I forgot to mention that when we would teach, we had 6 other people observing us. After the class was complete, we would round robin it with feedback and critiquing. This was the most nerve racking part, but it ended up being the most beneficial as well...
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
Co-ordinating Conjunctions, Modal Auxiliary Verbs, Collocations, and Demonstrative Determiners
I'VE GOT MY LIFE BACK AGAIN!!!
After a month of an intensive Cambridge University course, I am officially CELTA certified...and you don't know how glad I am that it is over! CELTA is the "premier" certificate to teach ESL overseas. It's a stringent, exhaustive, and expensive course to complete.
After completing an online application, written essay, and a test that took me all day, I was approved for an interview. After I passed the interview, the instructor informed me that I couldn't work or have any other obligations (including family) for the next month.
My mornings started at 6:00 AM and I wouldn't return home before 7:00 PM. A buddy and I were the furthest commuters in the class. It took us a little over an hour and a half to get to and from class. We took mini busses, ferries, metros, and plenty of walking to get there.
The four week course consisted of lectures, observations, 4 major assignments, and teaching. We had to plan and prepare to teach a lesson to a Turkish class every other day. Each of these lessons took about 5 hours to prepare. So after a long day, I didn't get to come home and crash. I had to rev up the coffee maker and push forward into the early morning, only to start the cycle over at 6 the next morning.
The class was both enjoyable and dreadful at the same time. It really was a learning experience for me all around. Especially the grammar sections. Either I fell asleep (which is very possible) during most of my elementary days when this kind of grammar was taught, or our school systems don't teach it in such depth. I was amazed at the other students in my class (most of which studied English as their 2nd, or 3rd language) who knew so much about English grammar. They were naming parts of speech that I had never heard of. It became an ongoing joke that they were teaching the Americans and Brits about their own language. We had people in our class from the US, Iran, Pakistan, UK, India, Romania, Russia, Tunisa.
So i'm done with CELTA, and I start Russian on Monday...never a dull moment in our lives :)
Thanks for your prayers and support during these times.
After a month of an intensive Cambridge University course, I am officially CELTA certified...and you don't know how glad I am that it is over! CELTA is the "premier" certificate to teach ESL overseas. It's a stringent, exhaustive, and expensive course to complete.
After completing an online application, written essay, and a test that took me all day, I was approved for an interview. After I passed the interview, the instructor informed me that I couldn't work or have any other obligations (including family) for the next month.
My mornings started at 6:00 AM and I wouldn't return home before 7:00 PM. A buddy and I were the furthest commuters in the class. It took us a little over an hour and a half to get to and from class. We took mini busses, ferries, metros, and plenty of walking to get there.
The four week course consisted of lectures, observations, 4 major assignments, and teaching. We had to plan and prepare to teach a lesson to a Turkish class every other day. Each of these lessons took about 5 hours to prepare. So after a long day, I didn't get to come home and crash. I had to rev up the coffee maker and push forward into the early morning, only to start the cycle over at 6 the next morning.
The class was both enjoyable and dreadful at the same time. It really was a learning experience for me all around. Especially the grammar sections. Either I fell asleep (which is very possible) during most of my elementary days when this kind of grammar was taught, or our school systems don't teach it in such depth. I was amazed at the other students in my class (most of which studied English as their 2nd, or 3rd language) who knew so much about English grammar. They were naming parts of speech that I had never heard of. It became an ongoing joke that they were teaching the Americans and Brits about their own language. We had people in our class from the US, Iran, Pakistan, UK, India, Romania, Russia, Tunisa.
So i'm done with CELTA, and I start Russian on Monday...never a dull moment in our lives :)
Thanks for your prayers and support during these times.
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