TESOL Spain 2007 - Sant Sebastian

I am exhausted but happy after attending the 30th annual TESOL Spain Conference in Sant Sebastian (Donostia)last weekend, whose name 'Killing Two Birds with One Stone' refers to the very popular (at least in Spain) CLIL (Content Integrated Language Learning)movement.



I took the overnight train there on Thursday night, arriving at 7.00am on Friday morning. The conference wasn't due to start until 15.00, which in theory left me sufficient time for sightseeing, but, as I was due to present (on 'Online Student Publishing Projects') that evening, I spent much of the time beforehand, holed-up in my hotel room, making sure my presentation was up-to-scratch.



I arrived at 15.00 and found that I was one of the first people to arrive. Waiting around, I bumped into another early bird, who turned out to be the incoming President of TESOL (Sandra J Briggs). Quite by chance, we chatted about her taking over the presidency in Seattle later this month, and I was able to talk to her about the TESOL Electronic Village Online projects. She wrote down names, and promised to look up some of the people when she goes to the Convention. She also attended my presentation, which was very nice of her.



I was happy with how the presentation went, and surprised at how many people attended - over 50. I didn't have enough handouts for them, and so promised to post a copy of it on the TESOL Spain Website. Afterwards, quite a few people stayed to talk to me, and many said then, and later that weekend that they were going to start either blogging, podcasting, or using wikis with their students - Incidentally, if you are one of the people who attended, and who happens to be reading my blog afterwards, thankyou very much for the warm reception!



As for the rest of the weekend, I wish I had time to say just how much I enjoyed the other presentations I attended - it was fabulous to get so many ideas and hear so many competent speakers in such a short space of time. I think I have had my teaching batteries fully recharged, and have already been trying out some of the ideas (Thankyou Mario Rinvolucri and Paul Seligson)that I picked up while I was there.