Copy
View this email in your browser
View this email in your browser

October 2020 Issue
🍂🦃Happy Thanksgiving🦃🍂

This issue contains lots of great info and news for you. We have messages from our Chair, Katie Burham, TESL Canada announcements, job postings, resources and much more. In addition, we'll expand news from our Board of Directors & committees, and we now provide a special section for our national and provincial partners, BC TEAL and TESL Canada.


Questions? Comments? Please send an email to: info@teslsask.com with subject line "Newsletter". Thank you and enjoy reading!

Content in this newsletter was created by the Communications Committee.

A NEW SEASON


I am very excited to be back on the TESL Saskatchewan Board and I look forward to hearing from our membership.  Our board has welcomed three new directors: myself, Ellon Son, and Shauna Tilbury.  We will be joining our returning directors: Navdeep Dhillon, Tatiana Zotova, Ann MacKenzie, Vicki Schoch, and Colin Guenther.  I would like to thank our board directors who are moving on, Lilianna Dominguez, Selinda England, and of course Darren Gordon, for the great work they have done for our organization. As a new board, we are currently working on some updated policies to better TESL Sask and make our organization more efficient. COVID-19 has created many changes and challenges for everyone and has affected our membership in many ways.  As a board, we are looking to adapt while meeting your PD and accreditation needs.  If you have any ideas or suggestions that you would like our board to look at please don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our board members.  We are always looking for committee members so I encourage you to get involved.


With gratefulness,
Katie Burham
Chair, TESL Saskatchewan
 
Please join us to welcome our new Board members: 

Katie Burham - Chair, TESL Saskatchewan
Shauna Tilbury - Vice-Chair, TESL Saskatchewan
Ellen Son - Chair, PD Committee, TESL Saskatchewan
 

Our Board members each chair or serve on various committees. Here are their updates:

Awards Committee:
TESL Saskatchewan values the efforts and professional development aspirations of our members. Each year, we offer several awards to our members and language learners. See the awards offered:

 
Most awards have a submission deadline in March each year; thus, from the fall, encourage your learners or colleagues to apply for these awards.

Accreditation Committee:
Interested in learning how to gain TESL Saskatchewan accreditation? We have updated the information on our website. Visit these links for more:

Communications Committee:
Navdeep Dhillon is our new chair of the communications committee after serving as a member of the communication committee on the Board. Members who enjoy writing, publishing, and web design, are always welcome to volunteer to assist with the committee. Please contact us at info@teslsask.com.

Professional Development Committee:
Ellon Son is our new chair of the professional development committee after serving a member of the committee on the Board. Members are always welcome to volunteer on this committee or submit ideas for our PD offerings. If you have a wish to present your research or teaching ideas, please contact the committee at info@teslsask.com.
 
As a TESOL affiliate, participate in board elections by voting and get to know the latest updates happening within the organization! 
The TESOL Election Slate is now available. TESOL members in good standing as of 25 October 2020 are invited to vote for the President-Elect, and members of the Board of Directors and the Nominating Committee. The election will open on 30 October 2020 and end 20 November 2020. More information will be available in the coming weeks.

TESL SASKATCHEWAN TOP NEWS:
 TESL Saskatchewan is pleased to announce that TESL Canada and TESL Sask arrive at a collective decision to acknowledge TESL Sask accreditation and approves our newly accredited members and will be accredited by TESL Canada. TESL Sask members who have been newly accredited (or will be in the future), are eligible to streamline their Tesl Canada application. They just need to fill in the form and send it with a copy of their certificate and the fee.
 



TESL Canada News

 

Announcements

Dear TESL Canada Members,
 
Sending along my warmest greetings at this very challenging time! Can you believe it is already September?! I trust you have found some time to relax and rejuvenate this summer. However, I do realize that relaxing has not been overly feasible due to the personal and professional concerns that abound.
 
I just wanted to touch base with everyone to let you know that TESL Canada continues to serve its members during this unprecedented time in our history. The summer has been busy with applications for individual certification, teacher training program inquiries and reports, website updates, communications of various kinds including webinars, and committee and board meetings. If you have questions or need information, please do not hestitate to contact our TC staff at 
admin@tesl.ca or info@tesl.ca.
 
