TESOL 2018

Greetings from TESOL 2018!

I thought I would keep track of my adventures and experiences while at the 2018 TESOL Conference in Chicago. Hope you enjoy it!


Saturday, March 24
I arrived in Chicago. It's my first time in the Windy City. Two observations:
One: It really is windy!
Two: WOW IT'S COLD HERE!
12,824 steps on my Fitbit

Sunday, March 25
Nerd Alert!
While exploring the city, I stumbled on the 
Chicago Public Library.
This branch is the equivalent of our SASB/42nd Street. 
It was beautiful.
13,399 steps on my Fitbit

Monday, March 26

The conference doesn't officially begin until Wednesday. I am attending some "Pre Convention Institutes." Today I am attending a workshop called "Effective Lesson Observation: More Than Meets the Eye."

I arrived at the venue early. Things aren't clearly marked and the venue is HUGE. There will be lots of walking. My goal is to have some authentic Chicago pizza for lunch. 
13,335 steps on my Fitbit.


Tuesday, March 27

Lake Michigan
Today I attended another workshop on observation. I learned a lot about how to give feedback in a constructive way to teachers. 

Yikes! I found delicious macarons in my hotel!

Things are still quiet in the Main Hall

This is a recent release by TESOL. 

13,652 steps on my FitBit



Wednesday, March 28
Wednesday was the real "first day" of the conference- workshops start, the exhibit/vendor hall is open, and the madness begins!

On Wednesday I went to the workshop given by Elke, Stephanie and two colleauges. They had a nice full room. Well done, ladies!

Look what I found! 
Cambridge will publish a new 3rd edition of Ventures soon. 

The Electronic Village is a section with technology-based workshops and presentations. 

 I loved learning about this app, PeerEval. When a student is giving a presentation to your class, the rest of the students generally just sit and listen. With this app, you can set up your own rubric, and have students rate the presenter. I can't wait to use this!






On Wednesday I met with my colleauges from the Adult Education Interest Section. (I was the co-chair of the IS this year.) It was great meeting people I've been in communication with all year- in person. We had a lot of work to do.

We also had a meeting with AEIS membership. And- nerd alert! We had a visitor at our meeting- Bill Bliss (you probably know him as the author of the Side by Side series.)

14,591 steps on my FitBit!

Thursday, March 29

I attended a very interesting workshop about professional development. Read the questions on this slide- they are very thought provoking!

I also attended a session on how to get published- something that is a personal goal of mine.

It was a busy day and I didn't take many pictures.

I did walk around the exhibit/vendor hall and grab as many freebies as I could. Here are some that might be interesting to you:

This is a magazine.

13,125 steps on my FitBit



Friday, March 30

Friday was the last official day of the conference. 
But since it was also a religious holiday, things were definitely quieter.

 

It wasn't anything special, but technically I was a Presenter at the confence. I lead a networking session for the Adult Education IS. We got together and talked about hot topics in our field.

This was a very interesting workshop that I only caught half of. This is also something interesting that you can do to think about your teaching. Very thought provoking!

This was another presentation in the Electronic Village:

Creating E-Textbooks with Sway

You can create your own course packet or textbook.

I hope you check it out, I really learned a lot and intend to use this. This was one of the most valuable things I learned at TESOL.

Then, suddenly it was Friday afternoon and I had to dash off to the airport and go home.

8,121 on my FitBit.

Goodbye Chicago! Thanks TESOL! It was a great week both personally and professionally.

Thanks for reading!