How do you feel today as the ESL MiniConference Online starts its 18th year of publication?

It has been quite an experience. Longevity does mean something. A lot of web sites have come and gone, but when you click on our stories, each one still opens using the same simple page-link logic we started with in 2001. A few of the links within articles that used to connect to related information are no longer current, and that does affect the overall quality of our content. But you would be hard pressed to find an online newsletter offering as comprehensive a picture of key people, trends, and ideas from the field of ESL/EFL and cross-cultural teaching and learning as we have managed to maintain.

Yet the pace at which new articles are added to your site has slackened significantly in recent years.

The truth is that this project was my sole focus for less than a year before its popularity led to further opportunities for me to grow personally and professionally through additional activities that have made it increasingly difficult to give regular attention to the ESL MiniConference. Over the past five years, especially, since I completed my doctorate and took on the challenges of a full-time tenure-track university teaching position, the newsletter has become a less than part-time "hobby." I worry about this and really wish I could devote more of my energy here; it feels great when I am able to spend a few moments doing upkeep on the site or, as I got a chance to do over the recent holidays, actually compose several new stories.

Can you say something about the three new articles you posted over the holidays? What prompted this "burst of creativity" and can we look forward to more of the same any time soon?

First, a good friend of my brother's passed away the day after Christmas and I thought it over for a day or two before deciding that, instead of phoning in my condolences or sending flowers, I felt it would be more meaningful to share my impressions, especially from the day when I first met "Blues," which is what everybody called the man, whose given name was Timothy Farley.

Then, during that same all-night stint at the computer, since I was "on a roll," I went ahead and finally responded to my good friend Dave Hopkins' request from back in October, when he had asked me to review his new book. Dave is one of my best friends in the world, and has been a colleague, my boss at one point, a mentor, and, years later, a colleague again for a few months in 2012, so it meant a lot to me to sit down and write out a heart-felt review of the second edition of a book of his that I not only had read, but had used as a guide in my own teaching and curriculum development work.

At the end of that night of writing, at about 6:30 in the morning as I prepared for bed, I felt physically drained, but spiritually invigorated. I was very happy to be writing once again in the informal style that typifies ESL MiniConference stories.

How do you keep yourself engaged with ESL/EFL and cross-cultural issues when your main area of research and teaching is special education?

I once thought that maybe I could be part of developing a multicultural special education or bilingual special education certificate program at the university where I work. But frankly there is so much teaching and advising to do, not to mention research and service activities, and the priorities are determined by people "above my pay grade." However, I am sometimes asked to contribute ideas on initiatives related to language teaching and cross-cultural communication, or someone will ask me for a suggestion or advice informally in the hallway, and then they will run with it and those sometimes turn out nicely.

I am currently involved in leadership roles on a university-wide strategic planning initative, and also serve on the faculty senate, where I have been able to add my voice to discussions about really interesting new ways of looking at undergraduate general education requirements, as well as serving on a committee that reviews new courses and new programs that different departments need approval to implement. I also have been involved in research and discussions around an initiative to improve accessibility and implement UDL principles in a study center for College of Education students. An online course that I developed for teachers, families, and caregivers on transition and self-determination--including video clips of me explaining each section of the course--ended up not being used, but I have made it available for free and hope that ESL MiniConference readers will take a look (https://sites.google.com/view/transitioncoursedrrobbscott) and see what my main interest is today. Also, I am in the sixth and last year representing transition service providers on the Kansas Special Education Advisory Council (SEAC), which is part of the Kansas Department of Education. Some things are winding down, and perhaps in the months and years to come, I can reorganize the ESL MiniConference and dedicate more time to it. A friend who is a bit of an educational entrepreneur overseas has spoken to me about wanting to do a serious upgrade of the site and revamp it to make it much more current, active, and engaging.

You traveled a lot in high school and college, and you lived overseas, in Ecuador and Japan, into your early thirties. Have you thought about returning to a more "nomadic" lifestyle again in search of global adventures?

That is an interesting way to put it. It feels so good to be, not only in the state of Kansas, but in the part of Kansas where I grew up and spent my formative years. The region where I live and work is mostly farmland, with clean air and clean water. The Volga Germans who settled here only a little over a hundred years ago pulled large slabs of limestone out of the ground to build churches and schools, and it is a picturesque setting. Just an hour and a half's drive away is Sterling College and Sterling Lake, where my parents first met and dated, and where I go as often as I can to decorate their grave.

It seems unusual that we would get to the end of this interview without you talking about your family. I know your family is very important to you.

What can I say? At this point, I have to pinch myself sometimes just to make certain I'm not dreaming. How could I imagine the range of emotions and life-changing experiences ahead of me as I held my first child in my arms just a few moments after he was born? And then, 19 months later, I was right there in the delivery room again, for the birth of my first daughter. And I took my family with me to spend three years in Ecuador and five years in Japan, with a little hiatus for the birth of my second daughter, with me in the delivery room again. Then, 14 years later, following a decade in New York City and after moving back to the Kansas heartland, another son was born, again with me in the delivery room. Seven years after that, my oldest daughter calls me to describe the birth of my first grandchild, a beautiful little girl. And another five years after that, my son and his wife bring into the world yet another beautiful little girl.

At Thanksgiving a month and a half ago, my daughter and my new daughter-in-law invited me to celebrate my 60th birthday in their home, together with my wife, my two sons, and my youngest granddaughter. What a feeling that was and the afterglow has not yet dimmed.

I am thankful to God and to all the people in our lives who continue to make such a positive difference for everyone in our family.

The only way to show my gratitude is by living well and doing what I can to improve our world and the lives of those whom I can serve through my work. I am so proud of all my children. Each of them is doing far more and far better with the gift of life than I even could have imagined doing at their ages.

My wife and I have our health and are doing work that we find fulfilling, both of us as teachers.

An ESL MiniConference Interview
DrRobbScott@gmail.com

2018 ESL MiniConference Online