Tefl Full Circle

Michela Coticone TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Teaching a new language to children can come with many challenges because there is limited time and sometimes limited attention spans. To effectively teach a new language, children need to have a feeling of confidence in the fact that they can perform what they are being taught, and the element of having fun while learning. Children, just like adults, need repetition to effectively learn a task. Repetition Repetition alias Drilling: Is it an Effective Way to Remember Language Points? will allow a child to mentally prepare themselves for a task that will happen at a certain time of the day, therefore they can begin to anticipate what their...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Having spent more than 20 years as a marketing consultant, I decided to change career, to become an English language teacher. Hence, I took up the 120-hour TEFL course with ITTT, along with a specialised course in teaching young learners and another one in teaching business English. Even before I finished my TEFL course, I was offered a teaching job with a private school in Bangkok, Thailand. I have since been teaching kindergarten kids for about 8 months. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Albert P. Teaching kindergarten kids is definitely a lot more fun and less stressful than working for corporate clients in my previous job. I start work at 8:00 a.m. and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The average four-year-old has an attention span of eight to 12 minutes. Kindergarteners typically range from four to six years in age so at best, an instructor has approximately 20 minutes in which to work when teaching kindergarten children. Teaching aids are critically important to maintaining the attention of this age group! When teaching four-year-olds their second, third, or fourth language, good teaching aids will keep the child's attention while also simultaneously teaching them critical content. This paper will explore how to create a schedule in an EFL kindergarten classroom. For simplicity sake and congruence of understanding, I will write from the perspective that the kindergarten classroom is a total...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Arranging seats in your classroom can be an important task, though it may not seem like it when you first are thinking about it. There are so many different options when it comes to how you can arrange seats. There is the full circle, semi-circle, giant square, U-shape, grouping tables in several desks, two desk pairs all facing forward, or the single file rows facing forward, just to name some of the many you can choose from. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Brandie K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. All of these arrangements have good and bad points to them. The circle is good because it is easy for all the students to see...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences It has been the most extraordinary experience in developing my skills as a teacher. My own personal philosophy is that life has no finish line, it’s just a struggle uphill were you are continually overcoming adversity and constantly improving. This philosophy applies to many facets of life but few things better than the art of teaching. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jack W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I think of the great teachers that I have had. I think of their various breadths of experience. To be sure some are born with a natural talent, a knack as it were, to teach and connect with pupils, but some of the...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Today, as English teachers, we have better equipment and materials, improved teaching methods and techniques, endless ideas and tips on how to maintain discipline and keep our students motivated. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? It seems that we should just enjoy our classes and drink some nice tea during the breaks. However, along with all these improvements come greater demands. Each year more and more parents would like their children to learn English to ensure a better future. In our time, knowledge of English no more is your advantage, but the number one requirement for a good position. That is why our students are getting younger, sometimes to a point when they don’t...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas When I had to design my first lesson plan I wanted it to be as coherent as possible as the purpose of every lesson plan is to guide the teacher in organizing her material and herself for the purpose of helping the students to attain the intended learning outcomes. When planning lessons, we need to think carefully about what stages a lesson will go through and how we will get from one stage to another. In this plan I stuck to the ESA (Engage, Study, Activate) Method that I learned about during my TEFL certification course. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Cengiz K. To start the lesson, I use a picture of Ainsley Harriot who is a famous English celebrity chef...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Kinesthetic learners are learners that learn through objects that they can touch and explore. They also learn best by discovering and experiencing and particularly enjoy physical activities that involve getting out of their seat and moving around. Unlike visual and auditory learners, kinesthetic learners can be tough to accommodate in the classroom because of their need to be physically active. Since they need to be active in their learning, they may get bored very quickly if you allow them to simply listen and look at your visual aids or video presentation. As teachers, we must always be versatile and understand how to incorporate different types of learners. Luckily, there are...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Children love music and they love songs in the classroom. Using English songs in the classroom can be effective to teach your learners. Children can benefit from having a lively and cheerful classroom full of music. So how can we be productive using songs in the classroom? And how can we motivate children to learn new English words and improve their pronunciation by using songs? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Edgar R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Children learn with songs by listening to whole sentences and absorbing vocabulary and phrases the same as adults. When we listen to music we try to mimic the signer we are...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Flashcards are aids to learning with information on either both sides or on one side which a teacher holds up so that the students can see. Flashcards can have an English word on one side and have a translation in another language on the other side, or they can have pictures on one side and a word on the other side. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Eshita P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Teachers use flashcards for different reasons, such as playing games, sentence construction (grammar), or to make it easier for students to get a clear picture of what the teaching will be saying. These cards are usually used to perk up...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In teaching kindergarten level students, I find that three important aspects must be included in every lesson. Each lesson must contain parts that allow the students to “warm-up” their English skills, they must also have a chance to drill the vocabulary and target language, and lastly, the classes must have activities that give the students a chance to practice using their vocabulary and target language in a relatable activity. