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Hello everyone! On behalf of the TESOL Board and staff, I hope
you and your families and friends are all healthy. I know that many of
us are struggling with concerns about COVID-19 and its aftermath. For
many people, that involves a move to online teaching and other
activities. TESOL has created a COVID-19 Resources forum on MyTESOL that
anyone can join with a free login at https://my.tesol.org/communities/community-home?CommunityKey=80115161-470c-46be-bd23-849d1e8302a4.
In that forum, you will find suggestions from teachers about moving
online, links to free resources, and generally the opportunity to share
concerns and challenges. TESOL’s Teacher Resource Center (TRC), a member
benefit, offers more resources for online teaching. Sometimes, it’s
just good to know that others have similar struggles, and that there are
ways to deal with them.
We are still planning a virtual convention this year. We hope
that it will be sometime this summer. If you had registered for the
Denver convention, you should have received email with options: get a
refund, use the money toward another TESOL offering, or donate all or
part to TESOL. The convention is TESOL’s primary source of revenue for
the year, so we are hoping that there are some TESOLers who are willing
to support our association with a donation, while we know that others
simply cannot. The Conferences Professional Council has been feverishly
working to provide a range of options for our virtual convention. In
addition to presentations, a virtual TESOL Bookstore is planned, as is a
virtual exhibition hall. Please keep an eye on the TESOL website for
details. I am hoping to be able to deliver my Presidential plenary,
"Teaching with Play: Games, Game-based Learning, and Gamification." You
can see a short video intro for it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR4lUl4Bh3Q.
In non-convention areas, I have been delighted with the
progress of the Affiliate Peer Advisory Program (APAP). This new
initiative started last year with the goal of better linking affiliates
to the Affiliate Network Professional Council and to each other. We hope
to see this initiative continue to connect individual Council members
to each affiliate. If you need more information about APAP, please
contact ANPC Chair George Kormpas at georgekormpas@gmail.com. TESOL is
looking to the APAP to help us in doing more outreach and advocacy with
our affiliates.
TESOL's Advocacy Action Center (https://www.tesol.org/advance-the-field/tesol-advocacy-action-center)
was launched last year and has been a great resource for US-based
advocacy. US members can easily contact their members of Congress on
current legislation that affects English language teachers and learners.
For those outside the US and in the US, the Advocacy Action Center
includes a new area called "Let TESOL Know about the Policies Impacting
You the Most." We are hoping to get information from our members
globally so that we can create and share advocacy resources for
everyone. I am hoping that the ANPC and the APAP will mobilize support
among members and leaders to respond to this call for information. Are
there government policies that are particularly helpful or ones that
create issues? It would be wonderful, for instance, to know about visa
policies when hiring English language teachers (in Indonesia, for
example, visas are only available for those from six specific
countries). Do textbooks have to be approved by a government agency? I
am sure you can think of many other areas where your work is affected by
policies outside your institution.
Thank you for all the work you do to help your affiliate and to
help TESOL achieve our vision: to be the trusted global authority for
knowledge and expertise in English language teaching. We are better
together! Let me also add my earnest wishes for good health for you and
your families in this difficult time. |
