How Old To Be A Teacher

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas What if students don’t like me? What if I forget my planning and ruin the whole lesson? What if I trip and fall flat on my face? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lizelle K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. What if this and what if that, these are the type of questions that go through a new teacher’s mind before they enter their first classroom. Stepping into a classroom for the first time can be overwhelming and a new teacher can easily feel lost when all the attention in the class falls on them. When studying to become an educator, be it for 3-year olds or 30-year olds, practical exposure to an active teaching environment...  [Read more]

  In this TESOL review video Ray talks about how the 120-hour online TESOL course he took with ITTT helped him to learn the necessary skills to teach English as a foreign language. Ray recommends the course to anyone considering a career teaching English abroad or online. 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 means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. Grammar, vocabulary and functions go hand in hand in this unit. Therefore as teachers we have to ensure that students are introduced to a new...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas By the time a child is a year old, they can differentiate between the sounds that make up their first language but can’t distinguish between sounds that aren’t found in their first language. Even in the case of sounds that children may not be able to correctly produce until they are six years old, such as the /r/ sound. So, it would make sense that by the time a child is just a year old the way they learn language changes, as stated in Dr. Ryalls’ class. Further on when a child is finally in school they have some grasp of grammar, even if it isn’t complete by the time the child is school-aged. This means that by the time a child is in school when they would most likely start learning a language, they...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching has been my dream since a very young age! This should be the normal and most common answer when you ask a teacher about his childhood dream job. For me, It was absolutely the opposite. I have never seen myself teaching anybody even my closest friends and relatives! I have always considered myself an introvert. My best friend used to be a book I’m reading! I have never liked crowded places or getting to know new people! Going to a wedding or a party was more like a nightmare to me. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate MANEL R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Anyways, all of this has changed when I helped a friend in...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I was an English teacher in Japan for over three and a half years. In that time, I gained a lot of experience teaching young learners. My students were aged from two to fourteen. As I taught these students, I learned a lot about how songs can be used effectively in the classroom. Songs can be used to teach sentence structure, routines, vocabulary, and help aid the understanding of instructions in the classroom. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Megan B. Before students can even grasp the language, they can understand rhythm and music. When teaching the youngest students (two years old), we used a lot of chants. Chants are not necessarily music but work much in the same way. Generally,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Put simply, children think and learn differently than adults. Jean Piaget, as one of the leading psychologists to explore these differences, puts forth the four stages of cognitive development, unified by an overarching idea called constructivism. He specifically focuses on children rather than all learners and, further still, focuses on development rather than learning. His constructivism theory posits that children form an understanding of the world around them and modify that representation based on their experiences and shifting environments that either contradict or confirm what they have built. (1) Therefore, in working with young learners, teachers should be mindful of this as they promote the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences There is no overemphasizing the importance of the English language in the world. English is likely the most widely spoken world language. Hence, it is of optimal importance that the teachers of English language measure up to the status bequeathed the language in the world. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Abubakar M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. First and most importantly, a good English teacher must be well-versed in the language they teach, the English language. An English teacher who doesn't profess knowledge in the language shouldn't take a classroom in the first place. Knowledge can come from reading and...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences My teaching experience began in a whirlwind. I graduated from college a semester ahead of my class, married, lived with my husband in my sister’s basement for two months, and moved to South Korea. We had no idea what to expect. Sure, we’d read the blogs, talked to the director of our school, and even talked with people we know who had lived and taught in Korea. It still didn’t fully prepare us for what to expect, how amazing it would be, and how hard. We lived in South Korea for 19 months teaching three through seven year olds daily and first through third graders several times each week. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Sarah S. When we first moved to Korea, our head teacher had to teach us how...  [Read more]

