Student 1: Teacher, teacher! Where you go to school?
Me: Wales! Does anyone know the capital of Wales?
Student 2: DOLPHIN!
seriously?
Our students came from areas surrounding the small beach town of Montanita, a popular tourist destination on the coast of Ecuador. The overall class environment was quite lax – if I remember correctly, one of our students rode in on a horse, bare-chested and casually entered the classroom as if it was a perfectly natural thing to do. I guess it was the norm there.
The majority wanted to learn English for their small businesses in town. Stall owners, taxi drivers, hostel managers, surf instructors, waiters… you name it, they all need English to communicate with their customers, who often don’t make the effort to learn Spanish before they travel.
When it wasn’t our turn to teach, we’d chat to them outside before class, or listen to one of them perform songs he’d just written. They were all genuinely nice people to around. They came with a lot of enthusiasm and motivation to learn, which is always a bonus for any teacher.
I couldn’t have asked for better students to practice on.
How are you finding CELTA in general? I’m doing online TEFL and hoping to do CELTA next year as it seems really good for the teaching practice. Would you recommend the course?
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Actually, I completed the CELTA last year so I’m just reminiscing now. 🙂 I’d say yes, the CELTA was worth it – I learnt a lot of new skills, not just teaching ones but also time management skills. The teaching practices, although stress-inducing, were extremely helpful in giving us an idea of what teaching was like and allowed us to experiment with different activities. It wasn’t an easy ride (far from it!) but our trainers guided us through it all.
The only thing I’d add is make sure you pick a center with plenty of resources. Mine had a mini-library (3 long, overflowing shelves) of TEFL- related books, a few computers, and 2 printers/photocopiers/scanners, all of which I used almost every day.
Feel free to contact me if you have any more questions – I’m happy to answer them.
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Thanks very much for the reply – that’s really helpful! The course I’m applying for is attached to the language centre at the university so I reckon the resources will be pretty good to be honest but i’ll keep it in mind. One of the great things about doing the TEFL is i’ll have all of their resources electronically too so I’ll have been exposed to all the grammar before. Thanks again 🙂
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That’ll definitely come in handy. You’ll be a lot quicker at analysing language for your CELTA lesson plans – that bit always slowed me down. Good luck for the rest of your TEFL course!
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Thanks 🙂 x
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hahaha…..welcome to the world of the esl student!
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