October 2026 Newsletter

Letter from the President

Hello MinneTESOL Members!

Our conference is rapidly approaching (see updates below!), and MinneTESOL is looking ahead to 2027. We are soliciting nominations and interest for the Vice President 1 and Vice President 3 positions on the executive board. If you are interested, or you know someone who would be interested, please reach out to me at president@minntesol.org for more information.

Thanks and I hope to see you at the conference in November!

Sincerely,
Nick Reishus
2026 MinneTESOL President

MinneTESOL Conference Updates

The MinneTESOL Conference on November 20-21 at the Saint Paul RiverCentre 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. We are excited to announce both our keynote speakers and scholarship/volunteer opportunities that can help make conference attendance more accessible. 🎃 Don’t turn into a pumpkin! Early Bird Pricing ends Oct. 31. 🎃

📅 Register for the MinneTESOL Conference Here
🎟️ Attend the MinneTESOL for Free or at a Discount!

🌟 Friday Keynote: Superintendent Zena Stenvik

  • Purpose-Driven Leadership: Leads comprehensive programming spanning Early Childhood through Adult Enrichment.
  • Equity & Belonging: Builds strong networks between schools, families, and community partners to ensure diverse student populations and multilingual families feel safe, valued, and empowered.

🌟 Saturday Keynote: Dr. Michelle Benegas

  • National Systemic Impact: Principal Investigator for the $1.5M ELM Project (preparing 400+ MN teacher leaders) and co-creator of the School-Wide English Learning (SWEL) model.
  • Acclaimed Author: Co-author of Teacher Leadership for School-Wide English Learning and Language of Identity, Language of Access (TESOL Press)
  • Local & Global Reach: 2024 U.S. Department of State English Language Specialist and former MinneTESOL President (2015).

💡 What You Will Gain by Attending the Keynote Presentations

Check out the Latest Issue of MinneTESOL Journal!

Featured Articles

Yacoub Aljaffery writes his narrative inquiry to explore how newcomer students navigated the hidden curriculum of U.S. high schools in “Beyond content: Teaching the hidden curriculum for newcomer students.” Participants’ stories show that unspoken classroom norms and school-system rules can become gatekeepers when they are assumed rather than taught. The article argues that teaching these expectations explicitly is an equity practice that helps newcomers thrive.

Meghan Love, Priscila J.B.M. Costa, and Luciana C. de Oliveira explore prompt engineering as a planning practice for using Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to create mentor texts for second language (L2) writing instruction in “Designing GenAI prompts with purpose for mentor text creation.” Using the Prompt Creation Reference Chart for Mentor Texts as a foundation, the article introduces a Google Sheets-based tool that helps teachers design intentional prompts aligned to genre, language features, and instructional purpose.

MinneTESOL Journal Call for Editors

The MinneTESOL Journal Editorial Board invites applications for the editorship of the journal: Senior Editor and Technical Editor. Editors each receive a modest stipend of $1,200.00 per issue for their time and expertise. See the Call for Editors announcement linked here for more information on how to apply. We look forward to reviewing your application!

Meet the MinneTESOL Board

 

Name:   Renee Ullom

Position at MinneTESOL:  SW Regional Representative ( I think this is my title?!)

Education Context:    Professor of Education at Southwest Minnesota State University, TESL Specialist

Why you got into ESL:  It was a complete accident. I was teaching 4th grade and moving into the Gifted Specialist position. The current gifted teacher decided to stay on for another semester, so my Principal asked me to cover the EL position for that semester. Once I got into the EL position I never wanted to leave. I fell in love with my EL students! Their determination, resiliency, and love for learning filled my heart every day. I found my true educational passion with these students and followed that by eventually moving into higher education where I have the opportunity to share the joys of working with multilingual students to aspiring educators across the K-12 education system.

Current Project:  I am currently working on recruiting future educators into our teaching program. Especially our TESL Residency program as there are so many paraprofessionals working in our schools that would be a perfect fit as an ML teacher. I especially would like to support teacher candidates of color and those that came up through ML programs. Our ML students need to see themselves reflected in their teachers, and it is my goal to make this happen!

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.

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Register today to lock in the best rate for 2026 MinneTESOL Conference!
November 19-21, 2026

Register HERE