Dear Colleagues and Friends,
Greetings from TESL Nova Scotia!
Please go to our website (teslns.com, your association) to glance at the activities, schedules, venues, etc. put together there for our Fall Conference. But, let me also invite you personally to please come and join us at the conference on Saturday, Nov. 2 (8:30-3:30). It’s going to be at the Mona Building of Dalhousie University. We usually have 2 conferences a year — Spring and Fall — graced with invited guests (foreign and local), volunteer experts, and anyone willing to share ideas and experiences to help us become better teachers, learners, and administrators.
This Fall, our plenary speaker will be Dr. Ken Beatty of Anaheim University. His presentation will focus on listening and he will be giving a workshop on assessment procedures. [Please check his bio on our website.] We also have our very own volunteers who will be sharing their expertise in their various fields of education, specifically in the teaching of English in all its forms.
As teachers, we have had our trainings, our degrees and our teaching experiences both inside and outside of Canada. The demography of the ESL/EFL/EAP students who come to us keeps changing. Therefore, in addition to our training and experience, the use of modern technology in class and the use of new books mostly written and produced in the western world, we have to learn as much as we can about the cultures of our students — how they do things and how they learn best — so that we can relate optimally with them. Target: the heart first, then the brain and the lesson. Ultimately we also teach who we are and we end up having a multi-directional tug of war between our way, the administration/text-book prescribed way and the student’s way. We have to learn how to compromise without losing our integrity as professional teachers.
These are some of the things we hope to address at our conferences. It’s all about sharing and willingness to learn some more. The old maxim: Education is a humbling process.
We are looking forward to seeing you at the Fall Conference.
Humbly,
Fe Baculi /SMU
(TESL NS President)
