TEFL Two Strike

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 Alumni Experiences From 2018 to 2019, I taught two eighth grade English classes in the rural Thies area, experiencing some of the challenges and advantages to teaching students who were just embarking on their language study. I was paired with a long-term Senegalese teacher who walked me through the basics of teaching a foreign language: engaging the class, developing study materials, and creating activities. What stood out to me was his emphasis on showing up as a role model for the students, as well as integrating other modes of learning into the classroom, such as art, singing, and dance activities. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Elise L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences It is common knowledge that teachers play a crucial role in fostering the intellectual and social development of students during their formative years. The education that students receive is key to determining the future of those students. Whether in kindergarten, elementary school, high school, or in private schools, teachers provide the tools and the environment required for their students to develop into responsible, conscientious students. Teachers act in many different roles such as motivators, leaders, role-models, mentors, and—most importantly—a good friend to their students. Furthermore, teachers serve as facilitators or coaches, using classroom materials, presentations or individual instruction to...  [Read more]

1. Introduction 2. Why Choose ITTT for TESOL Certification? 3. Affordable Pricing Options 4. Course Flexibility and Support Are you looking to pursue a career in teaching English as a foreign language but worried about the cost of TESOL certification? Look no further than ITTT - the International TEFL and TESOL Training - the most affordable and reputable option for obtaining your TESOL certification. With a wide range of courses to choose from and flexible study options, ITTT makes it easy and accessible for aspiring teachers to kickstart their teaching careers without breaking the bank. ITTT has been a trusted name in the field of TEFL and TESOL training for over two decades, providing high-quality courses that are recognized and respected worldwide. When you choose ITTT for your TESOL...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Many Chinese students face the common problem that although they spent 10 years studying English at school, they can't pronounce an English sentence correctly, and they are not confident enough to communicate in the language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mengru W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Our students struggle to speak in English, they are good at writing and reading, but cannot speak, even though they studied the language from third to 12th grade. Most of the students also study English at a language center, but they still find it hard to completely reach the goal, even when they go to college, speaking English...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Most everyone has a favorite game that they play over and over again. Games go further than just a simple competitive interaction between two people or teams. In a way, games teach the average person how to navigate life with two outcomes; either the joy of winning or the disappointment of losing. Although it is not necessarily bad to lose it is an inevitable outcome for each person who participates. The idea is to learn from the failure to gain experience in which you can strategize a new way to achieve victory. The act of winning is simply the reward for playing the game as it is expected to be played. The main concept of games is competition and how we as human beings are constantly competing whether we realize...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The relationship a teacher has with their students or clients is critical to their learning experience. It is often overlooked and deemed unimportant, especially compared to the lesson itself. However, the rapport a teacher establishes is the foundation on which the class stands. It affects how the students feel about the class and sometimes helps motivate them as well. Good rapport with the students makes teaching a lot livelier and learning a lot easier. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Katherine S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In the hierarchy of the classroom, the teacher is at the top. Students come to take a...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information Having a form of structure has always been a vital element in order to perform any task to my best ability. Therefore, lesson planning was a subject which I knew would be a large factor in order for me to become a successful teacher. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jessica M. The two main principles of a successful class are direction and flexibility; flexibility relies strongly on the teacher's experience and personality, but the former is attained by a structured lesson plan. A primary function of a lesson plan is to keep the class on target with the lesson goal, however, it has other important functions which I will elaborate on below: This does not mean that every teacher will be...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Classroom management refers to how things are generally carried out in the classroom. It deals with ways on how things are supposed to be done. This includes procedures and routines among others. New teachers, however, tend to mistake classroom management and classroom discipline. Whereas classroom management is as stated above, classroom discipline is the specific management of students’ behavior. By definitions alone, we can respectively differentiate the two as being the building blocks of any successful lesson and the reactive actions we take to maintain the rules that had been set through known procedures and routines. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Muhammad R. Please note that...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Imagine you are in a language class and the teacher has given you a task. You are excited. The last time you completed an assignment like this one you gained a greater sense of confidence in the target language. After completing the last assignment the confidence gained from it gave you the courage to strike up a conversation with the waiter at the restaurant where you were dining. He was from the country of your target language. You said “hello” and also read the menu and ordered it in the TL. Why? Where did this confidence come from? I do not want to oversimplify the answer because learning a language takes time and effort, it is a compilation of many things, but in this instance, the reason is that your...  [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 Alumni Experiences I have started teaching English in Turkey, since 2018. If you are planning to start your teaching career here, I would like to mention several pros and cons and problems of learning English for the speakers of the Turkish language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Hanie s. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. First of all, learners expect teaching to be prescriptive rather than descriptive, which indicates, they tend to memorize the sample instead of learning through the examples and explanations. Secondly, students are occasionally, immersed in criticizing the politics but the teacher should not join, due to the fact that they...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The needs of the students in the classroom environment must be determined well. The negative behaviors and failure of the student are related to the learning environment. It is important and necessary for teachers to prepare an environment that will facilitate learning. However, the creation of an appropriate learning environment is possible with the teacher knowing the individual and group characteristics of the students. A lot of problems are taken care of and the teaching proceeds healthily by knowing the instructional needs of the students. One of the most important tasks of the teacher is to motivate students. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Çidem F. Please note that this blog post...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Language is an organism that changes as the people using it changes. No living language sounds as it did 1,000 years ago, nor does any use all the same words that were used within it 100 years ago. Just as it is a very different experience to live in a body than it is to study one, so is it powerful for students of a foreign language to be invited to live in a language rather than only learn about it. The endless auditory phenomena of English, such as the “hootin’ and tootin’” interjections of Appalachian people or the booming discourse of an African-American preacher, cannot be understood by other peoples unless they are exposed to the context these phenomena were nurtured in. Students of English...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas In this report, I describe how I, an English, but not ESL/EFL instructor, employed a scholarly text as a model which Chinese students used for their assigned academic research paper. I evaluate my work by considering ITTT ESL/EFL teaching techniques. My purpose is to explore ESL/EFL augmentations to my English comp teaching methodologies. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Drayton H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In researching ESL/EFL instruction in writing English language research papers, I find a method called "the Process Genre Approach."...  [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]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Education is one of the most crucial parts of our life. The kind of education we all receive predominantly depends upon the kind of teacher we have. A constructive approach to teaching could change the entire life of a student for the better and vice versa. The future of nations is dependent upon teachers, and the society that we live in has all types of teachers. Furthermore, today's students will be the responsible citizens of tomorrow; therefore all teachers should strive to build an effective and productive career. It is undeniable that every teachers' vision and dream is to be an excellent teacher. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Fritz Mai C. Please note that this blog post might...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Lesson planning is an essential part of ensuring that lesson objectives are met and that lessons are successful. There are two extreme approaches one could take to planning but, usually, an approach somewhere between both is best. The lesson plan serves several important functions regardless of which approach is taken. Most of all, lesson planning seeks to ensure that all students are actually learning from the lesson and making continual progress toward their language goals. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sergio M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Before writing down your lesson plan, there are some basic principles worth...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences As a teacher, you have a very unique role to play as not only the leader of a group of people in their education journey. But also as a participant in the journey of education. This is a very delicate balance and requires an English teacher to have an amalgamation of skills and personal qualities to do so. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jennifer O. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. It may seem obvious, however when you consider that there is verbal and non-verbal communication, visual, and body language. It is said that knowledge is power and that is very true. However, if one is not able to communicate that knowledge...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Though I have been an English teacher for a period of seven (7) years in two different countries including my home country, yet I spent hours trying to decide the most appropriate topic for my summative essay, I finally decide to choose “The best thing I've learned from my TEFL/TESOL course” Why? Because I genuinely learned a lot during the course of my study and I will like to share my views, but I will discuss only two major points in this essay. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Oluwatosin B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Lesson planning is a vital component in the teaching of English because a good lesson plan...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Establishing rapport with your students can be quite tricky. With all of the information online about teaching methods, testing and teaching effectiveness, rapport is often left out. Many times the relationship between the teacher and the student becomes just that. The teachers teach and the student is supposed to learn. In theory, this should work just fine but every person is different and they learn in different ways. We as teachers need to be able to create the best environment for these students to learn and feel that the teacher cares as much about what the student is learning as the student feels about what they are learning. Many universities have class sizes so large that the student feels like they...