MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

Patrice Palmer, M.Ed., M.A., CPP Teacher to Teacherpreneur, Canada.

Hello to the MWIS Community,

Warm greetings from Canada. I hope everyone had a restful summer and the opportunity to rejuvenate for the Fall.

The Materials Writers Interest Section (MWIS) continues to have a strong online presence. The IS Community page at myTESOL has links to our Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress accounts, and we would like to thank Lisa Horvath for maintaining the MWIS Facebook page, Walton Burns (former Chair) for our Twitter feed @TESOLMWIS, and for the Wordpress blog. The myTESOL listserv, with more than 1,000 members, remains the most immediate go-to place for MWIS communication. All of the resources are designed to serve the community, so please feel free to connect with MWIS on social media and consider writing for our blog.

We welcome our new Newsletter Editor Kenneth Kuo-Pin Chi who replaces Cerise Santoro. Kenneth has been teaching English as a foreign language for 20 years, and has been editing newsletter for VDMIS for years. He also publishes and develops quite a few ELT materials.

For the past few months, the leadership team has been busy coordinating our Academic and Intersection panels for TESOL19. Our two proposals are as follows and have been submitted to TESOL:

Developing Materials for Social Responsibility, Equity and Social Justice

The development of teaching and learning materials cannot be separated from issues of power, representation, context or content. This panel of materials writers share global perspectives on the development and contextualization of English teaching materials for equity and social justice with a lens on social responsibility, reconciliation, and representation.

Materials Writers Are Entrepreneurs

This panel has been designed to meet the needs of TESOL professionals at all stages of their career paths. Teachers, teacher trainers, materials writers, administrators and other educational experts have numerous skills that can be utilized in and outside of the classroom to assure career growth and satisfaction. Learn from a panel of successful TESOL materials writers as they discuss how to develop and use professional skills to maximize excellence in materials and diversify professional activities.

Our First Webinar

On August 2, Hugh Dellar hosted our first webinar this year entitled Taboo or Not Taboo: It's All in the Question. It was a fascinating look at the role of teachers and publishers when it comes to teaching or publishing taboo topics. Hugh's main message was that 'taboos' are not taboo when teachers' primary focus is on language (not issues) and when teachers help students express their own ideas.

We had a great discussion at the end of the webinar based on excellent questions posed by the participants. Thank you to all who participated. If you missed the live event, TESOL members can use the link below and watch for free. http://www.tesol.org/connect/tesol-resource-center/search-details/virtual-seminars/2018/08/02/taboo-or-not-taboo-it's-all-in-the-question

If you have an idea for a webinar and would be willing to present, please let anyone on the MWIS leadership know. TESOL will provide an honorarium.

Before I close, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to MWIS, shared ideas, and made suggestions. Looking forward to meeting you in Atlanta (one of my favourite cities) in March 2019.

Best regards, Patrice Palmer

[Bio]

Patrice Palmer, M.Ed., M.A., CPP has more than 20 years' experience as an ESL Teacher, TESL Trainer, and Writer. She spent seven amazing years teaching in Hong Kong and has taught students from 8 to 80 years in a variety of programs. Patrice now works as a teacherpreneur doing the things that she loves such as writing books, courses and teaching materials; coaching teacherpreneurs, travelling at any time of the year and applying the science of positive psychology to her work.