March 29, 2018
Dear Members,
Now that spring has arrived (although we may be questioning that premise in certain parts of the country!), I thought it was time to touch base with everyone once again. We had a great TESL Canada Board meeting last week, good representation from across the country and very productive discussions. We are very pleased to have stabilized our financial situation with the paring down of expenses to just the necessities. This has allowed us to be able to hire a part-time administrator and we have reopened individual certification https://www.tesl.ca/certification.html . Inquiries and applications have already begun to come in and we anticipate that we will be able to process these in a timely (4-6 weeks) fashion depending on complexity of application (in particular PLAR) and numbers of applications received. Remember that if your province is not a member of TESL Canada, you must pay for your individual direct membership.
In addition to individual membership, the standards committee communicated with teacher training programs to let them know that, based on their feedback regarding a proposal for an external service, we are now revisiting an in-house solution. With expenses now reduced to the very basics and with some renewed financial stability, we are hopeful that we will research a solution soon. In the meantime, active TTPRs have all been given a 6-month extension.
In terms of communication and dissemination of information, we have reactivated our twitter account, continue to update the website and send regular messages to members (and former members) and recognized TTPs. These communiques include promoting provincial conferences like TESL SK’s coming up in April http://www.teslsask.com/news-and-events/conferences/ and TESL NS’s which will take place at Acadia University in May- https://teslns.com/conference/
We also announced the publication of the latest TESL Canada Journal special issue http://teslcanadajournal.ca/index.php/tesl and sent a call for papers for TCJ https://www.tesl.ca/publications/tesl-canada-journal/journal-announcements.html. Finally, we will forward any useful professional development information that we receive from organizations and people in the TESL field whom we follow. Related to this is our most recent message regarding our communication with TESOL international’s president and their convention and announcement of the six principles. We will continue to make communication a priority and will meet with IRCC in April and hopefully organize another provincial presidents’ meeting.
Wishing all of you a lovely spring. Feel free to contact us at admin@tesl.ca or president@tesl.ca at any time. If you are planning a spring conference, I hope it is a positive professional learning experience. If TESL Canada can do anything to help support or promote it, please let us know.
Sincerely,
Paula Kristmanson
Acting President
On behalf of the TESL Canada Board
