Why Did You Decide To Become A Teacher

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences At the cafeteria during lunchtime, a student of mine approached and asked me, “Why did you become a teacher?” Dumbfounded by this brazen question, I did not know what to say. I could have chosen motherhood statements like “I want to make a difference in the world,” “to have a positive impact on my student’s lives, “or that “I love children.” I ended up saying to him, “Well, I am good at teaching.” However, the truth of the matter is, I needed a job and there was an opportunity so I took it. You can say it was fate that called me to be a teacher. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine myself being a Grade 3 homeroom teacher! After having experienced a variety of jobs in my life from...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teaching is one of the most difficult jobs in the world. You have to deal with different personalities inside the classroom and somehow, you need to work things out for the class to have an atmosphere that is conducive to learning. You have to prepare yourself both mentally and emotionally to be an effective teacher. It is not a cakewalk and you need to have the drive and work ethics to succeed in this profession. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Fitz B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Growing up, I never really thought of teaching as a career. I took up a degree related to the healthcare industry back when I was in...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Motivation is one of the top priorities when it comes to working with kids. You can use the most effective activities, choose the most interesting topics, but all that will not work if your students are not motivated. This goes a lot easier with adults, as they have chosen to study English by themselves and they often have set one or few goals, so, at the end of the day, they are moving towards the set target. With kids things are a bit more complicated, as they did not choose to study the English language, their parents had made this choice for them. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Valeriia P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I have years of teaching experience and during my teaching years, I have been working with individual students and with different groups and would like to speak about the differences between teaching these two groups. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Meri V. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When I started my career I did it with teaching one to one student as it was easier and as I didn’t have teaching experience then I decided to start from individual students. Teaching individuals is easy as you are concentrated only on one student and you just need to find out his or her needs. We spent all your time with one student and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. In high school, I was inspired by my English teachers and the way they were able to make material interesting and motivating. I remember telling myself that I would not be the person who changes the world, but perhaps as a teacher, I would be able to inspire the person who would. From the beginning, my motivation was to help others in a meaningful way. My goal was to improve the lives of others. When I entered university, I found myself studying philosophy to become a professor in the future. However, the reality of being a university professor was a lot of presenting and publishing, with very little teaching. Because teaching was my goal, I decided to leave my Ph.D....  [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]

Dorothy Brown Smith Destinations Alumni Experiences I have always wanted to travel and go abroad. I talked about it with family and friends on many occasions. When the opportunity came for me to teach in China, I immediately said, “NO!” I was thinking of traveling to places like South America, France, Italy, Greece, etc. because I had romanticized these places in my mind from what I had seen on television and read about in magazines. China was not even a thought in my mind! The opportunity kept coming to teach in China. I would see advertisements, run into people who had just came back from China. I even met someone studying Chinese to be an interpreter! I kept running into people who had some kind of connection with...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences This story is written by one of our TEFL course alumni who discovered their passion for teaching by accident and decided to pursue a career in ESL. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Qiankun Y. About 2 years ago, I was working as an English tutor and taught adults in China. I graduated with a science major and had little teaching experience but I was keen to try out teaching. Before my first class, I was sent to a training program which taught me how to structure a class and how to teach with adult students. However, even after I completed the internal training program I still did not feel confident to be a tutor and I considered teaching English only as a temporary job. When I held my first class, I had...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences As a young child, I was, for some reason, obsessed with the idea of learning French. I tried a couple of languages, including Finnish at some point, but kept going back to French. I have no idea why because I was never exposed to the culture or the language itself at that age. I doubt I even knew anything about the country itself. I think I assumed learning French would make me sound smarter but, the joke's on younger me, I have no skill in French and never have. I tend to struggle with romance languages in general. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nicole H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When I was in high school, my...  [Read more]

Tho Nguyen Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Learning English outside of the classroom can be a great way to practice and improve your language skills, especially if you don't have access to traditional language schools or classes. Whether you are a visual learner who benefits from colorful illustrations and pictures, an auditory learner who thrives on listening to spoken English, or someone who prefers the support and encouragement of friends, there are many different ways to learn and practice English at home. Additionally, immersing yourself in an English-speaking environment and participating in activities and events can be a fun and engaging way to improve your language skills. In this blog post, we will explore some of...  [Read more]

