Greetings CALL-IS members and colleagues,

My name is Larry Udry, and I am the editor of the CALL-IS e-newsletter, On CALL. The CALL-IS is a vibrant, active and supportive TESOL community. A great bunch of dedicated professionals and volunteers make the conference and all things CALL come together. If you are new to the CALL-IS, don’t hesitate to help out: Your return on your investment will be much greater. I can’t begin to say how much I’ve learned and how much it has energized me to continue to learn. By way of example, I recently posted a message on the CALL-IS Community page for joining the newsletter team and received 10 responses. It put me in touch with like-minded professionals who are just as interested in teaching as I am. Of those 10 who asked to help out, I’d like to thank Kole Matheson and Ravneet Parmar, who helped me edit articles for this newsletter. I’d also like to thank the CALL-IS Steering Committee, the EV planners, and all those who write articles for our little newsletter.

Have you ever wondered what the results are of that poll you take every issue of this magazine or what our readership is? I am happy to report the CALL- IS newsletter was delivered to 1,880 people: The poll was taken by 166 people and, believe it or not, 25 % were on mobile instruments. The poll in this issue, in the side bar, begins with one question and then leads to a SurveyMonkey survey of five questions. I’ll publish the results in the next newsletter. This poll is on mobile technology and how it affects our teaching and our students’ learning. If you have a few minutes, please take the poll.

Every year, CALL-IS offers language teachers worldwide the opportunity to participate in a free, 5-week, open-enrollment, professional development activity—the Electronic Village Online (EVO). The EVO allows participants to engage in online discussion and short hands-on workshops with other teachers on topics of professional interest in the field of ESL/EFL. Please note that you don’t have to be a TESOL member to participate in these 5-week sessions. They are free and online. Visit the Announcement web page to select one from among the various session offerings. Registration starts 7 January 2014. If you want to be reminded of the EVO registration period and the latest news, join the mailing list.

Thanks, and I look forward to seeing you at the conference, online, or professionally in the future.

Larry

Originally hailing from Cincinnati, Larry was a Peace Corps volunteer in Rich, Morocco, from 1986 to 19988 and then graduated with an MA TESOL/linguistics from Ohio University in 1992. He has worked with Partners of the Americas in Venezuela, and he lived in Isahaya, Japan, for a year. Prior to his position at Divine Word College, he worked in UT Martin for 11 years, where he published the TNTESOL Newsletter. He enjoys playing guitar, making music, and playing with “his girls.”