  In this video diary entry, Chantelle discusses unit 4 of her TEFL course. This unit covers the present tenses; present simple, present continuous, present perfect and present perfect continuous. The structures, usages and possible teaching ideas for each tense are outlined in the unit as well as common errors made by learners. The tenses are an aspect of the language that many native speakers of English struggle with as they are not explicitly taught in schools and, as Chantelle mentions, this was one of the more difficult units she has studied so far in the 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...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences The majority of children turning 5 years old attend kindergarten for two years in preparation for primary school. Some kids enter kindergarten earlier at the age of only four. This actually varies according from state to state and also from country to country. In China, most kindergartens combine childcare with teaching so that the children will develop physically, morally, and intellectually in a harmonious way to get ready for their formal school education. A good environment is assured for the kids to have a conducive place to learn actively. Teaching English in China can be overwhelming considering that English teachers are also assigned to teach kids as young as one year old or even younger. Chinese parents...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas When students hear ‘vocabulary’, they may expect to hear the word ‘list’ next. More often than not, we associate the word ‘list’ with ‘boring’! We think of 2 daunting columns of black letters on white paper: one with the native language and one with the target language. But it doesn’t have to be that way, and for teaching young learners, it cannot be that way. Certainly, teaching vocabulary will involve lists that help learners to receive language methodically and thoroughly. But what a teacher does with the vocabulary lists can be creative and fun and, most of all, memorable! This post was written by our ITTT graduate Roxanne L. When teachers hear ‘vocabulary’, they should pair it with the word...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In between the lesson structures of teaching a five-year-old how to ride a horse and a 20-year-old did I first witness the relationship between age and abilities, attention spans, and structural needs of the different students. As German riding schools would follow a structured pyramid system to train a horse and rider from the ground up, so can teachers of a first or secondary language. Questions to discuss in this essay are, “What is early childhood development? What comes next?” and “How can a teacher encourage students through the different stages of development?”. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kate S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Being a teacher, you should know that children learn language differently from adults. Although grammar does play an important role in language learning- especially in the early stage of the process where a new language can seem very contradictory, lacking structure and rules and disorganized where grammar teaching comes into its own. So I think we should find “how to teach grammar for young learners?” This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Hien N. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The children can imitate very quickly. With me when we teach grammar for young learners, we must make them funny and feel comfortable. There is a more...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences My experience in teaching English to young learners is based in Japan. At the start of my time teaching, my student group consisted of two children of the same family. The siblings are a boy, age five, and a girl, age three, who participate equally in the English conversation sessions. Three main factors of this situation present difficult walls, preventing forward progress. Those three factors are distracting objects, counter-productive classroom philosophies, and personality conflicts. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Brandon F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. First, the English conversation takes place in the children's...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas To begin with, what is discipline? Discipline can be defined by the control gained by enforcing obedience or order. Discipline enables you to have self-control as a teacher. When working in a classroom, using discipline either teaches children to be well behaved or punishing and corrects them. Teachers use discipline to ensure routine is maintained and ensure there is a safe learning environment for the children. Preventive discipline can be defined as the measures many educators take to avert misbehavior by keeping students engaged. A way in which to achieve this is by ensuring the work provided is suitable for the ability and age of the children. Supportive discipline ensures that teachers monitor a child’s...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences This is an interesting article written by one of our TEFL alumni who shares her thoughts on the importance of observed teaching practice for ESL teachers. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Roxanne L. When I think of having my teaching observed either by an inspector or by a teacher-in-training, I think of the Christmas song, which impels its listeners, “He knows when you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!” The reason is simple, when we know we are being scrutinized, we do a better job! In reality, students observe their teachers every day, and even without expertise in the field of education, students know implicitly a good teacher from a bad teacher. Still, having your teaching (or...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As a part of receptive skills, reading is so important that children start to read both English and Chinese books at the very beginning of their lives. Reading is a beneficial way to learn English well, especially for young learners. They can accumulate more and more vocabulary as well as the way native speakers communicate with each other by reading various kinds of books. As we all know reading a good book just like talking with a great author. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Xiangnan G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Here I will share my experience of teaching English reading to young learners. I worked in an...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Whether online or in-person teaching English to children is higher energy than adults. A teacher must be kind, happy, fun and energetic. A teacher must speak clearly, slowly as needed and use lots of hand gestures, visual aids, and props. Teachers should prompt students, giving them time to answer and lots of opportunities to speak, ensuring a student-centered class. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Laurel C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Teaching English online presents some differences from a traditional class. It can have the benefit of being in the comfort of the child’s home with interactive games that seem less...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences .As I learned from the 50-hour CTBE course, teaching business English always involves one-to-one mode. Imagine there is a student who is a high profile business person in China. He needs to learn English for his own Business work and he prefers one-to-one lessons. Then, what traits should an EFL teacher have in order to get this teaching job? In this essay, I would like to use this case to discuss some attributes that a businessman would seek in an EFL teacher and why he would demand those traits. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lisha L. First, the EFL teacher should have a broad knowledge of English language and some basic knowledge of the businessman’s first language. If the teacher...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences Teaching classes containing a wide variety of ages can be a great challenge. I have recently experienced such challenge. Below I am going to share my teaching experience and how I managed to overcome the difficulties. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Yan Z. In Spring this year, I was asked to teach an English Drama class in a children’s training center. Before the class started, the students were recruited and assigned by the center, which was not in my control. There were 12 elementary-school students in the class. Students were age-mixed, ranging from 7 years to 12 years old. Two thirds of the students were from Grades 1-3 and one third were from Grade 4-6. In order for the younger students...  [Read more]

