Webheads & Friends in New Orleans 2011: Friday

My second and last day at TESOL. Up early, here breakfast at the hotel, then went to a session by Ellen Rosenfield of UC/Berkeley on "Teaching ITAs to Use Lexical Bundles," where I found myself sitting next to Colleen Meyers, who co-authored by 006 textbook! Then to the EV to volunteer for 2 hours. Next Jennifer Lebedev and I went to the Exhibitors Hall to check out the publishers. I had lunch with Jennifer courtesy of Pearson, and I had the chance to meet Beatrice Mikulecky, author of the ReadingPower series, which I love. So that was really nice. After that a few more sessions ("Decoding What Students Say" and "Functional Tone Choice in Office Hour Simulations") and by then I was feeling sick again and came back to the hotel to rest (and blog). I returned to the CC for one last session on "Exploring Pronunciation CALL Products for Advanced Speakers" and then back to the EV to find Vance, Jeff Nelson (whom I had not met before), Veronica and Tom Leverett. Vance and Jeff had a reception to attend, so Tom, Veronica and I walked along the river side (there is a big mall-like thing called River Walk that stretches along the banks) to the ferry terminal. We were going to take the ferry across the river and back, but when we realized we would not be back in time to meet at the restaurant we had chosen, we just walked slowly back and waited for them to return. Aiden joined us. It was a long wait for a table at Mulaté's, a Cajun restaurant across from the CC, and then a long wait for our food, but the Cajun band, La Touché, played wonderful zydeco music while many customers danced, and we were with friends, so the time passed pleasantly. We were almost ready to go when Evelyn caught up with us, so we stayed a while longer, but around 11:00 we finally called it a night (except Evelyn, who was meeting some friends for salsa dancing!). It's after midnight now. I am being picked up at 7:30 to leave for the airport. Another convention over. See you next year!