Approximately When Did Trick-or-treating Become Popular

Catia Pereira dos Santos Teaching Ideas What kind of teacher do you want to become? Can you picture it in your mind? Well, I did it! When I first started my journey as a Portuguese and English online tutor, I asked myself this question and it landed me on a few ideas which are also present over some units of the ESL teachers course. I've been a student for a while, and I am still today. This year, I merged in the education field, taken this bright decision had brought me a lot of joy. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Catia P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. During my TEFL/TESOL teacher course lessons, I recognized some of the do's and don't's of my past...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas What awaits us in the future? What will society look like in the future? What will it look like in 10 years? What will it look like in 100 years? Can you imagine a world without English? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Oksana F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. English has become a global language. This is an obvious fact. Its influence has grown exponentially in the world. Because of new technology, business, travel, and the English language the world seems to have become smaller nowadays. Therefore, we can declare English as the language of the future world. The English language is spoken by over 600 million people from all...  [Read more]

Amanda Stern Destinations Alumni Experiences Are you planning on teaching abroad, but worrying about how you can get involved in the community and leave a memorable impression on the locals? Language barriers may make this seem like a harrowing task, but fear not, the following is a list of a few jumping-off points for those planning to take the plunge into their new community. Celebrating multiculturalism in a community is a worldwide phenomenon, even for unassuming towns. In our rural port-town in Japan, we have multiple events throughout the year to promote understanding and celebrate the various cultures and people who have made Japan their home, temporarily or forever. These events included Filipino traditional dance...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Friendly atmosphere in a classroom is crucially important. Not only does it create a conducive environment for the study process, where students are relaxed and therefore tend to participate more, but also provides a safe space for a teacher. From my experience, building good rapport is especially important for young teachers as it helps to boost their confidence and unleash all the potential they have in order to make lessons effective and fun. Here are some ways of forging a friendly relationship with students, that worked out for me. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Anastasiya E. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Apparently,...  [Read more]

  In this TEFL review video, Nikki from South Africa talks about she is constantly travelling so an important criterion for her when choosing a TEFL course was that it should allow her to study while on the move. ITTT’s online courses provide the flexibility to study online wherever and whenever you want. Nikki was impressed by the range of courses and prices that ITTT has to offer and has now completed the main TEFL certificate course and an additional Certificate in Teaching Business English course. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences What awaits us in the future? What will society look like in the future? What will it look like in 10 years? What will it look like in 100 years? Can you imagine a world without English? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Oksana F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. This is an obvious fact. Its influence has grown exponentially in the world. Because of new technology, business, travel, and the English language the world seems to have become smaller nowadays. Therefore, we can declare English as the language of the future world. The English language is spoken by over 600 million people from all over the world. Every year, more...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The experience of living and working abroad for sure will give us another vision of the world. If you have been in China, enough you will learn to be more patient and tolerant. Live with another culture is not easy, and we learn how to be flexible. We are different, we live differently, our environment is different, our beliefs, our politeness, our food, etc. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ana P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. “Good morning, how are you today? “- They have never asked each other how are they? Instead, they ask “Ni chi le ma?” Did you eat? These people were starving for so many years, and the...  [Read more]

Shirin Sophy Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas The study stage, when the teaching is actually done, is the second phase of a straight-arrow ESA lesson plan. What needs to be taught in this stage depends on the course content and the source the teacher is expected to cover through a specific period. But generally speaking, languages are made of receptive and productive skills in addition to systems like syntax or grammar, vocabulary or lexis, and phonology. The content of textbooks is normally centered around these areas. Although the ESA method is supposed to be applied for almost every lesson, no matter if it is allocated to a skill or system, the details of the procedure may vary based on the aspect of language that is...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences At the cafeteria during lunchtime, a student of mine approached and asked me, “Why did you become a teacher?” Dumbfounded by this brazen question, I did not know what to say. I could have chosen motherhood statements like “I want to make a difference in the world,” “to have a positive impact on my student’s lives, “or that “I love children.” I ended up saying to him, “Well, I am good at teaching.” However, the truth of the matter is, I needed a job and there was an opportunity so I took it. You can say it was fate that called me to be a teacher. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine myself being a Grade 3 homeroom teacher! After having experienced a variety of jobs in my life from...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Only 13 percent of the world's population can speak English that makes it 983 million people according to Ethnologue. This means that there is still approximately 87 percent of the world's population as potential students/clients just waiting for an English teacher. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Chantelle F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. English is the third most common primary language in the world and moving up the ladder for a first-place very fast. Many international and multinational companies and universities are using English as a working and learning language. This means that there is such a huge demand for...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences We all love to be told when we have done something great, completed an assign tasked or even given a simple compliment such as a good job or well done. Within any teacher-student relationship, praise is of course quite normal and very important as it will not only help to motivate and encourage the student to try harder but also will help them to relax and get more out of the lesson given. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Liza I. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Effective praise always seems to provide the students with a kind of positive and powerful reinforcement which helps them to build a better foundation that is...  [Read more]

