Hello, SPLIS Members!

Well, the TESOL conference has come and gone once again. I hope everyone who attended brought something home from Philadelphia, other than just a cheesesteak stain on their sweater. This was my 12^th convention, and I have to say that I enjoyed this one as much as I did my first one in 2001 in St. Louis.

I can still remember the excitement I felt when I sat in sessions crowded with other English language teaching professionals, all there to learn more about language teaching and learning. I didn’t get the chance to go to as many sessions this year as in years past, but I still learned about some new approaches and listened to ideas that prompted me to rethink some of my old teaching strategies. In the end, that’s what the TESOL conference is all about to me: the chance to grow and develop as a professional. After all, as a former supervisor once said to me, if you are finished learning how to be a teacher, you need to get out of teaching.

If you didn’t get the chance to attend the conference in Philadelphia, there are plenty of other ways your membership to TESOL and SPLIS can serve you. This newsletter is full of interesting information and motivating teaching ideas. You can even log into the TESOL site to access past editions. Also, TESOL has a great online resource center where we can share ideas and lesson plans, virtual seminars and other online educational opportunities, and online discussion boards, all available through TESOL’s Web site. Just think, you can develop professionally without getting out of your pajamas!