Gianluca Costa TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Many of us, at least once in our life, have the desire to change our careers. However, when you spend many years in the same field, it is hard to change to another for various reasons. Mostly it's that your mindset is orientated in a certain way. The idea of change completely seems to be impossible and gives you a feeling of uncertainty but the benefits of undertaking such a big step can be plentiful. I'm here to give you some tips and encourage you to make this huge step. I worked in hospitality for almost 12 years. It was a fun career at the beginning. A chef or a waiter is like an artist, it's a passion and you produce something for people that makes their day simply by...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Who was your favorite teacher in elementary school? Mine was my 5th-grade Teacher, Mr. Powers. Not because he was super cool, or cute, or wildly entertaining. It was because he was an amazing teacher. He was a retired Air Force pilot, yet was never very hard on us and I can’t think of a single time that he got upset with us. I believe this is completely due to his amazing classroom management skills. I try my best to model my own teaching skills after Mr. Powers while teaching here in Istanbul, Turkey. Cultural and economic differences are actually the least of my problems while working with these amazing children. The most challenging aspects happen to be making the most of classroom space, ensuring the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences A life long learner, to me, is one who desires to learn new things based on interests, motivations, and knowledge to be gained. As one who is a certified teacher in first through eighth grades (in Louisiana, USA), possesses a master degree in education, as well as having a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a minor in Leadership and Supervision, does not mean that I know it all; far from it. In my middle school teaching days and years of teaching in higher education preparing teachers to teach, I encountered students from other culturally diverse backgrounds; yet, I did not have the basic fundamentals of teaching students whose first language was not English. This I regret. This post was written by our...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Destinations TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Hello everybody, Liza here and I'm super happy to welcome you to this ITTT live session. It's a bit of an unusual time to meet because my sessions are usually on Tuesdays and today is Saturday. Anyway, I'm super happy that you could make it. Today's session is going to be slightly different because we are going to talk with my good friend about teaching in China. I know that many people are interested in this topic, so stay tuned because in a moment he will join me to talk about working in China and stuff like that. If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask them via the comment section. As for the timing for today, we are going to talk for...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The Cambridge English Dictionary defines the word “hindsight” as “the ability to understand an event or situation only after it has happened.” That is why people tell you that “hindsight is a perfect science.” So with the benefit of hindsight and looking back after completing some 220 hours of TEFL training, I see that there are, indeed, several things that I wish that I had known before starting the course, both on the positive and the negative sides. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Desmond V. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Let me start with the positives. First and foremost, I wish that I had come across...  [Read more]

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]

Maddy Payne Destinations TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Assistant Language Teachers in Japan come from different countries worldwide, bringing different kinds of English with them. In my experience, American English is often the most sought-after version of English. Some countries highly value Language Teachers from the USA, which often matches their American-style textbooks and resources. Sometimes people are even overlooked for job opportunities due to their Australian accent and British English background. Well, Japan is no different in this regard. Many Japanese schools hold American English in high regard, so what is it like being an Australian-English teacher in Japan? It's no secret that Japanese...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I’m a non-native English speaker who never once benefited from an effective ESL program in her entire school years. It’s rather ironic that I became an ESL teacher and taught English for six years, essentially preaching what I had never practiced myself. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Somy L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I was born in Korea, and my family and I moved to South Africa when I was ten. Before 2000, ESL programs were not widespread knowledge and resources were on the limited side. My ESL teacher at the time would just give printouts to the students to color and trace words. The amount of progress I made in...  [Read more]

