I am SO glad that I chose CELTA

For those of you that don’t know much about Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificates, there are a number of them. The two big ones are the Cambridge Certificate and the Trinity Certificate – I chose the Cambridge CELTA.  

Only since I have arrived here did I find out that pretty much any where in the European Union you must have the CELTA or you will not be considered. I hear this from almost every current teacher I find – not just the ones teaching at my school, but ones that I have met from others, and ones that are now taking the CELTA course so they can get a better job even after years of teaching. I did not really find that information online so I am glad that I seem to have made the right choice.

Started classes today… WHOA am I back in school or what. This is the longest class day I have had since high school. And I think those days may have been shorter!

We covered a ton of material, I observed a class being taught, and I took a Hungarian language lesson. That was actually really useful since I will be going to Hungary later this summer, but the point of it was to remind us what it feels like to be in a class where we understand NOTHING. It worked but it was fun too. (learning was “fun too!” -  I should be on commercial)

Tomorrow, I will be teaching 40 minutes of the same class that I observed today. The people in the class know that they are not always being taught by qualified teachers (hopefully near-able, just not qualified) but they pay less for the class because of it. I was handed my topic and a choice of materials. That helps but it will still take a bit of preparation tonight.

Alright well off to work. Those of my friends who are working for the summer – I now feel your pain…for a while, then I’ll be back to traveling. Still, I know that this will be worth the work.