The TESOL Convention in Baltimore, March 25-29, headlines major events for ESL professionals around the world this month. And ESL MiniConference Online again this year has evaluated sessions to be offered at TESOL, and has selected "Top 10" Lists in five categories:

ESL in Elementary Education: Top 10
ESL in Secondary Education: Top 10
ESL in Bilingual Education: Top 10
Refugee Issues in ESL: Top 10
Issues in ESL Teacher Education: Top 10

These recommendations are meant to help the readers of ESL MiniConference Online sort through the vast array of workshops, discussions, papers and demonstrations to be found at this yearly TESOL event. Please note that there are other categories beyond these five, and the colloquia and keynotes were not ranked.

If you can't make it to TESOL in Baltimore, there are several other major gatherings for ESL professionals in March and April, in Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, in Long Island, NEW YORK, and Hays, KANSAS.

At TESOL Arabia 2003 (tesolarabia.org), March 12-14, at Al Bustan Rotana, Dubai, UAE, there will be more than 100 presentations and workshops, as well as plenaries by Carolyn Graham, Liz Hamp-Lyons, Ken Hyland, Michael Lewis, David Nunan and Rebecca Oxford. Abstracts for all the presentations are posted at the TESOL Arabia site.

On April 5, 2003, at Fort Hays State in Hays, Kansas, KATESOL will hold its Spring Conference. The Keynote Speaker will be K-State Professor of Elementary Education Socorro Herrera, who will speak on "Transitions: One Student at a Time." For more information about the KATESOL Spring Conference: KATESOL Spring Conference Announcement. The conference is hosted by the Department of Special Education/ESOL at Fort Hays State University.

The Long Island ESOL Conference will be held on April 12th, 2003, at Molloy College, in Rockville Centre, New York. The conference theme is "What's New and What Works...Innovation and Tradition in ESOL," and the Keynote Speaker is Nassau County Legislator Norma L. Gonsalves, who represents a district that includes the communities of East Meadow, North Bellmore, North Merrick and portions of Wantagh and North Wantagh. Legislator Gonsalves is a former secondary school English teacher and will speak on the obstacles immigrant students face when learning English.

"The Long Island ESOL Conference is an opportunity for teachers of the growing number of English language learners in the Long Island and the NYC metropolitan area schools to share their expertise and experiences," said Dr. Irene Pompettgi-Szul, Conference Chair, in an e-mail to ESL MiniConference Online.

For more information about the Long Island ESOL Conference, please contact: Dr. Irene Pompetti-Szul (ipompetti@molloy.edu) or Ruth Botwinik, Publicity Chair (RBOTWINIK@aol.com

ESL MiniConference thanks Dr. Pompetti-Szul and Ruth Botwinik for contacting us and providing the information about Long Island ESOL for this report.

Report by Robb Scott, Hays, KANSAS
Robb@ESLminiconf.net

2003 ESL MiniConference Online