Laura Payne Destinations Japan is full of vibrant, world-famous cities that many people dream of living and working in. However, when I first decided to become an English teacher in Japan, I never held such a dream. I am an introvert who prefers quiet spaces, and being close to nature is especially important for me. This is why when my goal of teaching English in Japan came true, I was ecstatic that I could find a place to work in the inaka (countryside). Japan's inaka is full of small, rural towns and reasonably-populated, but little-known, cities. My living and working situation is in the latter. Since moving here, my little rural city has been everything I hoped it would be and more. Aside from my personal preferences I've noticed that there...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Destinations Alumni Experiences Welcome to another live session this week and we're on at a different time this week. Usually we're a little bit earlier, but we have a special guest today, and that's because she's based in Germany. So we had to change the time a little bit. I’m Linda from ITT, you've probably seen me before, if you've watched us live and I’m here with Brit today. Hi Brit! Hi, thanks for having me, and painting your time to meet my schedule, and thank you so much for getting up early.I know it's early in Germany right now. just have my coffee and I’m good to go.That's awesome,where in Germany are you exactly? so I’m based near Trier, which is along the border with Luxembourg. So very close...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas One of the most frustrating things about learning a second language is how naturally your first language came to you and how unnaturally your second one seems to! Why can’t we just listen to the language for a while and eventually just “get it” as we did as kids? All of the conjugation patterns and inflections and grammatical oddities of a new language are sometimes hard to grasp even for experienced learners. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ryan P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Our first language is deeply integrated with how we think and relate to the world. Usually, especially in the famously oft monolingual...  [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]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Reflective teaching is not a contemporary science however, to find evidence of when this science began it would be an impossible task, like accessing the Vatican library. One could presume the first person which taught another something resourceful dedicated some time to reflect on its delivery and considered observing research, and planning. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Stephen A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Generally, reflective teaching is the process of self-observation and self-evaluation i.e. looking at what you do in the classroom, thinking about why you do it, and thinking about if it works. The aim is to...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Hello everybody, welcome to the ITTT weekly live stream. My name is Liza, and today we are going to discuss an extremely important topic which is related to English teaching as a non-native teacher. Because the field is pretty competitive, many people want to find out if it is possible to stand out or not. Let's just quickly change the slide. So the reason I decided to choose this topic is that one of my regular viewers asked me about how to actually stand out as a non-native teacher, especially online. I find it is really important, so let's discuss it today and before we move on, please let me know that you can hear me and see me clearly. If...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Welcome guys, Linda here from ITTT for another live session. I'm so happy to be here today, the weather is great today, the lighting is good. If you were watching last week it was pretty much like the end of the world weather here, but today it's great, I feel good. If you can see me and hear me please drop a hi into the comments. We are live on Facebook and also on YouTube and if you're listening to this as a podcast episode thanks for the download. We always turn our live sessions into podcast episodes and you can find them on all major podcast platforms like iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts etc. It's called the TEFL and TESOL Podcast by ITTT....  [Read more]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas Hello everybody and welcome to the ITTT weekly live stream. It's Liza here and I'm super excited that this stream happens every week and we can talk about teaching and TEFL and stuff like that. So welcome and thank you for joining me. Today, we are going to talk about online ESL game design. Last week I started showing you the game I was designing, it was Monopoly. Today I'm going to show you the outcome of the game and also tell you a little bit more about online game design. Thanks a lot for letting me know that you are watching and right now please let me know at what stage of your ESL career you are at. As for me, I'm an online ESL teacher currently. I used to teach in a real classroom several years ago, but then...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas As teachers, we often assume that we understand what our students are going through and that we can relate to the experience of learning in school because we have been there ourselves. However, many of us who teach English as a foreign language require a different empathy element to relate to our students truly. Learning a new language is a humbling experience, and doing it as a foreigner in a foreign culture is even more humbling. The question is, how many language educators can relate to this? Personally, though I do not know how many TEFL teachers have experienced a foreign language and culture for an extended period, I have had the privilege to experience it myself for...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences When I moved to Japan over two years ago, I had no formal teaching experience. I hit the ground running, visiting five different elementary and junior high schools in my small town, and getting to know the students and teachers I would work with there. I made many mistakes but also learned a lot about teaching along the way through my own experience, observing the teachers I work with, and taking an online TEFL course. I hope to use this knowledge to further improve my teaching skills. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Anna G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. There are many things about teaching that I was able to learn...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Hello everybody, it's Liza here, I'm glad to see you joining me today. If you guys can hear and see me clearly please let me know via the chat box. Today we are going to discuss some problems related to teacher development. While I am waiting for more people to join, just quickly let me introduce myself. So I am a non-native ESL teacher and a TEFL expert. I go live every week on Tuesday and this live stream is provided by International TEFL and TESOL Training. Thanks a lot for letting me know that my system is working. I'm glad you are tuning in and by the way please let me know where you guys are from. I'm located in Russia, but I taught in China for a couple of years and then...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Hello everybody, it's Liza here. We are just about to start today's live session that is devoted to ideas on how to improve English skills. While I'm waiting for more people to join me let me just tell you about these live sessions. So we are doing them weekly and right now there are a lot of videos to check out on our YouTube channel and our Facebook group. If you missed any of these live streams you can go to our social networks and see any of them there. Welcome to the new session and if you haven't heard already my name is Liza and I'm a non-native English teacher from Russia. I can see that there are some people from the Philippines here....  [Read more]