About Us

October 30, 2018

Dear Members,

It is hard to imagine that we have come to the end of yet another 2018 month! Fall is such a busy time for everyone. I just wanted to send a brief update and greetings from TESL Canada.

First of all, please find attached our inaugural TESL Canada Connects newsletter. We will post these on our website and twitter account and we welcome contributions of ideas and recommendations from our members. Each month, in addition to information on upcoming events and teaching ideas, we hope to feature news from the provincial partners as well as from our recognized teacher training programs. This month, University of Winnipeg’s TESL program is featured along with an update from TESL Newfoundland and Labrador.

Speaking of provincial partners, we are so pleased to have the support of so many provincial associations and we will endeavour to continue these positive collaborations in the new year. We are doing our best to listen to our partners and to respond to feedback. For example, we are removing some redundancy to the certification process and will be removing the interim and permanent status and moving to a simple three-certificate model (Standard 1, 2 and 3). We are also exploring the idea of a certification directory and a professional development framework for professional certification.

We have also established a TC recognized teacher training program advisory group who will meet on a quarterly basis. This group had their first meeting last week and we discussed many important matters such as documentation needed for certification of graduates, international practica, and qualifications of teacher trainers. We will also be updating some of the certificate application forms based on feedback received and hope to form an ad hoc advisory committee for a review of the standards in the new year.

We have made it a priority to connect and communicate with stakeholders and members. We are pleased to be engaged in positive conversations with IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) including a face-to-face meeting in September. We will be following up with them regarding a possible proposal related to professional standards and professional learning. As well, members of the board are engaged in the NLAB (National Language Advisory Body) group which supports settlement language initiatives across the country.

We will be sending out a message soon regarding a couple of Zoom professional learning (PL) sessions - one related to CELPIP and one related to using the Zoom platform for online teaching. We will also be soliciting ideas from members for topics for future PL topics. Also, we plan to have PL bursaries (TCEF-TESL Canada Educational Foundation) available for members to apply for in the new year.

Finally, we will be sending out a nomination notice regarding the VP position, which has been vacant since I moved into the President role. If you have expertise and skills in the area of leadership, please consider serving your national organization in this way.

If you would like to contact me, please do not hesitate to email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Have a wonderful November.

Paula Kristmanson

President TESL Canada

TESL Canada Survey on Professional Standards for the Teachers of English as a Second Language (TESL) Sector in Canada

We would appreciate you taking a few minutes to complete our survey about professional standards for TESL teachers across Canada.

TESL Canada is conducting research funded by IRCC to better understand the current status of professional standards of TESL teachers across Canada from the perspective of key stakeholders, including teachers, language assessors, teacher education programs, and employers (coordinators, managers, directors). National consistency in quality of ESL instruction is being reviewed in order to determine whether national professional standards are needed to support positive learning outcomes in English language programs, specifically Settlement Programs.

Here is the link to the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NVQ9DGV

There are 24 questions in the survey. It should take you between 10-15 minutes to complete. Please complete it no later than midnight EST on Thursday, May 16^th.

Regardless of your role in English language teaching in Canada, and regardless of the type of program in which you work, you are a stakeholder in teacher professional standards and we would like to hear from you through our survey. We really appreciate you taking the time to provide us with your input on this research.

TESL Canada

June 17, 2019

Hello Everyone,

It is incredible to think that the summer solstice is right around the corner. It has been a busy spring at TESL Canada and for you as well, I’m sure. I am so pleased to be able to send you all two great reads- 1. The June edition of TESL Canada Connects featuring innovation and research! Thanks again to Celia Logan, our newsletter Editor, for putting together yet another informative newsletter. 2. With a generous support grant from IRCC, TESL Canada commissioned a two-part research project. The first part is a Literature Review on Professional Standards, which we are pleased to distribute to you all. Thanks to our researcher, Dianne Tyers, for this contribution. The second part will be a synthesis of the survey data collected on the same theme. We wish to thank the nearly 300 people who participated in this survey for their insights and input and we look forward to reading about the findings from this part of the research.

TESL Canada will be having a June Board meeting at the end of the month and then take a little summer break (although the “office” will still be operating as usual). There has been a tremendous amount of communication and work related to Certification and Teacher Training Program Recognition and we are happy to have the support of a part-time person to serve TESL Canada members. Joining Donna is Teri Fullerton, an experienced ESL educator and a similarly super-organized human; we are grateful to be able to have the financial stability to better handle the many TESL Canada tasks.

I just wanted to give a shout-out to our webinar leaders and participants who contributed to the success of this initiative. If you participated and did not receive your Professional Development Letter, please let us know and Teri will send that along to you. We are really hoping to put on more of these online professional learning events in the fall and we will be sending out a call for webinar proposals as we know that there are many of you who have ideas and expertise areas to share with your fellow members.

We were also thrilled to be able to offer TCEF professional learning bursaries and TESL Canada Teaching Excellence awards this spring and will also continue with these two initiatives moving forward. Recipients to date were recognized in our April newsletter.

Looking forward to early fall, we will be putting out a call for nominations for some of the TESL Canada Board positions and we invite you to consider putting your name forward for these roles. Our AGM will be held in October; details will follow in late August/early September.

All the best to all of you for a productive and rejuvenating summer,

Paula Kristmanson, TESL Canada President.

Happy April everyone,

We are pleased to present another issue of TESL Canada Connects! Thanks to Celia Logan our newsletter editor and to all of the members across Canada who have engaged with TESL Canada in such positive ways over the last few months. We are so pleased with participation in our webinars and hope that those of you who registered, enjoy the session on May 5^th related to blended and online learning. Thanks to TC board members, Don Moen and Dmitri Priven for facilitating this webinar. We trust that spring is in full swing in your part of Canada and we will be in touch again over the next couple of months with information that we feel is relevant to our members.

All the best to all of you and thank you for the work you do for ESL/EAL learners,

Paula Kristmanson
TESL Canada President

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