Philadelphia

Greetings from Philadelphia!


Here is a brief summary of my experiences from the trip I recently took to Philadelphia for the 2012 TESOL Conference.

Tuesday

Today I spent most of the day travelling! My first flight left Winnipeg at around 8:30am and was just over two hours long. Thankfully, I was able to watch a movie to help the time pass. I watched, “New Years Eve” which is a romantic comedy that has about 10 different stories that are all connected into one story about what people in New York City do for New Years. After a brief stop in the Toronto airport I was off to Philadelphia. This flight was a lot shorter so I just read a magazine and listened to some music. After arriving at my hotel and unpacking my things, I met my director and co-worker for an Italian dinner. The food was fabulous! And the company was great too :)

Wednesday

Today was my first day at the conference and I have learned so much already. The course I took today focused on how to teach pronunciation. There were three different presenters including the author of the textbook we often use an IEP titled, "Well Said". Most of the presentation focused on the theory behind pronunciation instead of practical activities within the classroom. As a teacher I always need to think about both the theory and practice so this was a great reminder.

Some fun activities I did today include going to Starbucks, walking the streets of Philadelphia, and some shopping as well! Included is a picture of my Philadelphia Starbucks mug. Whenever I travel I buy 1 Starbucks mug from the city and add it to my collection! This is my favourite souvenir. My hotel room is clean, comfortable, and is a very nice place to come home to at the end of the day to relax and prepare for my next session.

Thursday

Today I went to many different sessions about teaching English to international students. In the morning I went to a session about Grammar Games and Business English Communication skills. In the afternoon I learned about icebreaker games to use on the first day of class to help build community and make students feel more comfortable. I also attended a session about a program that allows students to write about an interesting or exciting experience and then the computer program will animate your story for you with sound, text and images. It looked very interesting! I hope that in the future I can teach a writing course where I could use some of these ideas.

In the evening, I went on a walk around the city to explore some of the beautiful architecture! I felt as though I was in a European city. Here is a picture of Philadelphia's city hall.





Friday

Today was the final day of the conference. There were so many interesting sessions that it was hard to choose which ones I wanted to attend. I decided to go to a workshop on different activities to use in the classroom to help students with academic writing and also an interactive workshop demonstrating how to use cell phones within the classroom! Texting your friends and speaking in your first language were NOT on the list! Instead, the presenter showed teachers different programs, applications and uses for a cell phone within an English classroom. I found this presentation very interesting especially because students often want to use their cell phone in the classroom. In the afternoon I chose to attend three sessions which were: understanding verb forms, helping students increase their listening comprehension using the website “TedTalks”, and how to use word cards to help increase vocabulary in the classroom. It was a very full day with lots of information!

After my sessions were done I decided to go on a bus tour to see all of the famous sights in Philadelphia. This bus had 21 different stops and it allowed passengers to hop off the bus at any of the stops, walk around, explore the location and then in 30 minutes a different bus would pick you up. Since it was later in the day and I was somewhat tired, I decided to just relax and stay on the bus for the entire tour. The city of Philadelphia has a great history and I was very lucky to experience everything this city had to offer.

Of course, I could not go to Philadelphia without trying the famous, “Cheese Steaks”. My boss was kind enough to let me borrow her travel guide so I picked one of the top restaurants that served Philly cheese steaks to try. I walked about 10-12 blocks from my hotel down a beautiful, historic street called, “Pine Street” and then came to “Jim’s Steaks”. I had to stand in line for about 45 minutes before I was served but it was well worth the wait! The cheese steak was amazing! It is definitely not something I could eat every day since it was very greasy, but I enjoyed the treat very much!




I spent the rest of the evening walking around the city and experiencing the rich culture that Philadelphia had to offer. I had also read that there was an excellent ice cream shop close to my hotel so I couldn’t resist! After a lot of walking I finally crashed in my hotel room and packed my luggage for my trip back to Winnipeg.

Thank you Philadelphia for a wonderful experience. The food, architecture, shopping and friendly people were incredible. I would highly recommend this city to anyone who is interested :)