I’d tell you he was either snobbish, envious or afraid
that we might find out just how little he actually knew. Still,
others tell me that some managers don’t actually want their teachers
to talk to other teachers. or go to these conferences because they
may just find out that there are far better opportunities out
there at other academies.
This article is out of date!!!
Jobs
I wasn’t looking for a job for myself, being a consummate individualist (no pun intended), but a quick look around for the sake of this paragraph at the stands and jobs-board yielded about 15 job offers for mid-level positions such as “Teacher-Trainer,” “Director-of-Studies” and “Company-Class-Teacher.” Also, I heard more than one jobs-oriented conversation while waiting for sessions to start.
The motivation to slide into home-base
It’s been a long school year and you’re just about wiped out by now. What you need is a shot of cure-all-yer-ills to get you over the slump. A good proportion of any speaker’s presentation is going to be about motivation and getting you back to where you should be. I think that it’s part of the job-description, actually, for any of the big publisher-sponsored teachers, who must be more frequently chosen for their "sxey" (anagrams anyone?) sales qualities than for their textbook-producing abilities (which are likely put-together more by a publisher’s editorial staff than by the authors themselves).
Going to a great presentation is like going to a good movie, no matter how good it is, to some extent you must suspend your sense of disbelief: there’s just no way that one person alone can put all of those textbooks, workbooks, teachers’ books and resource materials together all by themselves (maybe they did so back in the old days). But, it’s nice to dream and if nothing else, by going to a TESOL Conference, you’ll get the jolt you need to get you through till the end of the school year.
By and large, most of the teachers there will share
one thing: their love of teaching and of the English language
and, if you’re lucky, you might see, hear or feel something
that’ll revive that love in you and carry you through till the
end. Who knows, you might just fall in love with the profession
in spite all of its drawbacks, if you haven’t already, and become
an honest-to-goodness full-blown professional language teacher.
A good way to spend your money
I must really be a "sukecr" (anagrams again?) for punishment
because at 25 euros for the membership fee, 40 to get in, and
45 euros for cancelled classes, the conference doesn’t come
cheap. Next years’ convention is in Seville, so plan in advance
and start saving your money now for the Hostal and train now.
In any case, despite the regretful three-day hangover (it doesn’t
matter whether you’ve had anything to drink or not; it’s obligatory.),
it’s worth every penny. With the cheapo “Burger King” lunches
I had, the sessions at this year’s TESOL-Spain conference came
out to just about 11 euros a session. How else can you get to
rock with the super-stars?! And don’t give this away, but I’d
be willing to pay up to about 15 euros a session. If that includes
a trip to beautiful Seville on the super-fast AVE train, I’ll
be willing to up that number to 20.
On the other hand, I’m probably not alone in saying that “enough’s enough.” I know you have institutional rates for large groups, but how about looking after us freelancers and dropping that rate down just a tad? You might just get a few more of us to drop by for a visit if those of us that don’t come as part of a large group don’t have to subsidize the whole darn (this one's safe, I think) conference.
Observing great teachers who simplify great ideas for even the densest amongst us
At this year’s conference, I took advantage of the opportunity to once again attend several old favourites’ presentations. I missed out on quite a few big names, but it couldn’t be helped because they all too often competed with each other for the same time-slots. I’m talking about the likes of stalwart authors “Luke Prodromou” and “Paul Seligson” who can manage a roomful of 500 teachers better than “Jimmy Sw@ggart” and “Scott Thornbury,” who’ll point out things like the deeply-sincere simple-truth that you don’t actually need very much more than the text off a mere tea-bag to teach English well (where can I buy the book?).
Another young author who gave attendees two of his
textbooks and who has a really fresh perspective was “Hugh Dellar:”
Don’t change your perspective at all Hugh; you were right on
the money and I bought the cassettes (how about a free teachers’
book for the plug, Hugh?). I attended several other very good
teachers’ presentations such as personal repeats “Mark Levy”
and “Anita Morgan” and the wise and intrepid speaker from Granada’s
GRETA, “Simon Andrewes.”
However, I could somehow inadvertently give you
the idea that every teacher at a TESOL conference is conscientious
and "sxey," though some of them are (the “btasrdas”), which
is another requirement perhaps. However, here’s a warning for
you: the minute you arrive at the conference, look through the
programme for the heavy-hitters and circle them with a thick
black magic marker because if you go for the titles first, you’ll
be more likely to end up disappointed. Did I mention the “résume
padders” and “wannabes” that speak at these conferences for
the sake of the TESOL speakers’ certificate, but who don’t actually
care to attend any of the other speakers’ presentations?
Networking
I’ve always met somebody interesting or caught up on old times
with some old acquaintances at these TESOL and IATEFL conferences.
One year, for example, I chatted over lunch with deceased author
“Louis Alexander” of that famed series of textbooks, “Follow
Me,” which is something that I’ll never forget because of the
really worthwhile personal advice that he gave me. I never go
to these conferences looking for networking opportunities nor
to have chats with VIPs or anything, but connections just seem
to happen naturally anyway.
The publishers’ stands
There’s always something going on and something to learn. Almost
everybody’s marketing something at these conferences, but it’s
not quite as bad as the open-market at Casablanca. It’s a good
place to pick up some catalogs, find out what’s the newest thing
on the catwalk and maybe ask a few pertinent questions (Sometimes
you even get one of whatever company’s VIPs and you actually
get pertinent answers). For instance, both Trinity and the British
Council had stands at this years’ TESOL Conference and I was
able to ask a lot of the sometimes slightly impertinent questions
I had on my list like: “why the ‘hlel’ don’t you have a DELTA
programme in Madrid?”
The topics themselves
Oh, yea. There's that too... Well, that’s at the bottom of the
list for me, but I suppose some people actually go for the topics
too. You do learn quite a lot at a TESOL Conference, you know,
but I don’t think you should go for the topics themselves. The
important thing to remember is that, on one hand, you’ll pick
up something interesting that you can use in your classes the
very next week, and on the other, you’ll learn a few things
that’ll expand on your understanding of English teaching in
general. In any case, what can you expect from a single weekend
of classes!? It’s not like you could teach any of your own students
how to speak English in a weekend either so give me a break
and give those poor teachers a fair hearing before you give
up and give them the bird. Give thanks because as my old friend
O’Rourke says: “Thanksgiving is so called because we are all
so thankful that it only comes once a year”, though I would
certainly love another one of these TESOL conferences around
Thanksgiving Day. It’s all about gratitude, which as my other
very old friend Rochefoucauld says (I "chowderheadedly" consider
many authors to be close personal friends, if not distant kin.):
“Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.” And
so, I hope this essay has served as a personal not so secret
way for me to give it up for TESOL-Spain because, as my other
friend Gertrude Stein says: “silent gratitude isn’t very much
use to anyone.”
More on TESOL Seville in the Spring of 2005.
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