Anastasiya Akpinar Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas It has become usual for students and teachers to communicate only via computer screens for the last year. All of us have faced a number of problems when studying or teaching online: It took society around half a year to get used to a new teaching system. However, it took much more time for the teacher–student communication to get back to normal. Finally, both sides in front of the screen overcame the shock and started taking up online teaching/studying on a daily basis. So from now on, teachers can focus on being more productive inside and outside their online classrooms. Working in modern circumstances, most teachers started to face the same problems: And that’s where...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As an aspirant teaching English to Chinese children, I chose ‘Pronunciation problems of Chinese people’ as the most attractive and the most useful topic for my summative task at this moment. As resources of this joyful and useful research on the internet, I have used three videos on Youtube made by the three experienced teachers of the English language. Only one of them works with children. And only one of them (accent coach from London, Luke Nicholson) gave a lot of live examples of the flaws in pronunciation that Chinese people, in general, make when speaking English, by showing the interviews with the Chinese actor Jackie Chan who sometimes manages to confuse his experienced interviewers. This post was...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas If you think of Chinese ESL students it is safe to assume that most teachers would immediately worry about how they should teach phonics to Mandarin speakers. It is also true that the media has portrayed the Chinese accent as one of the most challenging to understand or even get rid of. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Graciela G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Usually, the first thing you will notice as an ESL teacher, speaking from experience, is the difficulty Chinese ESL students face when it comes to the pronunciation of certain English sounds. In this essay, I will address not only the most common but some of the most...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Motivation is a special ingredient in achieving goals. It is a necessary factor that urges us to act. A person is motivated when his or her activities are positively focussed on a certain end. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Oliver H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The goals to achieve have been set by school, teachers, or parents. Also avoiding punishment can be an extrinsic motivation. An example of extrinsic motivation is when a student does his or her homework to avoid trouble the next day in school and that the student can play football with his friends after homework. Things we are interested in or are attractive...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas When I had completed approximately thirty percent of the TEFL course I decided to go to a local school here in the North East of Thailand, where I live, and my friend, who is a Canadian national, is the English teacher at that particular school. I had already arranged with him, that I would take his English lesson acting as a visiting English trainee teacher, and he would assess me. I gave a lesson to the students in the English language sentence structure. On completion of the lesson I approached my friend and asked his assessment of my teaching abilities, and he replied that I taught to a satisfactory standard apart from the fact that, I was a little bit nervous and the students didn’t speak much at all. Although...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas A new teacher has many things to consider when instructing a new group of students in a foreign country. One of the most important aspects and one that should never be overlooked is the understanding of cultural sensitivity. In this summative analysis, I will speak about the importance this has to the development of the teacher-student relationship and ultimately classroom management. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Matthew B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In my prior profession, I managed a successful defense contracting firm. I had a very diverse group that consisted of many different ethnicities. In this eclectic group,...  [Read more]

Kevin Cullen Budget and Salary How much money do I need? Determine your costs to get TEFL certified and your running costs until you get your first teaching paycheck. The TEFL Budget Planner is a tool to estimate your total costs to become TEFL certified and then begin working as a teacher. Its spread out over three months as that’s a conservative plan to complete your one-month in-class TEFL course, interview and secure a position, begin teaching and final get your first paycheck at the end of your initial month. As most all schools pay at the end of the month, we’re assuming—conservatively again—that it’s at the end of the third month when you will start to receive income. Some may receive a partial paycheck in the second month, but...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences If you're a native language speaker, you've likely heard the phrase, “You can't teach an old dog new tricks”. There has been little evidence found to support this claim, but the belief persists. Many adult learners believe that it is too late for them to learn a new language. If you are teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language you may find yourself teaching a class of adult learners. Adult learners differ in many ways from young learners, and one such issue you may encounter is a doubt from the learners that they are capable of picking up a new language now that they are no longer children. Though the style of learning and the issues encountered will inevitably differ from those of young learners,...  [Read more]

