TESL Ontario celebrated National Volunteer Week April 12th - 18th. We spent the week publicly recognizing the almost 300 members who volunteered with TESL Ontario and its Affiliate Chapters throughout the past year. During National Volunteer Week TESL Ontario conducted daily gift basket draws and sent out Certificates of Appreciation to all of our volunteers. Also as part of our volunteer week activities, we asked our Volunteers to share highlights from their volunteer experiences in the past year. Here are some of the many responses we received. 
"For the TESL Niagara fall conference, I proposed a theme of enlisting "home grown" Niagara TESL members to be our presenters. I approached those who I knew had presented at other conferences. Almost everyone was happy to be a part of the conference, and I was thrilled. I was able to coordinate a wide range of topics and the presenters were pleased that they'd been approached. It was a very satisfying experience for me." Francine B. "The highlight of my volunteer experience has been being a part of the TESL Ontario Webinar Team. With a dedicated group that includes Christina Cole, Francine Kalogris, Allison Keown and Lynn Doherty, we were able to create the TESL Ontario Webinar experience from scratch using the Tutela/BBB platform. This project was a fantastic collaboration of like-minded individuals working together to develop a PD tool that will benefit its members with relevant, useful and thought-provoking online seminars that encourage interaction between presenter and attendees. Thank you to TESL Ontario for including me in this ground-breaking experience." Jennifer A. "Connecting with experienced webinar administrative personnel and getting a behind-the-scenes look at the processes and what it takes to make a webinar successful to presenters, moderators and participants." Yvonne M. 
"The highlight of the year for me was realizing how much has been accomplished through the Social Media Committee in terms of progress through cooperation and individuals contributing at a very professional level. These dedicated folks have put together a series of blogs, webinars, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and represent these within Tutela and other media such as the TESL Ontario website." John A. 
"Helping to organize our ESL Week contest and our annual TESL conference has been a great learning opportunity. I've learned many new transferable skills. It is a pleasure to work with my fellow executive members, who are always ready to share their ideas, experiences and provide support." Agnes K.  "When volunteering to put events together, it can be so easy to focus on the people who don't come to conferences, who don't enter the contests, attend the events etc. and my highlight has been learning to focus on those who do. Our ESL Week contest was a perfect example. We didn't have a million entries, and most came from students of committee members, but that didn't change the fact that being recognized for achievements in English learning had an impact on the winners. Seeing those learners accept their prizes at our small awards reception made me realize that if you stop to look closely, some things are a much bigger deal that they might appear at first glance." Brett B. 2015 Volunteer Week Gift Basket Winners
- Adrainna Semerjian - Niagara Affiliate Chapter Executive
- Robert-Paul Smith -Windsor Affiliate Chapter Executive
- Laura Waters - Webinar Team
- Jana MacMillan - Ottawa Affiliate Chapter Executive
- Robyn German - Kingston Affiliate Chapter Executive
- Christine Stanley - Windsor Affiliate Chapter Executive
- Linda Davis - Ottawa Affiliate Chapter Executive
Winner of the draw for the $50 Chapters gift card for sharing highlights of volunteer experiences is Yvonne Marshall - Webinar Team volunteer. |
TESL Ontario is changing the face of the annual ESL Week activities for 2015. The creativity contest that was launched in 2011 will be discontinued and in its place we will be implementing a new exciting activity format for this year.
TESL Ontario members can access a member discount for admission to Legoland Discovery Centres.
Missed an issue of Contact Magazine? Want to read about what government representatives presented about in the annual panel discussion? Missed the AGM and want to read the TESL Ontario annual report?
