TESL Ontario announces GTA student, two teachers winners of creativity contest

celebrating ESL education

TORONTO, Oct. 4, 2012 /CNW/ - The Teachers of English as a Second Language of Ontario (TESL Ontario) today announced the winners of its province-wide, multi-category creativity contest to celebrate ESL education. GTA student, Madlin Eisho, an ESL student with Caledon Community Services in Bolton, Ontario, won the grand prize for her photo entry. In the instructor category, two ESL educators, Anne Marie Guy and Baye Hunter, who teach at the Victoria LINC Learning Centre in Toronto, won the grand prize for their video entry.

The creativity contest is a feature of ESL Week, an annual celebration of ESL education and learning that is endorsed by several communities, thousands of ESL educators, students, and many learning institutions and school boards across Ontario. ESL Week will take place November 4-10, 2012.

"Our multi-faceted creativity contest grew out of our popular annual poster contest for ESL students that we have been running since 2006," says Renate Tilson, executive director, TESL Ontario. "We discovered there is a strong desire and need to have a vehicle to showcase talented ESL students and educators in Ontario, while at the same time expressing creatively, and across many mediums, the experience of learning English as a second language."

All individuals involved with learning and teaching ESL in Ontario were invited to participate in the contest.

First place winners from the ESL student categories include:

• Essay: Lirije Beqolli (Lorne Ave. Adult ESL/LINC Centre) - London
• Photo: Alex Chen (Polycultural Immigrant & Community Services) - Scarborough
• Poetry: Jose Atara (Lorne Ave. Adult ESL/LINC Centre) - London
• Short Story: Mirna Rodriguez (Caledon Community Services) - Caledon East (GTA)
• Video: Assunta Strianese (Caledon Community Services), Schomberg (GTA)

First place winners from the ESL instructor categories include:

• Essay: Peter Lewis-Watts (Simcoe County District School Board Learning Centre) - Barrie
• Photo: Brett Basbaum (St. Joseph Immigrant Women's Centre) - Dundas
• Poetry: Danielle Rychlo (Kajwa Girls' Middleschool Learning Centre/South Korea) - London
• Short Story: Maria Bermudez (Center for English Language Development; U of Windsor) - Windsor
• Video: Adrienne Horvath Cortes (Conestoga College - LINC Program Learning Centre) - Cambridge

All winners will be honoured at the Welcome Reception at the TESL Ontario annual conference in Toronto. The winning submissions can be viewed at: http://www.teslontario.net/contest-winners.

ESL Week has been declared by 38 communities across Ontario including: Toronto, Ottawa, Barrie, Brighton, Ajax, Amherstburg, Aurora, Aylmer, Brampton, Clarington, Cornwall, Durham Region, Fort Erie, Fort Frances, Gananoque, Georgina, Gwillimbury, Markham, Midland, Milton, New Tecumseth, North Bay, Oakville, Oshawa, Pickering, Port Hope, Rainy River, Richmond Hill, Smooth Rock Falls, South Bruce, Stratford, St. Charles, St. Thomas, Whitby, Temiskaming Shores, Timmins, Whitchurch-Stouffville and Windsor.

A regular highlight of ESL Week is the TESL Ontario annual conference, which takes place November 8-10, 2012 in Toronto. The conference - TESL Ontario at 40: Thriving, Excelling, Sharing, Leading -- is the largest conference of its kind in Canada, hosting more than 1,500 delegates. The conference brings together ESL educators from the public and private sector, academics, researchers, teacher trainers and representatives from both the federal and provincial governments. The conference offers a variety of workshops, plenary speakers, research symposia and a panel discussion on a current ESL topic.

TESL Ontario is the association and certifying body for non-credit adult ESL instructors in Ontario. TESL Ontario represents more than 4,500 ESL professionals working in elementary and secondary schools; colleges and universities; private schools; and LINC and ESL sites across the province. The organization has developed expertise in areas of teacher accreditation, and professional and curriculum development. For more information, visit www.teslontario.org.

SOURCE: TESL Ontario

Shannon Skinner
Skinner Publicity
416-576-8809
[email protected]

Renate Tilson
Executive Director, TESL Ontario
416-593-4243 ext. 203
[email protected]