The popular LAN ABE Summer Institute will be held virtually this year on August 12, 2026. Sponsored by the Literacy Action Network, this annual symposium offers essential professional development opportunities for Adult Basic Education practitioners.

Comprehensive details regarding the Summer Institute are available online.

Check out the Latest Issue of MinneTESOL Journal!

Featured Articles

In “Multilingual family engagement in Minnesota,” Kristina Robertson, Ashley Karlsson, Jurana Aziz, and Claudia Tabini present survey data from across Minnesota on educator perceptions of multilingual family engagement practices in K-12 schools. Based on the survey results, they make policy recommendations for improving culturally responsive practices, multilingual communication practices and staffing, and ongoing training and support for high-quality multilingual family engagement practices.

Kaycee Rogers and Lisa Velarde present an analysis of the current research on ESL-aligned and bilingual approaches to English language development, identifying overlaps and gaps between them in their article, “Why not both? Balancing equitable approaches to multilingual education for linguistically minoritized students.” The authors suggest that both approaches need to coexist in schools to meet the needs of all language learners, particularly those from less common, linguistically minoritized backgrounds.

Meet the MinneTESOL Members

Name: Rihab Naheel

Position: External Relations Director

Education: Certificate in Language Correspondence (Germany), Undergraduate degree in English Literature, University of Aleppo, Master’s in TESL, St. Cloud State University

Why you got into ESL: I fell in love with English when I learned it as a third language in fifth grade. I love teaching an international language that is so important for so many to learn and master.

Current Projects: Completing a certificate in Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Yoga.

MinneTESOL Journal call for papers

Now is your chance to publish an article in the upcoming MinneTESOL Journal, a practitioner academic online journal. See Writing for the MinneTESOL Journal for more information.

Journal submissions are accepted on a rolling basis.

Did you know?

Past MinneTESOL newsletters can be found on our website, at http://minnetesol.org/minnetesol-newsletters

We want to hear from you

We are always looking for information to share from our members. Please send newsletter submissions to admin@minnetesol.org.