Eight years ago, I was getting ready to attend the TESOL Convention in Seattle WA. I was particularly excited about going because the previous year, after participating in the Electronic Village Online's "Becoming a Webhead" session (BaW06), I had joined the amazing online Community of Practice known as Webheads in Action. Many of my newfound online webhead friends were also planning on going to Seattle, and I was looking forward to meeting them face to face for the first time.
In the weeks leading up to the convention, I inquired in the Webheads Yahoo! Group whether there might be a group blog that those of us lucky enough to attend the convention might use to tell our less fortunate colleagues about the convention. Someone said it was a great idea and why didn't I create it? So I did, and 17 webhead conventioneers joined the blog; you can see the result here. (Sadly, most of the images were uploaded as Bubbleshare slideshows, and when Bubbleshare went offline a few years later, so did those wonderful photos that documented many f2f webhead encounters.)
Since 2007, I have been fortunate to attend almost every TESOL convention, and the highlight, every single time, is spending time with my webhead friends, as documented in the annual blogs, where contributors also posted links to their own blogs, photos, and more:
New York (2008) -
Boston (2010)
New Orleans (2011)
Philadelphia (2012)
Dallas (2013)
Portland (2014)
Now we come to 2015, which will be my last TESOL Convention. After 43 years of teaching English as a foreign/second language, I am retiring at the end of this semester. I hope another webhead will take on the blog creation duties so that I will be able to follow the doings and f2f encounters from home!
If you are going to Toronto, please join the blog and share your convention experiences with all of us! If you are staying home, I hope you will follow the blog and add your comments to it.
Dear Nina,
ReplyDeleteI have no words to thank you enough for once again taking the time to start gathering Webheads prior to another TESOL gathering.
In fact, after having taken up such a commitment for so many years running, and having been the organizer of yet another EVO Session during last January, I wondered whether you would feel like taking the lead again and open yet another blog for those Webheads getting together next week in Toronto. If Nina didn't..., who would...?
But Nina did. And here we are once again getting ready to share this newly-born blog, which is paving the way for our f2f meeting next month, as we hope to see very dear friends and enjoy being together for 5 days in Toronto.
THANK YOU, Nina, you are the spirit of this space, and I do hope that we will somehow manage to meet again despite your farewell... All Webheads celebrate your work and your wish to help keep us being the wonderful Community that first met in Seattle 8 years ago!!!
Dear Nina,
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for the invitation to the blog. I would just like to say I am very thankful for the push you gave me into the world of TESOL and the Webheads. Although, I had been a Webhead for some years, it was after you invited me to the EVO coordination team that I felt more connected to TESOL and to the Webheads community. Now, I am bit said to know this is your last TESOL. On the other hand, I am happy to know you are getting a deserved time off to dedicate to other pleasant things that are waiting for you. It is also great to know that we will always be touch in the cyber and in the real world. Looking forward to meeting you in the next days that will sure be full of learning and excitement.
Hi Rita and Jose Antonio !!! Hope to see you soon 😊👍
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