How To Get Teacher Assistant Certification

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Until now, I have been an English teacher for 6 months. Before that, in 2016 I was a teaching assistant. That is my part-time job. And this is a journey even though I have not yet taken a TESOL class but I am still confident that I can become a teacher. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Tieu T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For the first half of the year, I was an assistant tutor for the preschool. I had very little contact with kids before so I was very confused at the time. I told the teacher that I couldn't make them obey. She is a master of special needs education. She told me to play with them and not to care about...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Between 2017 and 2018 after I had graduated with a bachelor’s degree in German and English, I moved to Vienna, Austria to become an English teaching assistant through the Fulbright group. I was placed at two schools in Lower Austria and taught around 14-15 classes each week for 50 minute periods. Going into the situation, I honestly felt underprepared and confused as to what I was supposed to teach and how. The program attempted to orientate the teaching assistants, but in reality, there was much I did not know. After completing my TEFL certification course, I can now see many techniques that I was using either knowingly or unknowingly, and many which I could have been using. A course such as this one before I...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I am in my 3rd year of working in the countryside of Japan as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in public elementary and junior high schools. An ALT's official job description is to be the assistant to a Japanese Teacher of Language (JTL). In my experience, especially in elementary schools, the ALT is not seen as an assistant but as "the English teacher" since the regular homeroom teacher has no training or experience with ESL. In most cases, the ALT has a degree in a field unrelated to teaching and has no qualifications. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Carl S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. At the moment, English in...  [Read more]

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Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences In the wake of the upcoming 2020 Olympics in Japan, there has been an increase in elementary school level English classes. As an assistant language teacher half into my fourth year, I have had the rare chance to work the entirety of my time in one elementary school where I have had many great memories. However, being present every day I began to notice that some students were struggling or in some cases, not even trying when it came to English class. Talking with my peers and colleagues from other elementary schools as well as my own, there are some common problems that many students seem to experience in an English class. These problems include learning in a counter-productive environment, inconsistent...  [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]

  Japan has been a popular destination amongst English language teachers for many years due to its widespread job opportunities, good salaries and fascinating culture. Whilst there are other countries in the region where the cost of living may be lower and the wages a little higher, nowhere provides such an incredible mix of modern development and ancient traditions as you will find in this extraordinary country. If you are looking for excitement and adventure, look no further than Japan. In order to work legally you will need to be eligible for a work visa. The good news is the criteria is not as tough as many other countries as you simply need to possess a degree in any subject. The only other qualifications you need are a fluency in the English language, a professional approach...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) working at an elementary school in Japan, I have to mainly work with seven different teachers and teams to teach the English lessons together. The number of teachers I work with more than doubles if I include the grades that I only teach occasionally and also the classes at the other school that I go to only once a week. It is no surprise that ‘flexibility’ is often mentioned as one of the most important traits to have to be an effective ALT. In this summative task, I would like to share some of my experiences and how I have learned to work with multiple teachers with different teaching styles. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Seong H. Please note...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas During the second half of my undergraduate career, I had the opportunity to serve as an English Language Assistant (LA) at the English Language Institute (ELI) at my alma mater, the University of Florida. In this role, I worked with another LA and one faculty member (often a Linguistics professor) in leading a class of roughly 15 students every semester. One of the first pieces of information the first professor I worked with gave me was on the importance of assessments at the ELI. Students at the ELI were placed in classes based on their proficiency level in the language, which included evaluations in speaking, listening, reading and writing. The most beginner level students started at level 10 and the most...  [Read more]

  Mary is an assistant English language teacher in Tokyo, Japan, and she recently completed the 120-hour online TEFL/TESOL course with ITTT. She enjoyed the course a lot and had fun completing all 20 units. In her TEFL review, she also says that she enjoyed the flexibility the course gave her to complete the course in her leisure time. She recommends the course to anyone interested in teaching English and finds the course to be great value for money. 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...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Over the last month and a half, I have been completing a TEFL course. I am currently working as an assistant language teacher at a Japanese high school. Overall, I have found the experience to be very useful. The following reasons are why a TEFL course should be completed. Firstly, you gain a better understanding of how English grammar works. Secondly, from my perspective, it has reinforced and improved my current teaching strategies and practices. Thirdly, it gives teachers a structural theoretical framework to create lessons. Finally, completing a TEFL course gives you lesson ideas and activities. For these reasons, it is important to complete a TEFL course. This post was written by our TEFL certification...  [Read more]