I would like to highlight a few activities- first we are pleased to have begun a collaboration with Cambridge and were very satisfied with the professional learning (PL) webinar they offered in July. Thank you for your attendance and your feedback. 
Cambridge Resources for Teachers can be found on our website. We hope that there will be more of these collaborative activities with Cambridge in the future. Also related to PL, we now have a spot in each member’s individual profile where PL can be recorded and saved. And, finally, on the topic of PL, we are pleased to have offered four bursaries to members in the spring and we will be offer two more $250 bursaries for fall learning. Our upcoming September newsletter will feature a short article from a bursary recipient as well as a reminder for applications for the fall offering. We are posting links to PL opportunities as well as fall virtual conferences on our website. Stay tuned for further communications on a variety of PL-related topics (e.g., future webinars, newsletters, conference info)!
 
One new initiative, established by the TESL Canada settlement language committee, is the 
“Stories of Us” project.  We have now received over 20 stories related to learning in the time of COVID that will be published in collaboration with “Stories of Us”. Three teachers teaching in three different contexts (Literacy, CLB1-4, CLB5+) have been randomly awarded a small cash prize for their contributions (will be announced in the newsletter).  This is another exciting collaborative endeavour aimed at supporting and celebrating the work of TESL Canada members and their students.
 
We are always looking for ways to work with and promote our approved teacher training programs (TTPs) and an email has gone out to start this conversation. TESL Canada is committed to collaborating and consulting with TTPs in order to address issues that arise and ideas to support teaching and learning. As was the case with the action in the spring to address 
COVID-19, the TESL Canada Standards Committee is attentive to changing situations and evolving trends. We hope to call another TTP consultation meeting in the fall.
 
I wanted to let you all know that I am grateful that during these uncertain times the current board has agreed to stay in place until the spring, at which time we will be holding a virtual AGM. Please consider whether you might like to put forth a nomination to be a part of the TESL Canada Board.  More information will follow on this matter at a later date.
 
Wishing you all a positive and productive fall. Please feel free to reach out to myself or our TC staff, Donna and Teri, if you have suggestions on PL topics or other ideas to assist members in their teaching during the pandemic. In these challenging times we are here to support you.
 
Warmest Regards,

Paula Kristmanson,
TESL Canada President

president@tesl.ca



 

The TESL Canadian Educational Foundation (TCEF)
Professional Learning Participation Grant


TESL Canada is happy to announce the $250 TCEF Professional Learning Participation
Grant to support four TESL Canada members to participate in an online professional learning opportunity (e.g. registration for an online webinar or conference, a short online professional
course).

Kind more information at the link below:

https://teslsask.com/news/tcef-bursary-2020-online

 


BC TEAL News
 

Each year BC TEAL strives to offer a variety of professional development events – conferences, workshops, regional meetings and more – for professionals working in the EAL field. These events include our large annual BC TEAL Conference each spring, and smaller regional conferences throughout the year. We also offer webinars, one-day workshops in the Lower Mainland, and other events around the province organized by our regional representatives. Information about upcoming BC TEAL PD opportunities will be posted here. We look forward to seeing you at our next event!

Inspiring Speakers Series – Ness Murby
Date: Thursday, October 22, 2020
Time: 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm
  
Employment Opportunities
 
SAISIA Rural Coordinator - Sep 29, 2020
 
 


Events
Culture Days in Saskatchewan: Updates
In 2020, Culture Days will be a month-long celebration of culture, happening September 25-October 25, and taking place indoors, outdoors, and online across the country. The Culture Days registration site is now updated to accommodate the addition of virtual programming for this year, and is open for organizers to begin registering their 2020 Culture Days activities. Most of the events are either digital recording or live streams and many are free of cost. 
 
There is no deadline; applications will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis until September 1, 2020 or until the sponsorship budget is expended – whichever comes first. Interested applicants are encouraged to email Shelley Fayant, SaskCulture communications consultant, for further details and information on how to apply online.

 


 
SharePoint is our membership section in which YOU can share ideas, teaching strategies, an interesting article, or anything ESL, ELL, or settlement sector related.

On behalf of the communications committee, we greatly thank our members for their continued support. We hope you have a wonderful and safe summer. See you again in the fall!

Want to Share?
We greatly welcome your submissions, long or short, big or small. Please forward your writing to: info@teslsask.com and use the subject heading "Share Point".

