President's Message
Welcome to a new academic year for many of you and to the busiest time of year for ATESL. With the conference in Calgary fast approaching, I would like to encourage you to think about taking advantage of this great opportunity to meet fellow ESL practitioners from around the province and to discover some of the exciting innovations taking place in ESL delivery.
The Board is pleased to announce that the new benefits package for ATESL members is now available through the website. This package includes dental, health and travel insurance and is made available through the same company that has successfully managed a similar package for TESL Ontario. I consider this insurance package to be a major step forward for ATESL in better meeting the needs of the membership. One further new development to look out for is the reconstruction of our website. We are currently in the process of hiring a website designer to help us update our website and to enable us to upload even more information related to professional development and advocacy issues to the site. I would like to thank Carolyn Dielemann and Alberta Employment, Immigration and Industry for supporting this initiative.
I look forward to seeing many of you at the conference and if you have issues or concerns you would like to raise with the Board I would welcome the opportunity to discuss those. This will be my final newsletter submission as ATESL President and I would like to sincerely thank the amazing group of volunteers who make up the Board and local organizations of ATESL for your help and support. I have learned a huge amount from you and I look forward to a vital and interesting year ahead with Marian Rossiter as the incoming ATESL President.
Sincerely,
Justine Light
ATESL President