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Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences As the 60 hours, TESOL course is coming to an end, I have started to think back to my first teaching experience. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joyce C. When I was a university student, I decided that it was a good idea for me to find part-time work as an English tutor or teachers assistant so I could get the first-hand experience in teaching. I began teaching a 9-year-old girl who attended the local school in Hong Kong. Her name is Charmaine. Her mother was concerned about her English writing abilities, as she often made grammar and spelling mistakes during homework and tests which caused her grades to suffer. Charmaine was quite shy and her self-confidence had been damaged due to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Over the years, most parents who are regarded as ‘working parents’ because they work long hour jobs and those who do not have full-time jobs but other engagements, have seemingly left their children’s education in the hands of teachers. However, this should not be the case as parents need to work hand in hand with teachers to ensure the overall good performance of their children. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kaboyaone K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. During my high school years, I got to experience first-hand, the positive impact of parents being involved in their child’s schoolwork the school work...  [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]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Learning difficulties can found in all teaching environments, be it a classroom of mixed ability students, a one-to-one tutoring session, teaching EFL or online teaching. Learning difficulties affect all age groups, both genders, and all languages and cultures, therefore a good teacher must be able to both foresee and prepare for supporting a student’s learning difficulties. This is even more important when teaching EFL students as unless these difficulties are met and coping methods are established then the student will struggle to make any progress in their learning English as a second language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Tammy T. Please note that this blog post might not...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Being a teacher for the first time, I was very nervous about the type of students I would have in my class and how their behavior would affect the classroom environment and the students around them. Before starting teaching, I was mainly worried about middle and high school students. I was afraid they wouldn’t be interested in the games that we would play in class and that they would just be on their phones. However, I was wrong- at least partially. The students don’t use their phones during class, due to strict rules and also having a teaching assistant, which left me feeling very relieved. I was worried about having to tell students not to use their phones and ending up having to confiscate them. The...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I have taught in a Japanese high school for the past four years as an assistant language teacher, which gives me a particular insight into the problems and advantages of EFL in that area. This will naturally require some generalizations. Individuals have very different problems from one another, but broader shared issues do crop up. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate William L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For context, I work in two Japanese high schools as an assistant language teacher in Toyama prefecture. I go to one school four days a week, which caters to students who can only study part-time. I also work at a farming...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences A teacher is one who passes on knowledge with themselves learning at the same time. Teaching is one of the most important careers in the world, as today's society has progression which could not have happened without teachers. Be it a kindergarten teacher or a college professor, they both bring a very big impact on the students they teach. Teaching may look easy but it's not for everyone, a teacher must have patience and determination to listen, comprehend and always be willing to learn as they teach. When teaching, a student always remembers what's being said if they enjoy the teacher's way of teaching that lesson and by that, I mean that the teacher needs to have a positive attitude and a fun learning...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Generally, it is thought that education is going through a major overall, this includes but is not limited to the structure of how education is provided to students from both the perspective of classrooms at educational institutions and online teaching. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Niki S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Online teaching has the added benefit to educational institutions in the way that it has the ability of lowering business costs such as overheads where the institution does not need to pay for basic utilities such as electricity, oil, air-conditioning, rent and other expenses such as drinking water,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas While most of us think of mental disabilities when we hear “learners with Difficulties” there are many other kinds of difficulties that our students may be faced with. Some of these difficulties are to some extent, within a teacher’s control however most are completely out of the teacher’s control. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Karissa Z. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Seeking attention or feeling incompetent are difficulties that we may be able to help control. These things may cause students to misbehave or act inappropriately to get the attention they seek or get out of doing anything they don’t feel confident...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In the next year, I’ll be working as an English Teaching Assistant in Zadar, Croatia on a Fulbright grant where I’ll be working with university level students as well as with middle school students. I’ll be hosting workshops for middle school students on life and culture in America. I hope to utilize storytelling activities to both engage the class and provide an opportunity for language acquisition. