TESOL International Convention 2015 was held from March 25-28 at the Toronto Convention Centre. The theme of the conference was crossing borders building bridges. TESOL stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. With people migrating to English speaking countries and English becoming popular in business and for learning in non-English speaking countries, there is a need to connect teachers from around the world for professional development, research on best practices and challenges, and collaboration.
TESOL and IATEFL international organizations have come to the rescue. They both cater to English teachers, publishers, governments, public and private schools in the K-12 and higher education sectors, and businesses. IATEFL’s main office is in the UK, while TESOL’s is the USA. The professional organizations have affiliations around the world. I’m lucky to be a member of both organizations.
You can learn about TESOL’s mission and values, board of directors, standing committees, bylaws and standing rules, strategic plan, governance review, history, and interest sections here: http://www.tesol.org/about-tesol/association-governance.
Toronto Convention Centre
The Toronto Convention Centre is huge. The building was built in the 1980s at 25 Front Street West and officially opened in October 1984. It is an enclosed space with a total of over 600,000 square feet or 56,000 meters. The exhibit hall floor is o ver 460,000 square feet or 43,000 meters. It includes a theatre that seats 1330 attendees.
TESOL 2015 at Toronto Convention Centre
TESOL international convents takes place in March or April. The organization hosts over 6,000 educators from around the world. The Toronto Convention Centre was perfect for TESOL 2015.
Socially Connecting for Fun
I had the pleasure of attending TESOL Toronto in 2015. I had a lot of aha moments connecting with olds friends that I only knew online and with old friends that I had met face-to-face. Many people felt comfortable to come up and give me a hug because we were friends on Facebook or they had attended my MOOCs, online courses or webinars which was amazing.
I was too busy networking, going out for dinner, and talking to friends to go to any of the sessions. Yes, I missed all the plenary and invited speakers. It won’t happen again, I promise.
EVO Sessions for 2015
I only went to the 3 CALL-IS (Computer Assisted Language Learning – Interest Section) EVO (Electronic Village Online) sessions that I was scheduled to give on Saturday and Sunday March 27 and 28. The EVO sessions were based on the online ones I gave for 5 weeks in January/February on Teaching EFL to Young Learners and The International Writing Exchange. Both sessions has asynchronous as well as synchronous sections using Moodle and WizIQ. I also gave a session on PoodLL on Moodle. But, I had a lot of fun.
TESOL International Convention 2016
I hope you will join me next year at TESOL’s 50th anniversary in Baltimore, Maryland. The conference will take place from April 5-8 from Tuesday to Friday so we can have fun on Saturday and Sunday in the city. You’re invited to think of a proposal or two and submit by June 1, 2016. Here’s the link: http://www.tesol.org/convention2015/education-br-sessions/tesol-2016-call-for-participation