Samar in Philadelphia...

by Samar Aal

Attending TESOL 2012 in Philadelphia was definitely an amazing experience. I got to attend a lot of workshops, meet new people, network and grab a lot of free books.

The Workshops .... Okay, here is the thing. There are so many workshops being held at the same time and you just want to attend all of them. I found myself running from one to the other, grabbing handouts, listening for like 10 min and heading to the next one. The highlights:

Peer co-Teaching This illustrated how beneficial working with another faculty member is and how teachers can learn from each other by sharing ideas and giving feedback to each other.

Project-based Learning and how to design a project for your students that they can work on throughout the semester.

Incorporating Non-native and World Englishes in class. I love this one. It demonstrated how you can teach using speeches of Nobel Prize winners from all over the world.

How to Design Wikis, Websites, and Videos for your classes. How to create videos, edit and annotate them.

Meeting new people and networking
On Thursday evening, a warm get together was held between Hunter students and the Cooperating teachers of the English Language Fellows (ELF) program at Georgetown University. I got the chance to meet other colleagues in the field and speak about their experiences.

On Friday night, a nice reception was held by NYS TESOL. This was a blast! Hunter students and faculty got together in a very friendly chill out environment . We all met with members of NYS TESOL. And folks, the next NYS TESOL will be held November 2-3, 2012 in Albany, NY. I think we should all present. The deadline for proposal submission is May 31, 2012. If you need more info. Check their website or contact me.

Networking: here is a tip, if you go to such a conference, make sure to have business cards. Something simple and professional. I got the chance to exchange business cards with a lot of presenters, book publishers and teachers from all over the world.

Free books:
This is your sweetest treat. In the exhibition, you can sign up for free books. They will be sent to you shortly after the conference. And, here is a little secret. Publishers give away free books on the last day of the conference as they don’t want o go back carrying all the books they have. I went home with more than 25 books. In short, seriously, if you haven’t attended TESOL this year, you should go next year. It will be held in Dallas. See you there. In the meantime if you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at samar.diamond@gmail.com