Committee goals for the future.

Greetings to all from South Carolina on a hot and humid summer day. Since I was installed as Vice President Representing Intermediate. Middle Childhood for ACEI at the annual conference in Phoenix, things have been quite exciting. I hope to share some of this excitement with you in this column.

During the conference, 17 sessions focused on intermediate/middle childhood. All provided opportunities for participants to share their ideas and concerns relevant to this age group. The Intermediate/Middle Childhood Luncheon provided a wonderful venue for discussing the importance of incorporating multicultural books within the curriculum. The guest speaker, Theresa Howell of Northland Publishing, focused on regional and multicultural books and their importance to the Southwest community and beyond. This session was especially beneficial for me because my personal exposure to Native American resources has been limited. I was able to share the resources I learned about at the luncheon with my teacher education students. All participants had positive comments about this session. Plans are underway to provide another exciting luncheon program for next year in New Orleans, so please plan to attend.

In my opinion, the most important session for our group was the Intermediate/Middle Childhood Committee Meeting. Ten members attended and five more expressed interest in joining the committee. This brings our committee membership to 22. During the committee meeting, we planned and discussed our goals for the upcoming year. They are as follows:

* Goal 1: Actively work to encourage new members for ACEI and the I/MC Committee: Diversity will be a main focus in this effort.

* Goal 2: Promote commitment to the whole child by sharing current research and issues specific to intermediate/middle level children in a variety of venues.

* Goal 3: Investigate practices, policies, and politics of educational designs related to intermediate/middle childhood schools internationally. Present a panel discussion of findings related to intermediate/middle childhood international schools.

* Goal 4: Support ACEI's unique leadership role in ensuring excellence in teacher preparation by highlighting professional dispositions. (This is a possible luncheon topic for the New Orleans conference.) Encourage I/ MC Committee members to apply to become ACEI/NCATE reviewers.

As you can see, numerous opportunities exist for ACEI members to become actively involved in achieving the Committee's goals. If you have any ideas or research that relate to our goals, please contact me at jhunter@ lander.edu. I also encourage anyone who works with young adolescents to become actively involved with our committee. We only representation from 11 states and British Columbia. Our goal is to have a greater diversity that represents the overall diversity within ACEI.

As your new representative to ACEI's Executive Board, I am committed to sharing the collective views of our membership. Please contact me if you have concerns you wish to share with the Board, as well as possible ideas for future column topics. I welcome your input. I hope your Fall 2003 school term is successful.

--Sincerely,

Jill Hunter, Vice-President,

Intermediate/Middle Childhood