Alabama-Mississippi
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
AMTESOL has a new mailing address! AMTESOL PO Box 360122 Hoover, AL 35236
Advocacy Forum 2027
Thursday, January 28, 2027
9:00am - 12:00pm
Birmingham, Alabama
Hyatt Regency Birmingham - The Wynfrey Hotel
Price: $100 (includes the afternoon Pre-Conference Institute)
AMTESOL Advocacy Forum 2027
AMTESOL invites you to our annual Advocacy Forum where you will hear guest speakers and participate in interactive activities and discussion about the needs of immigrants in our communities and the ways that we can advocate for our students' social, emotional, and academic success.
Join us for a morning of activities and discussion about the vital advocacy role that ESOL teachers play in the lives of their students and families. Don't miss this opportunity to hone your advocacy skills and become empowered to effectively advocate for multilingual learners and communities.
Advocacy Forum Workshop
Nobody Does This Alone: Voice, Solidarity, and Access for Multilingual Learners
Language is never only about language. It shapes who is heard, who is believed, and who gets access to opportunity, in classrooms, in communities, and in places far from either. This half-day interactive session is built around stories gathered across settings and borders: what they reveal, and what they can move. Together we will examine the central commitments of Language of Identity, Language of Access — building access while supporting identity — and consider what educators have accomplished when they moved from individual conviction to collective action. Participants will then put that into practice, working at tables to build and rehearse the case for their own students: the ask, the evidence, and the story that carries it. Come ready to talk. You will leave with a clearer sense of what to ask for, and people to ask alongside.
Presenter
Michelle Benegas, Ph.D.
Michelle Benegas, Ph.D., is Associate Professor and Co-Director of the TESOL Program at Hamline University. She began her career teaching adults and secondary newcomer students. She was Principal Investigator on the English Learners in the Mainstream (ELM) Project, a $1.5 million U.S. Department of Education grant that prepared more than 400 teacher leaders, and the School-Wide English Learning (SWEL) model she co-developed is now delivered nationally through TESOL International Association, where she also serves as faculty. She is co-author of Teacher Leadership for School-Wide English Learning and Language of Identity, Language of Access: Liberatory Learning for Multilingual Classrooms. As a 2024 U.S. Department of State English Language Specialist, she has worked with educators abroad on language, identity, and access. She found her first professional community in a TESOL affiliate during her first year in the classroom and has never worked without one since; she served as president of MinneTESOL in 2015.