MIDTESOL Matters Summer 2001

Some Ruminations on TESOL 2001 in St. Louis 

By Rosa Schuette 

So far everybody I've talked to has said that they had a good conference at TESOL 2001 in St. Louis. They might just be trying to be polite because they know I was in on the planning, but I really don't think so. Of course, I'm slightly biased, having worked off and on for two years in preparation for the conference! So, I'm going to get my bragging over with right here and now and say most emphatically and unabashedly, "WE DID A GOOD JOB, MIDTESOL! TESOL 2001 WAS A SUCCESS!" There, now that I've done my gloating, I can get down to the real business of this article: examining why TESOL 2001 was successful. Was it the opportunity for professional renewal, its sheer size, or the opportunity to socialize and network that made it so great?

The conference was so important for me because I saw first-hand that I have a professional organization which is truly organized enough to pull off such a mammoth gathering (for example, there were 384 proposal readers!). I heard so many affirmations of the good work we do, and I got a jolt of inspiration from tidbits of shared information. I am renewed and ready for another year!

The 7,000 TESOLers who attended the convention might agree or disagree with my assessment, though, because we are a bunch with some diverse interests and our conference size proves it. From 7:30 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. (!), in any one time slot, there were at least 41 different sessions to attend, and here I'm using the word "session" loosely. In any one day, there were at least 296 sessions, which includes academic sessions, colloquiums, demonstrations, discussion groups, papers, poster sessions, and workshops. This doesn't include the PCI's, educational visits, exhibits, and plenary and featured speakers, not to mention the activity in the networking room, the employment clearinghouse, and the electronic village. And then there were the interest section strands, and interest section meetings, energy breaks, the Swap Shop, the Video Theater, and various special events! I mean there are 318 pages to the program book. Why all the activity?

Aren't conventions times to goof off and relax? My answer to that is "yeah sure," but the question as to why we have such a cornucopia of activity and intense interest has still not been resolved. What do you think? Other professionals I've talked to in business and medicine to name a few, don't have nearly the same level of complex interactions at their conferences. They pull in a few well-known speakers and sponsor a handful of classes and then it's fun and games. We had fun; the St. Louis Area Tours were well attended and TESOL by Night at the Arch was delightful. From all accounts, the Sock Hop and Pub Crawls were a riot. We know how to party and enjoy our friends. The camaraderie of knowing that every one of the attendees has similar interests is ever so ego massaging and helps bolster us against the uninformed opinions about language education which confront us frequently.

TESOL 2001 in St. Louis was an awe-inspiring hub of professional development activity because we are teachers and to top that off we are teachers of language. We understand the value of sharing ideas, and acknowledge the complexity of the endeavor we have undertaken. What teacher there was not in search of getting as many ideas as s/he could gather? Why do we do that? Not because we are underprepared, but because we know that to reach our students we need to use every technique we can possibly harness. We know that we have some very sharp colleagues, and we know that new research is providing us with insights that can make a difference in our students' lives. The frenetic jaunts to different sessions under that huge roof of America's Center in St. Louis had an almost quixotic intensity for many because we believe what we are doing is important and we believe in the process of learning. We believe that how we do what we do is of the utmost importance.

A good friend and colleague asked me if all the work that I did for the St. Louis convention was worth it. You'd better believe it was! The fact that all that happened did so in my town with people I know makes it ever so much more special. The behind-the-scenes knowledge of who did what and how much effort it really did take makes the 44 hard-working team leaders even more appreciated and my respect for the other core planners and especially Adelaide Parsons, even deeper. Would I do it again?

You bet. How about you? 

Rosa was a core planner for TESOL 2001 along with fellow local co-chairs Linda Dortch, Susan Schindler, co-chair Wes Eby and chair, Adelaide Parsons. 

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