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gabrielle K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For the engage phase, I might ask students to tell the class, in English, about their favorite Croatian holiday, having them include descriptions...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Doneika D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I am currently an English teacher living in Japan. I teach both Elementary and Junior High School English Language. Japan’s government allows the students to start learning English sometimes as early as Kindergarten. Most Elementary schools have a designated ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) that possesses a native level of English. Even though English is a compulsory subject in Japanese Junior High and High Schools, these students struggle with achieving even daily conversational English. In this summative task, I would like to highlight the two...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Although I have spent many years as an English tutor and teacher of children, I always relied on my own innate skill and have never been formally trained. Within my circle, I was the resident expert on the English language, as I was one of the few native speakers. From my own efforts and studies, I developed my own program for my students. I often felt unsure if I was applying the right methods and longed for some formal training. Now I can say that I have learned a great deal from studying the ESA method, and have a better understanding of what good lesson planning and classroom management involves. From my own intuition and experience, I learned to apply some of the techniques and methods presented in this...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences As easy as ABC non-educators assume the job is, do not rule out the fact that pedagogy in its real sense is technical, scientific, and artistic. My fear as an assistant teacher has not left me in a jiffy. It was highly challenging having the pupils adhere to my instructions. I would take a deep breath before carrying out a simple task such as handling worksheets to the pupils, putting pupils in line for outdoor learning, and supporting low ability pupils. I would require the input of the class teacher to get the pupils to cooperate. In light of my experiences with disruptive pupils, I would say to observe and to be observed with genuine, constructive feedback have a lot of benefits leading to teachers’...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Through my experience as an Assistant Language Teacher in Japan, there have been numerous difficulties and challenges my students face in learning the English language. My students are primarily between the ages of 5 and 15. These challenges involve the pronunciation difficulties the students face coming from Japanese pronunciation, as well as the methodology of teaching English in Japan They may not apply to all of Japan but are definitely prominent issues within my area. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate James W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The most commonly known challenge in learning English for Japanese people is...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In Vietnam, it is so important and popular that English becomes a compulsory subject for students at schools and universities. Working people also need to learn English for their job, to talk to English speakers or get a new well-paid job. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Huyen N. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Generally, verbs and nouns are pronounced differently although they are written the same. There are too many students in every class and the schools don’t have standard classrooms for language classes. The students mostly study read and grammatical rules. They don’t have lots of chances to practice speaking and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I work in two schools. I am an assistant language teacher at one commercial (low-level English) high school, and an integrated (high-level English) academic junior high and high school. I have had experiences with different kinds of students, Japanese-English teachers, and classroom atmospheres. In Japan, students take an entrance exam to get into high school. If they scored low on the entrance exam, then they are placed in the lowest ranking class. Each school has a certain number of classrooms for each grade. Both of my high schools have six classes total for each grade. There are usually around forty to forty-two students in each class as well. Teaching forty plus students in a crowded classroom is...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Growing up I always had an interest in learning and teaching a language. Of course, English was my best subject and I always made sure I was part of the drama club playing one of the big roles. During my kindergarten days, our teacher used to play musical chairs as we waited for our parents to come to pick us up. It's interesting that now as a teacher I really love using it for my lessons and have tried to upgrade it just a little bit more. I am currently teaching at a kindergarten in Shanghai, China. I really love my job and my workmates who have become more like family and friends. When I started working there, like any other teacher, I was scared, felt vulnerable and wanted to do my best. I kept asking...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The first job as an English teacher abroad is a challenging change, especially if the country you are choosing to work is culturally different from your home country. There are so many differences between one country and other but usually, those differences look bigger when the place you move belongs to another political and social organization mode. My experience as an English teacher in China has allowed me to see these huge differences between western culture and the Asian world. In the following essay, I will try to point out the main cultural challenges that a teacher I had to face and how this may become a sensitivity source inside the classroom. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Maria...  [Read more]