This article was originally published in TESOL-SPAIN Newsletter May 2020.

When I heard that the annual convention was going to take place in Salamanca, I got super excited. I had already visited Salamanca back when I was at university but I loved it so much that I wanted to visit it again. If you’ve ever been to Salamanca, you’ll understand it perfectly. If you haven’t, add it to your must-see places list. That’s one of the beauties of the TESOL SPAIN conferences, you get to visit different parts of Spain. So far, I’ve been to the conferences in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Elche, Madrid and Salamanca and I’m sure I’ll get to see many more places.

During my first TESOL conference in Vitoria-Gasteiz, I was overwhelmed by the number of workshops, talks and “things” that you can learn about teaching English. I felt like a little kid in a candy shop trying hard to choose what was best for me without getting disappointed. I still remember the “Pronunciation Workout” with Mark Hancock, OrigaMichael’s ideas for CLIL classes and the very first workshop on native-speakerism I attended.u

Ever since I can honestly say that I’ve been growing as a professional I’ve gathered more experience, done my DELTA and started running workshops for teachers and presenting at local ACEIA conferences. Many of you will most probably agree with me – the more experience and qualifications you have, the harder it is for you to go to a conference and learn something new. That’s never the case with the annual TESOL Spain convention. There is always a variety of workshops to choose from. This year, my personal goal was to learn more about teaching students with learning difficulties, especially dyslexia. As always, I got back home with my head spinning with ideas and feeling reassured that what I was doing was great.

You see, we often look at those who present as teaching gods. People who have an activity for all kinds of students, who know everything about teaching and who are absolute examples to follow but… they’re not! At some point, you start realising that you’re already doing what they talk about, you’ve recently had a similar or an even better idea and that you’re not such a bad teacher yourself (Of course, you aren’t!). That’s the moment when you could reflect upon what you do in your classroom and how sharing your ideas could help other teachers grow.

When I sent in my proposal, I wasn’t sure it would be good enough to get accepted, let alone I would be awarded a grant (although, I did apply for it J). But the first step is as simple as this: write down your ideas and see what you can do. Will it be new? For some yes, for some no. Remember, the convention is full of experienced and inexperienced teachers. I set my personal (and absolutely inofficial until now) objective for this session quite low but realistic: I wanted every teacher to leave with at least one new idea they could use with their students, and they did! Now, you may start wondering, but will people come to my workshop? They can choose any workshop they like, why would they choose mine? I was afraid of that too! My workshop was during the last session, right before the closing plenary and I was sure that many people would have left by then (after long for some of us it was a long journey and most of us were going to teach the following day). I expected the room to be rather half empty tan half full but I was wrong again! Maybe, it’s because that was the ONLY session about preparing students for the exams, I was the only pigeon in a flamboyance of flamingos. I was super scared when I saw that most speakers talked about the 21st-century skills, mindfulness and there was I with my “PETty Problems”. But the truth is my talk was relevant to the teachers’ needs and the room was nearly full which I consider a huge success. Also, thanks to being the grant winner, I got some extra publicity in the pre-convention newsletter and the convention program which must have helped.

So, if you’re wondering whether you should send your proposal and apply for the grant – just do it! You will never know unless you try and you can only apply for it once, so why not have a go? Remember, you don’t have to be a teaching god to have some great ideas worth sharing with fellow teachers. The money from the grant helped me to cover the travel expenses and cover the cost of the hotel. Thanks to it, I’ll be able to spend my first post-DELTA savings on my wedding-gown (the wedding’s in October so fingers crossed COVID-19 won’t ruin it!).