The CELTA
The reason why I've been so behind on the blogging front was because I took the CELTA in November. Not that I am dying to be an English teacher, but I thought, why not? it's relatively cheap to do in Bangers and could be useful if we travel around. So, as a fellow student put it, I was doing it 'for fun'.
Well, 'fun' isn't a word I'd associate with the CELTA course. It was 4 weeks of learning, preparing, photocopying and being scrutinised beadily by the tutors. My fellow students were from a variety of backgrounds: Brits, Ozzies, Yanks and others. Some had teaching experience, others didn't. Some were off to Korea or Laos or the Middle East to teach after and very few stayed on in Thailand. They were all very nice.
We were split up into teaching groups of 5 or 6. I was really lucky with my group as it had a good balance of getting a grip on reality, getting what you could out of the course and ambition. By 'getting a grip' I mean that for 4 weeks, it is very easy to become completely consumed by the course: living, breathing, eating, dreaming it... I went from 0-90 in 1 day and by day 2, I felt I'd been on the course 50 days, and by day 3, I was losing sleep. Luckily Fatt was able to put things into perspective and I decided that it just wasn't worth sleepless nights. Some of my fellow students though shed tears over the course and worked manically. Ultimately, they probably got the best grades. But I'll be damned if I cry during a course!
The set-up is basically classes on a variety of different teaching aspects during the morning, and actually teaching a lesson in the afternoon. You start off with very short lessons and gradually work your way up to an hour's worth. Needless to say, if you are scheduled to teach in the afternoon, your mind can drift during the morning. Also antiquated crap printers and photocopiers contribute immensely to the pressure.
The guinea pig students were a joy though. Admittedly, there were a lot of Thai girls - university students - who were very sweet and earnest. There were also some refugees from Nepal, Cambodia and Burma. And monks from Vietnam. They were a great bunch of students. They pay a nominal amount to be taught by us inept student teachers. On the other hand, they will usually get native speakers and classes utilising interesting and differing teaching methods as opposed to a teacher droning on in front of the class.
The tutors were very good. Well, two of them were marvellous. The other was a grumpy sod who seemed very frustrated with the job. He told us that if we had to give a class on 'romance and love' in Bangkok, we should aim the vocab to things that would be useful to bargirls / farang-husband seekers. Hmmm, and what about the other half of the class of Japanese housewives and Nepalese refugees?
All in all, an interesting course which definitely helps to give the basics of teaching. I've just completed my second lesson of volunteer teaching today, so I can definitely say the course was a big help.
Well, 'fun' isn't a word I'd associate with the CELTA course. It was 4 weeks of learning, preparing, photocopying and being scrutinised beadily by the tutors. My fellow students were from a variety of backgrounds: Brits, Ozzies, Yanks and others. Some had teaching experience, others didn't. Some were off to Korea or Laos or the Middle East to teach after and very few stayed on in Thailand. They were all very nice.
We were split up into teaching groups of 5 or 6. I was really lucky with my group as it had a good balance of getting a grip on reality, getting what you could out of the course and ambition. By 'getting a grip' I mean that for 4 weeks, it is very easy to become completely consumed by the course: living, breathing, eating, dreaming it... I went from 0-90 in 1 day and by day 2, I felt I'd been on the course 50 days, and by day 3, I was losing sleep. Luckily Fatt was able to put things into perspective and I decided that it just wasn't worth sleepless nights. Some of my fellow students though shed tears over the course and worked manically. Ultimately, they probably got the best grades. But I'll be damned if I cry during a course!
The set-up is basically classes on a variety of different teaching aspects during the morning, and actually teaching a lesson in the afternoon. You start off with very short lessons and gradually work your way up to an hour's worth. Needless to say, if you are scheduled to teach in the afternoon, your mind can drift during the morning. Also antiquated crap printers and photocopiers contribute immensely to the pressure.
The guinea pig students were a joy though. Admittedly, there were a lot of Thai girls - university students - who were very sweet and earnest. There were also some refugees from Nepal, Cambodia and Burma. And monks from Vietnam. They were a great bunch of students. They pay a nominal amount to be taught by us inept student teachers. On the other hand, they will usually get native speakers and classes utilising interesting and differing teaching methods as opposed to a teacher droning on in front of the class.
The tutors were very good. Well, two of them were marvellous. The other was a grumpy sod who seemed very frustrated with the job. He told us that if we had to give a class on 'romance and love' in Bangkok, we should aim the vocab to things that would be useful to bargirls / farang-husband seekers. Hmmm, and what about the other half of the class of Japanese housewives and Nepalese refugees?
All in all, an interesting course which definitely helps to give the basics of teaching. I've just completed my second lesson of volunteer teaching today, so I can definitely say the course was a big help.
posted by sylv at 3:49 pm
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