The End of TEFL

A few weeks ago I finally finished my online TEFL program and received my certificate! I am ridiculously glad it is done and I feel as if a great weight has been lifted. More than anything else, it was an exercise in perseverance. The irony of this certificate was that I was already teaching while taking this course to learn how to teach... At the end of the day (an idiom I taught my kids), I'm glad that I did it but it was PAINFUL to get through. For any who are interested in participating in this program, I'll provide details of what I did and what site I went to.

This all started in September. I had just moved to Hong Kong and, not wanting to impinge on my cousin's generosity, had started to look for an apartment in earnest. Having already detailed this search in this post: Hong Kong Living Advice, I won't repeat myself. Tired of apartment hunting, I took a break to start looking for jobs. Since I had no qualifications for teaching other than a university degree and native English ability, I thought it might be prudent to enroll in a TEFL course. At first I was confused between a TEFL, a TESOL, TESL, and the Cambridge examinations. Here are a couple of sites that helped clarify things for me, kind of...:

Acronyms explained

Cambridge exams

To be completely honest, I feel like the distinctions between them are pretty superficial and that each of them would do the job. I opted for a TEFL just because I recognize it and have heard it the most.

Since I was newly graduated and had just moved to another country, being cheap was a pretty important factor. All of the in-class courses that I saw were exorbitantly expensive, as in more than a thousand US dollars. That pretty much ruled that option out. I started looking into online courses and pretty quickly became confused because if you do a google search for TEFL courses, you'll find a ton of sites that are all plays on rearranging the letters. That told me nothing about what was legitimate. I didn't want to just hand over my money just to have it disappear. After cross referencing a ton of reviews, etc., I finally settled on ITTT (which I think is a very large company that goes by a few names):

ITTT course listings

I chose the 120 hour certificate with tutor since I HATE taking tests. I chose the 120 since I wanted to seem a bit more legitimate completing a teaching course online. I felt that the 50, 60, and 100 just weren't worth the cost. The tutor course was more pricey than to just read through everything and do an exam at the end but definitely worth it to me. My last two years of undergrad I chose only seminars that required a final paper. I just hate the stress! Especially after one very unforgettable experience when I actually forgot when my exam was supposed to start and ended up sprinting to the hall an hour late...

Anyway, I ended up spending a couple hundred U.S. dollars but it was fairly straightforward. After enrolling in the course (no biggy), I got an email from my tutor, Pippa, who laid out my directions. I was informed that I had six months to complete the course starting from when I submitted the first lesson. After I sent in the first lesson, she sent me the next two. When I turned in one lesson, she would send me another one so I always had something to work on.

Let me give you some advice if you decide to do this: GET IT DONE. I know six months seems like plenty of time for only 20 lessons but trust me, they tend to drag on and take comfortable seats on the back burner. My tutor didn't seem extremely strict on the six month rule (I ended up crossing the 6 months by a few days and she didn't say anything) and that almost makes it worse.

The reason it was so difficult for me was that literally within two days of beginning this course, I interviewed for a job and was hired on the spot. Without a certificate. It was really difficult to come home after a long day of teaching and curriculum planning only to need to fill out a long worksheet on grammar or classroom management.

I hated the grammar parts. As a native English speaker, I never really learned grammar intensively and have trouble thinking of the English language broken up into parts. I feel like some of my older students could kick my ass in grammar here since it is DRILLED into them at school. However, I didn't have too much trouble since I just sounded things out. I know that's not the proper method but it worked for me! 

That's about all I've got on this whole process! There will be more photography next time and now I'll leave you with a song:

L.E.S. Artistes by Santigold

Also, here again is a link to the short travel writing piece I submitted for a scholarship competition to Turkey:

Sunk In Coron

I want this so badly and I find out on Thursday. I'm just a ball of nerves until then!