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In EFL lessons, there are several types of feedback that students can receive. First, there is feedback from the teacher; this can come in many forms such as “going through activities, checking students’ answers, giving praise and encouragement, correcting, setting regular tests, having regular group discussions, individual tutorials, etc.” (International TEFL and TESOL Training [ITTT], 2011, p. 16). Secondly, there is feedback from other students, also referred to as peer evaluation. These can take place in similar settings to teacher feedback and is often used by instructors to promote student-student interactions. And lastly, there are self-evaluations in which students reflect and assess their work....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Throughout the ITTT 120-hour course, I learned about 15 different usages of teaching aids in the classroom. Many of these teaching aids consisted of technology in the classroom. This included aids such as DVDs, overhead projectors, and interactive whiteboards. While the ITTT course did provide a great list of the positives and negatives of each of these items, it only went so far in answering the question of what constitutes positive implementation and usage of new technology in the classroom. In this essay, I will attempt to quantify what constitutes positive usage of new technology with two main points; the first being the technological, interactive experience itself, and the second being how well the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Lesson planning is an essential part of ensuring that lesson objectives are met and that lessons are successful. There are two extreme approaches one could take to planning but, usually, an approach somewhere between both is best. The lesson plan serves several important functions regardless of which approach is taken. Most of all, lesson planning seeks to ensure that all students are actually learning from the lesson and making continual progress toward their language goals. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sergio M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Before writing down your lesson plan, there are some basic principles...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In acquiring a second language, the end goal of the student and teacher should be shared. The student ultimately wants to acquire at least some level of proficiency in the second language, while the teacher wants to assist them in that task. For most learners, this is a difficult journey that includes a lot of rote memorization and potentially anxiety-causing first-hand practice. Without sufficient motivation, it can be extremely difficult for students to consistently study for the long hours that may be required. It may also prove overwhelming for them when they try to practice the language in the real world. If they are embarrassed about making mistakes, they will need some sort of incentive to overcome those...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas 'One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is necessary raw material, but warmth is vital for the growing plant and the child's soul. Carl Jung This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Anamaria P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Teachers are a never-ending source of experience. They have already gone through all the difficulties that their students are going through, undergone what they will go through, and can pass along lessons regarding subject matters and studies on...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences “Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges.” are the words of Joyce Meyer. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Snehal A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. A teacher is often seen as a role model, who inspires and encourages students to strive for greatness, live to the fullest potential and see the best in them. A teacher also called an educator helps students to acquire knowledge, competence or virtue. Teaching is a process in which the learner, the teacher, the curriculum and other variables are organized systematically and psychologically to attain some pre-determined goals. Also Read: 2...  [Read more]

Ramon Perez Teaching Ideas As teachers, we constantly strive to provide fresh and creative ways to transmit new information to our students. However, our secret weapon has been and continues to be, games! Games are great tools to spark interest and participation in our students. The common issue we face daily is the what, when and how to implement these games and activities. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here we will see what low and high-intensity games are, their characteristics, and a few examples of games you can use in your future lesson planning.   Games have been a part of our social and intellectual upbringing, since probably before we could start walking. Some games require different aspects of ourselves, may it be...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Japan is an island nation and is a recognized homogenous society with a very small percentage of foreign permanent residence and more than half of the adult population lacks the necessary skills to speak English proficiently. Because of this, English as a Second Language is in high demand with young learners being a focus group in Japan. English is taught in the school environment during nearly all of a child’s primary education years, but this, unfortunately, doesn’t translate to a proficient English-speaking Japanese population. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Payton P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Children as young...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Every teacher wants to be good and effective when it comes to teaching, but what exactly are the qualities that make a good teacher? Are there specific characteristics, talents, and skills that a teacher needs to learn and acquire to be called a good and effective teacher? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sherry Ann G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Effectiveness in teaching is an elusive idea. How can we tell if a teacher is being successful in his or her field? Some people measure the effectiveness of a teacher by looking at his or her students’ achievements. Others measure it by the ratings their supervisors give. Do we...  [Read more]