TESL WW

Fall Newsletter and Save the Date

The TESL WW committee, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfuHo2lBx9U, sends its belated introduction to the membership. Take a look at the link and meet the executive for 2010 – 2011.



As the fall term is ending in a flurry of teaching and evaluating, we wish all members a peaceful Christmas and a happy holiday season.

Mark your 2011 calendars now for an exciting TESL WW winter PD conference!

“Living in L1: Reading and Writing in L2”

On Saturday February 5, 2011 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (lunch included) at Conestoga College Doon campus, we are pleased to offer a conference. We are very excited to have two outstanding, well-known presenters from the ESL profession

• Tom Cobb, from the University of Quebec, is well known for his many years of research in literacy and vocabulary development. Some members may be familiar with his website “The Complete Lexical Tutor” (www.lextutor.ca). Tom is going to present an interactive workshop with strategies for reading and writing teachers to use in teaching practice.


• Linda Steinman, from York University, is well known for research in socio-cultural theory and second language writing. She will be giving a very interesting talk on second language writing and the struggles of writers who live in a first language but try to find an identity when writing in a second language.

A Message from your President, Liz Perez

Dear WW TESL Members,

Fall is the time when we “get back into the swing of things.” What a full swing it has been for many of us, and the end of semester will soon be upon us.

Your TESL WW committee has made the decision to have a very exciting conference early in 2011 with some big name speakers. It has been a while since we have invited some of the “gurus” of the Second Language Acquisition community to speak. These researchers, teachers and innovators are the ones who share new ideas and practices with us. We are delighted to have Tom Cobb, creator of the innovative website “The Compleat Lexical Tutor,” show us how we can use technology in our teaching. We are also thrilled that Linda Steinman, professor of Applied Linguistics and ESL at York University, will share practical insights for us on second language writing. Please mark February 5, 2011, on your calendar. More details will follow. Of course, you can also look forward to the AGM which will take place in May with the usual great food and speaker.

As I reflect upon the hustle and bustle of my life, I realize that there are goals to pursue and challenges to meet, which, of course, keep me “swinging.” As a teacher, I have found myself running on empty trying to accomplish all that has been set before me but not realizing that my creativity has been compromised. I then have to stop myself to see that there is merit in reflecting upon and assessing my lessons and the students who receive them. I have made a point of doing just that this autumn, and, in the midst of it, I came across the ideas of another innovator, well-known speaker and educator, Sir Ken Robinson. Maybe you have already heard of him. He is a creativity expert who calls for a transformation instead of a reformation of the present educational system. His way of thinking regarding education is progressive and, possibly, radical. He calls for a better understanding of our students through creativity that acknowledges the many types of intelligence. Dr. Robinson has been awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal by the Royal Society of Arts in London.

Below is a link to a lecture Ken Robinson gave at the awards ceremony. His talk was on “Changing Paradigms in Education.” He presents his material in a very humorous way, which makes what he is saying all the more interesting. I recommend you watch it as it is relevant to us as educators. Then, I invite you to send your comments to me at lsperez@uwaterloo.ca so that they can be posted on our affiliate website in order to keep the dialogue open regarding this fascinating topic. Here is the link: http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/.

On behalf of all the members of the committee, I wish you a wonderful end of fall term and a restful Christmas. I look forward to meeting you at the winter conference.

Sincerely,

Liz

The Affiliate Director’s Report, by Nancy Oczkowski

Report from Affiliate Meeting Held in Toronto on Saturday October 30, 1 – 3 p.m.

I attended the affiliate meeting in place of Ron Champion, our Affiliate Representative, who has been gallivanting around China for the last few weeks! The affiliates have funding for three meetings a year: one at the TESL Ontario conference, one in January on the same day that they meet with the TESL Ontario executive, and another that they tentatively have planned for the spring, when they will attend one of the affiliate min-conferences and then break off into their own discussion groups.

The meeting began with introductions and lunch and then a brief greeting and update from the board by Sheila Nicholas. She mentioned that since the TESL Ontario by-laws have been updated, it might be good if each affiliate looked at and updated its by-laws. It was also recommended that records be kept in an electronic repository such as Google.docs to ease the transmission of information from one affiliate executive board to the next. She also mentioned that Alberta TESL has prepared a “Best Practices Document” and that TESL Ontario is interested in doing something similar. The board has also set a goal to improve the communication among individual members, affiliates and the executive board. Finally, she mentioned that three “vision statements” had been created during the Friday afternoon Chair’s Roundtable. (Martin Sharratt attended on behalf of TESL WW). Stay tuned; the winner will be announced soon!

The meeting continued with some concerns raised about the lack of voting power that the affiliate representative committee has now that TESL Ontario has restructured; however, it was agreed that this group would continue to share “best practices” for the coming year. The next meeting will take place in Toronto on Saturday January 22, 2011.