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Rebecca S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The kindergarten lesson warm-up allows the students the chance to move from their native language in an easy transition...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The first Waldorf School was founded in 1919 in Stuttgart for the children of the workers in the Waldorf Astoria cigarette factory. The school’s doors were open for all the children regardless of their social status. It was the end of World War I and because of post-war chaos, people were looking for new educational systems. In such an environment, it was not difficult for Waldorf pedagogy to find its place among other reform movements. Today there are more than 1000 Waldorf schools all around the world. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Hande B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. One of the most special features of this school...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This unit focuses on the different uses of teaching equipment and what to take into consideration while choosing the adequate teaching equipment. Of the many named in the lesson, I have selected 3 to discuss in further detail. The whiteboard, the DVD player, and online resources. There are advantages and disadvantages to each of these, and for a teacher to have an efficient lesson, it is important to manage these resources. By managing these aids, we can fully use them to improve our classes. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Matthew S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. As an ESL teacher, the whiteboard is unequivocally necessary...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences This summative task topic personally attracted me due to my very recent experience with teaching. To begin with, I, myself is a 22-year-old fresh university graduate in Hong Kong who undertook Business Marketing. To add to that, I also planned on pursuing a career in the business industry. During my university days, I would take up different kinds of part-time jobs for two simple reasons; to make use of my skills and hobbies and earn some cash from it. These hobbies included babysitting, arts & crafts and more. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nyx E. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Just at the beginning of this year, I...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Over the course of this certification program, I learned an abundance of information and methodologies, but none as important as the ESA outline; the ESA methodology is, undoubtedly, the best thing I’ve learned from my TEFL course. The ESA procedure provides a myriad of benefits, engaging learners in a series of dynamic activities aimed to create a seamless and effective educational environment. Due to the adept and fluid nature of the ESA methodology, it is easily the most important tool taught to me throughout this program and something I foresee utilizing often in the near future. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Richard H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Stories provide a natural and relevant context for the exposure to English language and storytelling built on the children’s innate capacity for fantasy and imaginative play, making it an essential aspect to be integrated into language lessons. Beyond just language skills, students are also able to acquire critical thinking skills such as predicting, hypothesizing, categorizing, sequencing, and inferring meaning through various storytelling activities. Stories are also used to enhance children’s concentration skills and develop moral and emotional intelligence by teaching students to empathize with the characters in the story. Storytelling can be extended to include activities for children to retell, act out,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences In the classroom, a teacher's dedication, confidence, and eagerness are often contagious, and the same is true with the lack of these things. If a teacher is enthusiastic and energetic, their students will be as well. Mostly, experienced teachers know how to make the classroom friendly, pleasant and enthusiastic for the students. But does it apply to the new teachers? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Puneet K. I remember 3 years back when I grabbed my first job; I was going to face a class of 20 students. Self-doubts and questions were racing around in my mind; what would I do on my first day of class? Will the students listen to me? 'How will I manage the class?' Just thought of...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Hey there it's Lizzy here and I'm super happy to welcome you to our weekly live stream. This live stream is provided by ITTT, International TEFL and TESOL Training. If you haven't watched our recent live streams please feel free to go to one of our social networks and check out the previous videos, because we share really useful topics on a regular basis. Today's live stream is going to be devoted to creating lessons based on videos. I'm going to change the size of the slide right now. Let me know if you can see and hear me clearly. There is a comment section in the live stream so feel free to write down any greetings there so I know that someone is there and someone is watching....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Having recently moved to Spain with the full intention of completing a TEFL course and making a new life outside of the UK, whilst studying how to teach English, at the same time as learning Spanish so that I can communicate reasonably, it is this juxtaposition between this my English competence that has underlined for me just how difficult it can be for anybody to learn a new language, having been humbled by the gaps in my knowledge. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Justin S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Broadly speaking the first two questions to ask when considering the differences between the formal and informal sides...  [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]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Hey guys, it's Liza here and I'm super happy to welcome you to our weekly ITTT live session. Today we are going to talk about some usual teaching stuff and if you are interested in anything related to TEFL teaching or career building, this is for you. Feel free to comment and I'll try to help you out with my thoughts and ideas, and maybe you'll find my suggestions useful. I have to fix my camera just slightly, I feel like it's moving down somehow. I hope that you can hear me clearly and see me clearly, please let me know where you guys are from. Also, let me know what stage of your career development you are at. As for me, I'm a TEFL teacher. I used to teach in China several years...  [Read more]

If you have already graduated from one of our TEFL certification courses and have yet to decide on where you would like to teach, or you are thinking about signing up for a course and are looking for an insight into the most popular teaching destinations, then the following guides might provide some welcome inspiration. Below you will find dozens of countries from all corners of the world where there are plenty of good opportunities for teaching EFL. Click on the countries that interest you to access a wide range of travel tips, country facts and other useful information. As one of the most developed countries in the Latin American region, Argentina is a very popular destination for teaching English as a foreign language. Jobs are relatively plentiful in Buenos Aries and several other...  [Read more]