  Next, a couple of issues surrounding the use of worksheets and workcards. Firstly, these types of materials can either be bought or they could be made by yourself. Very often many of the book series that we use will have workcards in their teacher resource book. Worksheets and workcards are very useful because they can act as a prompt to introduce an activity or topic. They can also be used for role plays and one of the things you need to be aware of when making worksheets and workcards yourself is that you need to make them durable. So whenever you create a workcard, if you put it on some hard backing and then put it inside some cellophane or covered plastic just to make them durable then those types of workcards and worksheets can last for years. So examples of worksheets and...  [Read more]

  Akira took the 120-hr online TEFL course with tutor support and videos from ITTT. In this TEFL review video he talks about what he learned on the course, including better ways to plan his lessons and activities he can use in his classes. ITTT's TEFL/TESOL courses are not only well suited for students who have never taught before but are also a great way to refresh old skills for working teachers. 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 means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. Today's...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The year was 1992, I was going to my first English class. I was so excited to begin. I’d always wanted to learn that language. The movies, music and everything I loved the most was in English. I was ten years old, my whole class was the same age, but the only thing I didn’t know was they were much ahead of me. The course placed me in a classroom with kids that were already speaking English since they were six years old. They spoke all the time and I couldn’t understand anything. I felt so disappointed and ashamed, I couldn’t even comprehend the difference between him and her. Even my teacher made fun of me. As a result, I got out of the course after lots of swollen eyes and arguments with my parents....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I'm pleased to say that I could teach or lead a class to learn English as a foreign language, challenging and rewarding. I have little experience tutoring adults in learning English. My studies learning what could be ahead for a teacher looking to lead a class in English was so rewarding. The challenge to get the students to engage in activities is a top priority for the teacher. I'll have to develop and practice proven ways to present to the class a lesson where the students may absorb the English language and will stay with them for the rest of their life. I had to give some thought about what I would write for my Essay and how I would present this topic, so I'm happy to be able to present flashcards for...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Destinations France is one of the most popular destinations for teaching English in Europe. While a lot of people settle in Paris to enjoy the Parisian lifestyle, there are a lot of other exciting cities in all parts of the country. Here are the top 8 places to teach English in France. Due to local laws and regulations, it can often be difficult for non-EU citizens to secure a visa and work legally in France. However, if you are dreaming of living and working in France, don’t despair. We have a thorough guide to legally teaching English for people outside of the EU. Be sure to check it out here for all the details on how to move to France and teach English. A wine lover’s paradise, Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne in...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I would like to divide groups of learners into 4 categories: children (from 5 to 12 years old), teenagers (from 12 to 18 years old), adults (from 18 to 60 years old) and seniors (from 60+). I had the chance to teach all of those groups in some points of my life. The conclusion of this experience made me see the major difference in the abilities and motivation among those 4 different groups. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lara M. Children are a very nice audience when it comes to preparing fun exercises. They also don’t require detailed knowledge, because they are just at the beginning of their English experience. It is also very likely that they will not question teachers knowledge....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Deciding to be a teacher in a kindergarten can be intimidating for some inexperienced teachers in the beginning. In my case, I was quite unsure of teaching very young kids and would rather teach adults. However, I ended up in China and started to teach English in a kindergarten and it resulted to be easier than expected. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Samy H. I would say that the key point in order to be a good kindergarten teacher is establishing a good rapport with the kids since the beginning. Kids at this age are very young and some of them won’t like the teacher in the beginning. Some warmers, songs, and games with them will quickly solve the problem. In a few days, all the kids...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Destinations It’s not hard to see why Spain is one of the most attractive countries in Europe for teaching English as a foreign language. Most teachers head straight to Madrid or Barcelona but there are many more stunning cities in Spain for teaching English abroad. While it’s true that it can be a little difficult for non-EU citizens to secure a work permit in Spain, there is a legal way to still be able to live and teach in this European paradise. Check out our detailed guide on how to legally teach English in Spain to find out how to go about it. The capital of Spain’s Catalonia region, Barcelona is among the top destinations for English teachers in Spain. The city is known for the arts and architecture, including the...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences This post will focus on the differences English teacher face when they are working with a class of young learners compared to a class of adult learners. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Rebecca M. First, it is necessary to define what we mean by adult learners and young learners in the TEFL environment. An adult learner is defined as any student over the age of eighteen who engages in English language tuition. A younger learner, therefore, is a student under the age of eighteen years old. There is a much greater variety within the young learner category due to the vast developmental changes that occur during this period. For example, a five- year- old is a very different type of learner...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Learning through games has become more common over the years. The traditional academic-oriented learning method of repetitive memorizing is slowly becoming outdated, and most students prefer to learn in a fun and interactive environment. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Katherine I. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Children of all ages love to play, from the tiny infants to the toddler who sings ABC songs, to primary children who plays memory games. Children learn important skills by playing. Playing enhances children’s ability to problem solve, memorize, concentrate, imagine, be creative and interact with others (EYLF, 2009...  [Read more]