Ulysses Brown Destinations China is a popular market for teaching English as a foreign language. That's why I also took the leap and moved to China to teach. Here are 5 of the main reasons why I went to teach English in China. I studied at a university with an enormous international student body. Many of these students became good friends of mine, Romanians in particular. Most of the people with whom I associated were friendly enough, and those that weren’t found their way outside of my personal circle of friends and acquaintances. So, it can, therefore, be concluded that the majority of my friends during university were from other countries, and if they weren’t from other countries, they were from other areas. There was a caveat to this,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences There is a lot of information, books, and many experienced teachers that one can get the information from and be able to learn key tricks to become a successful teacher. We all know that teaching is not an easy task, but it does not mean it cannot be enjoyable. We need to have a lot of perseverance, consistency, and hard work to become a successful teacher. There is a very long list with countless strategies to help teachers to build a successful career. This paper intends to provide some of this insightful information on how to become a successful teacher. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Glaucia S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I believe discipline in the classroom has a time and place. Depending on the age group or behavior of the classroom will define if discipline is needed. When discipline is simple, the teacher must ask themselves one question, is it disrupting the student's time to learn? If the answer to that question is a yes then action must be taken at that point. As a future teacher, I think the best way to make it clear to the student that bad behavior will not be tolerated is by implementing a three-strike system: the first strike is a warning, the second strike is detention and a paper assigned to the student asking them to write what mistake they made and how they will improve in the future, the third strike is being sent...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Teaching English to non-English speaking students can be a big and challenging task. You need to be full of patience, understanding and passion if you decide to enter this vocation. I worked for ten years as a kindergarten teacher in the Middle East and at times it seemed like I was in a “jungle survival” competition. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Alona J. I was really in shock when I entered into the classroom on my first day as I had students with zero-English and it was really hard to understand them all. There were also many parents sitting around with their children who were crying and having tantrums. Normally, each class should have an Arabic Assistant Teacher but at that time...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas Teaching grammar patterns often involves a lot of classtime and the more activities you have up your sleeve as a teacher the better. The following 7 activities for teaching the past progressive for the ESL classroom will help your students pick up the tense in no time! Pull up an image with a lot of actions going on, for example, people engaging in different activities at a park or another public place. You can either hand out printed images or show it to your students on an overhead projector or TV. After having your students analyze the image, turn off the TV or collect the prints and start asking what the people in the photo were doing. Also read: 5 Reasons Why Teaching English Abroad Enhances Your Career...  [Read more]

Rhea Latchu Alumni Experiences What if I told you it is totally possible to combine your passion with your dream? Well, it is. You see, for as long as I can remember, I have always had the dream to travel and wander around this globe. Then approximately four years ago, I discovered a passion within me that I didn’t even know existed: teaching! And that is how my journey working as an EFL Teacher began! Teaching English for many presents the opportunity needed to become an expat. To live the expat life. This was certainly the case for me. When I accepted a volunteer position as an English Teacher in Chile four years ago, it wasn’t (initially) to accomplish my life long goal of becoming an English teacher. Yes, I had some interest in being able...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences At one time, in my role as a Speech Pathologist, I taught Foreign Accent Reduction. In assessing and treating individuals with a foreign accent I soon came to realize that the “culprit” interfering with communication was not so much the foreign accent (unless it was phenomenally strong) but rather the limited and poor grammar and vocabulary demonstrated. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Fay B. Over the past several years, in the acute care medical setting within which I work, this belief has been reinforced. Customer satisfaction surveys returned by recently discharged medical patients reveal that one area of discontent in received hospital care has to do with the difficulty...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Over the years, the English language has reached the status of a global language and is considered to be characterized as lingua franca or the language which is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different. The English language is spoken by millions of people all around the globe. It is spoken by people as their native language, it is taught in almost all schools around the world as a second language and is also used as a first language for international communication. The English language has become a global language for many reasons: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Milos O. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teaching is one of the most difficult jobs in the world. You have to deal with different personalities inside the classroom and somehow, you need to work things out for the class to have an atmosphere that is conducive to learning. You have to prepare yourself both mentally and emotionally to be an effective teacher. It is not a cakewalk and you need to have the drive and work ethics to succeed in this profession. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Fitz B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Growing up, I never really thought of teaching as a career. I took up a degree related to the healthcare industry back when I was in...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The English language holds an important position in today’s world. There may not be many people as native speakers of the English language, but most of the people all around the world somehow are influenced by English. It is the first language of nearly 400 million people and the second language of another 300 million people. Furthermore, 750 million people are learning English today. It is expected that half of the world’s speaking population will be proficient in English by the year 2050 (Hargraves, 2003). There is no other existing language that this high volume of people tries to learn it as a foreign language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Zeki G. Please note that this blog...  [Read more]

Anna Domiczek Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Teaching grammar can be challenging, and it becomes especially tricky if we teach younger students, who learn differently than older students or adults. Whereas the latter group focuses primarily on learning vocabulary and grammar rules first, before applying those rules and expressing themselves in the new language, children need to be surrounded by the language and be able to sort it out. Comprehending abstract concepts and grammar rules is not the way young students connect with language and construct meaning. Young learners need to have opportunities to have engaging content, to be able to find patterns and make connections. Can grammar rules be taught that way? Certainly....  [Read more]