Whoa! World Teacher Day

Thanks to Rita for letting me know that October 5th was world teacher day.  Give yourselves a pat on the back for all your hard work.

Windsor Affiliate

Thanks to the Windsor Affiliate for inviting the former president of TESL Niagara to come down to present.  We had a great time sharing stories. Windsor and Niagara have a lot in common and it was cool to discuss those common areas.  Thanks again for all of your hospitality.  Pictures to come.

Book Bursary Award and Party

I had a great time visiting St. Ann today. Melanie, who was finishing up her practicum, won our TESL Niagara book prize for new teacher.  Tassos picked up a cake and invited all of her students and we gave her a little surprise. . .and boy was she surprised!  The outpouring of support and encouragement from her students and fellow teachers was really touching.  Here are a couple of pictures of the party.

Handing out the Book Prize

Melanie's class

Awards dinner

It was a great night last night at Chang Noi's.  We celebrated our five winners and their accomplishments.  Dr. Sivell won our Lifetime Service Award forhis years ofdedicated service to TESL Niagara, Ontario, and Canada.  David Atherton won our Member of Distinction award for supporting local research.  We also awarded 3 book prizes to students in the community. 



2011 Award Winners



Here is a screen shot of the Award Winners at this year's dinner.  Look for more information on our winners and the night at our webpage, blog, and upcoming newsletter.

In SNAP

Check out TESL Niagara in this month's issue of SNAP.  We are featured near the backpages of SNAP with an explanation of the good work we do.  Pictured is the TESL Niagara President and Councilman Matthew Siscoe, who attended our annual spring conference. 

TESL London

TESL London was this weekend and as an affiliate rep I got to go to the conference. Starting this year, the affiliate reps decided to go on an away trip for one of our 4 meetings a year. This year we went to Fanshawe for TESL London's full day conference. Thanks to TESL Lonon for looking after us at our first 'away' meeting.

Our purpose for meeting was to gain insight into conference planning.  We also exchanged information about each affiliate's conference and discussed governance issues as well.  Our meeting started the conference, so I am afraid I missed the first set of workshops.  However, I did stay for the other two and took pretty good notes.  There was a lot to chose from but I decided to watch a presentation on students with exceptionalities and another on using the academic wordlist.  Before lunch I also checked out the plenary, a former writer on the Canadian Oxford dictionary, who gave us a thumbnail sketch of the history of English and the etymology (not entymology) of words associated with pigs.  A special thanks to Jo-elle for hosting all of us. Here's a photo of the group: