Best Way To Become A Teacher

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]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Being a student at the elementary or beginner level in any language, not just English, is not only a challenging task when beginning to learn the target language but also a clean slate to progress the learning in the correct way. Having never learned English before, it can sometimes be a difficult feat of where to begin. However, this allows the teacher to start the student or students off in the correct way so that the challenges for the student will become less and less as they progress through the language difficulties. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Amanda T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Beginner students are the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Completing a TEFL course is useful in many ways. Firstly, it is useful to complete a TEFL course because of the knowledge it provides. Before starting this course I had an English background, but I wasn’t aware of all the grammatical points I was missing out on. This course has made me think and taught me some very new ideas that I had not previously known before. Aside from grammar, I had picked up some very useful communication skills and problem-solving skills. When in a classroom I learned how to keep people engaged and active. A very useful technique is the ESA technique. That stands for engaging, study, activate. In this technique, you can use the straight-arrow method, boomerang method or the patchwork...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Intrinsic motivation is the type of motivation that comes from within a person. An intrinsically motivated student who is highly motivated will always, all things being equal, outperform the less motivated one. These are the students who simply enjoy what they are doing. They just like learning English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Scott C. It is the task of the English teacher to create an environment in the classroom which will maximize the opportunity to learn English. The English teacher is the one person who exercises the greatest influence on the student who is engaged in learning English. Once the student is in the classroom it is the teacher's attitude and approach to teaching...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Every child is born with an immense capacity for learning, with an innate sense of curiosity and creativity that are of vital importance for the learning process to become a truly exciting journey. However, as a child grows up he is immersed into the world of formal schooling that tends to be downright tedious at times. As a result, most often the child feels pressed because of the attempts to fit in the way he is being taught. Memorizing, chasing results becomes a habit, while ingrained personal strengths remain barely discovered. Hence, a huge realm of human inborn potential remains unrecognized. But what if the idea of multiple intelligences would be integrated into modern education? What if the educational...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Motivation can be seen as the reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a certain way. Many people in the world today battle to find the motivation they need to achieve their goals, be it in the business sector, schools, or even in their day to day activities. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Chéz-lynn M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The higher the level of motivation, the more likely a task is to be achieved. There are different types of motivation such as intrinsic motivation which involves doing something because it's personally rewarding to you and extrinsic motivation that involves doing something to earn a reward...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teaching can be a very fulfilling and enjoyable occupation. It is, however, also filled with a lot of challenges. The workload can be high, the hours long, the course material may be difficult, and the students themselves can make a lot of difficulty for the teacher. As most teachers will attest there will be students who are difficult to deal with. They can be unmotivated, distracted, tired, or even purposefully disruptive. Many teachers have quit the profession because of unruly classes. Many more teachers have lost their temper and ruined a class because of this. There are, however, many ways to manage unruly students. Sometimes, they even become the very best students. This post was written by our TEFL...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As Margaret Fuller once said, “Today a reader; tomorrow a leader”. Reading is a habit that has a great number of benefits. It allows an individual to gain knowledge, expand their vocabulary, improve their writing skills and reduce their mental stress among many other things. Thus, we must instill a love for reading in children from a very young age. Three main ways to do this would be to find out what their interests are and help them find books that are about their interests, to show the children how passionate you are about reading and to motivate them to read as much as possible by rewarding them for it. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Fathima S. Please note that this blog post...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The CEO of a multi-million-dollar company I worked for once told me, “Change or change will change you.” This motto has stuck with me since the day I heard him say it. It’s part of the reason why I decided that I want to be a teacher. I know it’s going to bring me out of my comfort zone and force me to do things that I otherwise would never do. A teacher can never stop learning; one has to constantly improve. Otherwise, what’s the point? Some of the most important ways to ensure that one improves as a teacher are to self-analyze and reflect. It’s fine to use these tactics at one’s own pace and discretion, but they are of utmost importance. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas According to Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. As parents what is our role for our children to be educated? How would we reach out to us and explain to them the importance of education? How would we encourage them to pursue their dreams of graduating college despite the struggles that arise? How we would inspire them with Nelson Mandela’s quote “Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas There's no doubt that the quality of the educational process significantly depends on the teacher. And therefore the teacher plays the leading role here. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ivan K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. There are many of them. First of all, in my opinion, it's the personality of a teacher that has the main impact on the way he/she leads the educational process. Such personal traits as confidence and self-perception, emotional control, creativity, сommitment, and determination make a good teacher in the first place. A teacher can have good theoretical knowledge about teaching, have a great variety of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas No matter how well-prepared a teacher may be, every classroom is different, which means each student is different, and each teacher needs to be able to adjust and be able to establish rapport with the new class. For some teachers, working in a foreign country may cause them to feel uneasy; however, a teacher needs to overcome this feeling to be successful in the classroom. Indeed, building rapport with all students will help. Although this is a continuous process throughout the term, the key to establishing a friendly learning environment starts on day one. Thus, the best way to build rapport is to know the students’ names and interests by the end of the day or week (depending on class size). This post was...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker TEFL Information Teaching Ideas For many EFL teachers online teaching provides a convenient opportunity to earn a good income without having to leave your own home. For many others it is an unexpected reality due to recent global events. Whatever your reasons for teaching English online, you will probably find that your students are often tired and lacking in motivation due to too many hours in front of the computer screen and not enough variety in their learning. Unfortunately, the same also applies to many teachers. If you feel you are struggling to keep motivated when teaching online, don’t worry as you are not alone. Take a look at our simple tips for maintaining motivation when teaching English online and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English is everywhere. It is the world’s lingua franca. Out of 7.5 billion people, 1.5 billion speak English and just 360 million of them are native speakers, that is to say, that English is by far the most commonly studied language. It has become the global language for business, science, technology, aviation, advertisement, cinema, music, education, and so much more. How did it become so powerful? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Philippa K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The answer lies in history – after 1945, when the world was recovering from the biggest and most horrific conflict, the United States business...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas For the last two years, I have worked as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) at a Japanese high school. Along with my teaching job, I have volunteered at a weekly English conversation class, where I teach English to both children and adults. Next year, I plan to transition out of my ALT job and into private ESL teaching. It is most likely that I will do most of my teaching online, where I will be one-on-one with a student. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Bailey J. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In this case, when looking at my experience with teaching...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences Teachers play vital roles in the lives of the students in their classrooms. Teachers are best known for the role of educating the students that are placed in their care. Beyond that, teachers serve many other roles in the classroom. Teachers set the tone of their classrooms, build a warm environment, mentor and nurture students, become role models, and listen and look for signs of trouble. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Charles I. The most common role a teacher plays in the classroom is to teach knowledge to children. Teachers are given a curriculum they must follow that meets state guidelines. This curriculum is followed by the teacher so that throughout the year, all pertinent knowledge is...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Without knowing it nor intending it to be, my path has been strongly directed and focused on education and it was since Elementary School that I felt that something was wrong with me in the nowadays education system. After struggling a lot with learning as I was supposed to and believing that I was not smart enough, I finally took a subject at college that changed my thinking. This subject was called Educational Psychology and it was based on the actual necessity of creating a revolution or a change in education. Within the years we have been de-humanizing education at the point that we don’t even ask ourselves what is the purpose of what we are learning or teaching. We have become like side-blinded horses that...  [Read more]

Lourien Prinsloo TEFL Information Alumni Experiences English became the undisputed lingua franca of the modern world. Having a common language, English has led to unprecedented periods of peace in the world and opened up a world of opportunities to people of all creeds, cultures, and backgrounds. Furthermore, English achieved fame through reaching large audiences and became a communication key. Effectively communicating in English quickly became a happy medium for trading, diplomacy, and human relations. Today more than 57 countries recognize English as an official language. As if this is not enough for the English language, it also enjoys another achievement. The most commonly studied foreign language, all around the world. To...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The first and most important quality for a teacher, regardless of what you teach, is the love for teaching. When we do things with passion, the energy that we put on it changes completely the result we obtain, as well as the entire experience for us and our students. Of course, it is imperative that we love the discipline we are teaching, but teaching is not about us enjoying it, it is about us guiding a student into the journey. From the first steps through all the complexity of it. In my career, one of the things that fills me the most, and does it every day, is the satisfaction of seeing the happiness of my students when they manage to achieve a new goal. This post was written by our TEFL certification...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker TEFL Information Alumni Experiences English has quickly become the leading language of the world. Whether we like it or not, most countries have chosen English as the language of business and international interaction, and because of this, many are pushing their people to learn English as a second language. To help guide this initiative, many businesses, schools, and private households are hiring native English-speakers to teach English to those wishing to learn. While learning directly from a native speaker is the ideal way to learn a new language, unfortunately, it is common for many English speakers to go abroad and hope to be able to teach effectively with no prior teacher training. This post was written by our...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas A confident teacher would have a positive impact on his or her students’ achievement, attitude, effective and even socio-emotional growth (Wang, 2016). A teacher's confidence clearly influences a student's learning, thus it is necessary that a teacher develops confidence as he or she progresses in his or her career. Some teachers easily develop their confidence but some struggle to have it. In my 14 years of teaching, I have established the following principles in order to develop confidence, be it facing my students, dealing with their parents, communicating with my peers or even talking to my higher-ups. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Rhea A. Please note that this blog post might not...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Career development is a process of improving one’s self-based on their chosen career path. This is a lifelong process. There is no time limit, however, skills should be met and strengthened as efficiently as possible. One's adaptability, capacity to work under pressure, ability to work with minimal supervision, analytical, and social skills are crucial in any career path. These things are taught in schools, though at a fundamental scale. Most of the time, these are enhanced and improved through effort, practice, and experience. People also learn more about how ethics, communication skills and technological savvy contribute to the success of any endeavor. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas What outdoor activities can help when teaching English? Literally any outdoor activity you can imagine can be of great help when teaching English. There are many different words and phrases that are used in specific types of situations and there is only so much role-playing and slide-show presenting you can do in the classroom. Sometimes taking the lesson outside is the best way to teach your students how certain words and phrases are used in particular scenarios. When you bring the lesson outdoors, students can start to make the mental connections in their brains between what they have learned in the classroom and experiences in reality. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Matthew M. Please...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I would start by saying that talking about my own experience either as a learner or a teacher it is really important to love what you are doing. As a student, I like a teacher that may help me not understand the subject but also be so interested that I would start doing research and learn more about the topic. We as teachers have a lot of responsibility, we can make the difference between someone who has to learn the language only because of her or his parents told them to learn a foreign way to communicate with people from other places. I want to go further and make them fall in love with this language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Arturo G. Please note that this blog post might not...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Young children, even when they are learning their native tongue, learn the words before they learn how to apply them correctly and as a result, children often make mistakes in their grammar, however, even when they do, it is mostly the vocabulary or the order of the words which still provides a degree of context which makes the message they intend to convey understandably and thus susceptible to improvement. It is exactly because of this fact that in this essay, I would like to dive into teaching vocabulary. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Johnny B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. About teaching vocabulary, I could say that...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas ‘You can only give what you have’, so the adage by Leo Buscaglia says, likewise the holy lore brings it out as well to emphasize the truth in it. This is true when it comes to teaching. The teacher can rightly or wrongly offer what he/she has or has not. In a class setting, the teacher is often expected to be in the frontline at all times by the learners. The various activities that are geared towards helping the learners achieve their goals or dreams in an institution of learning all depend on the input of the teacher or properly called the role of the teacher. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate David K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas There are a number of different ways in which you can work online. In this blog we describe the ways you can do this and briefly describe some of the positives and negatives for each system. Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas In this blog we discuss the types of platfrom available to online English teachers. We then look at ways to add your profile to these platforms in order to attract the maximum number of students to you. Hoàng Minh Huy TEFL Information Alumni...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas There is no doubt that a teacher plays a vital role in the classroom. To become a good teacher, the teacher should pay full attention to their teaching and students’ learning. In particular, teachers serve many different roles in the classroom rather than just convey linguistic lessons such as Controller, Organizer, Assessor, Prompter, Participant, Tutor, Resource, Model, and Observer. Over the years, there are a great number of changes in the teaching approach along with the learning strategies. The classroom becomes ‘student-centered’ rather than ‘teacher-centered’. This will largely depend on which type of activity and what we wish the students to achieve. This post was written by our TEFL...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences I might not have realized it before since I was busy studying and just trying to achieve my short term goals but I believe that my mother has been an inspiration for me to become a teacher. I could remember seeing kids at home being taught by my mom and she used pictures to identify certain shapes and animals. My mom was a regular housewife then. She taught only for fun and to make my brother and I be more engaged in learning things with the company of our friends, our playmates. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Marie M. I remember how I strived hard to be able to be the best in my class when I was in elementary school. My mom would always prepare review lessons for me before my periodical...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences In April 2018, I quit my job and began traveling around the world. Since then, I taught myself Russian and improved my teaching skills by helping others with languages I am familiar with. The more places I visited on my journey, the more I became interested in foreign languages. I had the chance to teach people German and English, while also learning other languages and alphabets from them. I realized that while helping others, I developed a passion for teaching. I decided to travel to Southeast Asia and acquire a TEFL certificate, which enables me to teach English and live in a foreign country. This decision should benefit and influence my life and personal development. This post was written by our TEFL...  [Read more]