Important resources:

Handbook for Newcomers on Indigenous Treaties (French version)

Hello/Bonjour,

We have a translated version of the Handbook for Newcomers on Indigenous Treaties (French version), see attached.

Nous avons une version française, du Handbook for Newcomers on Indigenouus Treateies. L’information suivante vous présente les peuples autochtones au Canada, et plus précisément, les Autochtones de la Saskatchewan.

Thank you et merci,

Déborah Chevalier

Bi-Lingual Urban Coordinator

Email: Deborah.chevalier@saisia.ca

Website: https://www.saisia.ca/

Click on the link below to find the pdf version of the handbook!
https://teslsask.com/news/handbook-for-newcomers-on-indigenous-treaties-french-version
 
 

Announcing the NEW ISSofBC Digital Literacy Support Package for Clients Using Mobile Phones

Greetings and hoping you are well! Because you work for a publicly funded organization or program and enquired about the ISSofBC Digital Literacy Curriculum Resource, I am pleased to provide you access to a NEW resource package that has been added to help clients with digital literacy needs who can only use a mobile phone to access content.

Announcing the ISSofBC Digital Literacy Support Package for Using Mobile Phones funded by the Government of British Columbia's Immigration Policy and Integration Branch | Ministry of Jobs, Economic Development and Competitiveness.

Click on the link below to access the resources:


https://digital-literacy.issbc.org/digital-literacy-support-package/
 


 

NEW FREE RESOURCE FOR LINC TEACHERS
 

The Stories of Us Curriculum

What is The Stories of Us?

The Stories of Us is a program within the Department of Imaginary Affairs. The Stories of Us is focused on building an ESL library of newcomer stories, online and offline, written by newcomers themselves. Our goal is to create ESL resources that are reflective of the diverse range of newcomer experiences across Canada. To this end, we work with newcomers through a series of scaffolded storytelling / storywriting workshops to unpack the stories that they feel compelled to share. Published stories are available to download for free on our website, and are ranked by CLB level for ease of use. Furthermore, the English text of each story is intentionally displayed side-by-side with the author’s home language text to maintain accessibility and honor both languages.

About the curriculum

English language learning programs for newcomers represent an ideal environment in which to incorporate storytelling as a tool and a practice. Among other impacts, embedding storytelling into the LINC curriculum can support confidence-building, a key challenge for newcomers who often face multiple barriers to meaningful integration and employment in their new country. In many ways, a job interview requires an applicant to tell their story in a compelling way while integrating their past, present, and future. Our curriculum aims to give newcomers the tools and the vocabulary to start unpacking and sharing their story with their peers, on their own terms. This process in turn helps to build a deeper sense of community and connection among peers, as well as between students and teachers.

For more details and to access the resource, click on the link below:


https://dia.space/projects/the-stories-of-us/curriculum/

 


旅 🎃🧙‍♀️😈👹

Looking for some exciting activities this Fall???
Find out teaching resources and printable worksheets on Fall season, Thanksgiving, and Halloween at the links below:


https://en.islcollective.com/english-esl-worksheets/search/Autumn

https://en.islcollective.com/english-esl-worksheets/vocabulary/thanksgiving

https://en.islcollective.com/english-esl-worksheets/vocabulary/halloween

https://bogglesworldesl.com/fall_worksheets.htm

https://bogglesworldesl.com/thanksgiving_worksheets.htm

https://bogglesworldesl.com/halloween_worksheets.htm

https://www.englishwsheets.com/autumn.html

https://www.englishwsheets.com/thanksgiving.html

https://www.englishwsheets.com/halloween.html

https://www.allthingstopics.com/thanksgiving.html

https://www.allthingstopics.com/halloween.html



Did you know, you can renew your TESLSASK memberships online at the TESL Sask website? 
Easy Steps:
1. log in to your account
2. Click "Forms" on the left menu. 
3. Select the "Membership Renewal" form.
4. Fill out the information and click submit. 

All done!! 

For fees and more information visit our website at:
https://teslsask.com/membership/how-membership-works
TESL Sask Twitter Feed
TESL Sask Facebook Main Page
Website
Email
Copyright © 2020 TESL Saskatchewan, All rights reserved.


Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp
TESL Sask Twitter Feed
TESL Sask Facebook Main Page
Website
Email
Copyright © 2020 TESL Saskatchewan, All rights reserved.


Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp