TESOL 2011 Convention in New Orleans

Five years after the first TESOL Convention I attended in Tampa, I finally managed to attend another one!  They've been in inconvenient, boring, or expensive cities in the time between, but New Orleans was worth the wait.  I was curious to see if it reminded me of Barranquilla (it did).

As far as TESOL goes, I was able to see friends and presenters from all over the world, network more than I have anywhere offline in a long time, and get lots of new ideas, in particular about online education.  The only downside was that I didn't learn much that's applicable to my current teaching situation.  All but one of the K-12 workshops that I went to were basically a waste of time, even when the presenters were BNIFs. I was also disappointed that I never made it to the Electronic Village sessions, which I really enjoyed in Tampa.  I had wanted to meet all of the wonderful teachers I learned with in Second Life this winter, but it wasn't meant to be. 

The convention left me wanting to go back to school again and to be connected to a uni again somehow.  We'll see.  Once the husband finishes his classes, doctorate here I come!  For now, it's back to online teacher training and summer trips.

TESOL in Tampa

I took a small break from Barranquilla last week to go to Tampa, Florida for the TESOL convention. It was a rather expensive trip, but most definitely worth it! I ended up renting a car in Miami and driving up, which would have been great except for the horrible, horrible traffic between Naples and Ft. Meyers. I loved being able to drive again, something that I miss here, mostly because of the freedom that it gives you. The convention was wonderful, which was rather unexpected, as I've only been to smaller conferences. Everything I went to was quality, though! I hope that I can come up with something to present so that I can go to next year's in Seattle. These TESOLers, they can go from 7:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night going to workshops and presentations and meetings. It's crazy! Thankfully, after a week of this, I feel motivated again to do research and continue studying. The only downside other than spending all of my tax refund check in six days was the fact that the weather was beautiful and I had to stay inside all day. I did get to the beach on Sunday. This left me feeling rather depressed, though, since I went to the gorgeous De Soto beach outside of St. Petersburg and I knew that I had to get on the plane the next day to come back to the not-so-nice beaches of Puerto Colombia. I don't ever remember having seen sand that white before in my life...like sugar. I also came back to piles of work; I spent the whole next weekend and then some grading midterms, essays, and blogs. I'm already ready for another break from Barranquilla, so it's a good thing that semana santa is coming up soon. Ideas for the vacation week: Leticia/Amazonas, the eje cafetero, Panama, San Andres and Providencia (too many people will be there though), Quito, Mexico City (too expensive from here, but I can dream, right?)...

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