An Ode to James of EngVid (and Mr. E the English-teaching worm)

Hi Guys!

So today I just thought I'd do a quick check-in to let you know how I'm getting on with everything. The good news is-I'm now on the final unit of my online grammar module (THANK GOD), which has been driving me a bit mad. As a Native English speaker, I've really taken for granted how complicated our language is, and how difficult it must be for foreign learners to pick up. So, all I can say is-massive kudos to all of you who have learnt English as a second language!

Although doing the grammar module has been a bit of an uphill struggle, it's been made a whole lot enjoyable due to the fella that this post is devoted to-James, a language teacher from www.engvid.com  (a really good website offering free English video lessons). I first came across James when his video on adverbs was embedded into my course material-and it's safe to say that I've looked forward to grammar lessons a lot more ever since! Why? Unlike most of the online TEFL material, James makes me giggle. He's always cracking bad jokes, getting carried away and makes the occassional mistake. He's also clearly a really, really good teacher, with some really clever methods that stay in your mind long after the bad jokes are forgotten. In fact, he's a prime example of why we need human teachers, and just not words on a screen, to help us learn things (okay, I know he's just in a video on a screen, but you get me). Even if you're not learning English or doing TEFL, I'd recommend that you watch a few minutes of his video on phrasal verbs featured below, just for the entertainment value...

I think you'll now agree-he's a dude. 

If you watched for long enough, you may have noticed one of my favourite things about James-his wormy whiteboard sidekick, Mr. E! Mr. E features in all of James's vids, and I think he's an absolutely brilliant invention. Essentially, he's just a worm drawn on a whiteboard, but he's usually put to good use in order to highlight important points, and James gives him a silly highpitched voice which I (and most other 6 year olds) find highly amusing. When I'm actually qualified to teach myself, I think I may use a 'Mrs.E' (or another invented whiteboard friend) in a similar way; especially as I'm mostly interested in teaching young learners who I imagine would love a silly gimmick like this. 

So, before I sign out, I just wanted to say a big THANK-YOU to James (and Mr. E)-not only for teaching me grammar, but also for teaching me how to teach. Hopefully, the little bits of inspiration you've given me will help somehow in the future. 

Anyway-I'm gonna go and revise some future tenses (might watch another of James's vids, in fact!). Need to keep my mind off the fact that I get my final Uni results tomorrow (eek!). 

See you soon!

Hope xx

P.S Just wanted to give Ronnie of EngVid a shout-out, too. Her videos are kickass and my second favourite. 

Taking the first step and choosing that course

Hi everyone!

So firstly, I apologise for not posting for a few days. I've been away for the weekend and have been enjoying this (highly rare) Welsh heatwave! Right now, I'm still outside attempting (vainly) to tan, but mainly just feeling like I'm roasting. And I swear my poor little laptop is actually sweating!

Anyway-onto business! Today's post is to help anyone out there who wants to sign up to a TEFL course, but isn't quite sure where to start. However, I just want to state that I am by no means an expert on TEFL course providers or the wide range of TEFL courses available-so if you're looking for a more comprehensive guide, click here to have a look at an article from The Guardian which really helped me when I was trying to decide. What I can offer, however, is my own personal experience as a complete no-hoper, with no idea of where to start.

So, if you are struggling to find the right TEFL course for you, can I just say that I FEEL YOUR PAIN. One of the things about TEFL is that there are a lot of course providers out there; so when you Google the phrase 'TEFL' and see the search results, it can all feel a bit bewildering. Furthermore, it can be even harder to figure out if a course provider is 100% reliable or not; because unfortunately, there's quite a few scams hanging around. My advice regarding avoiding scams would be that if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. I mean, I like a bargain as much as the next girl; but let's face it, a £25 TEFL Course probably won't get you more than a couple of flimsy lesson plans, at best. Avoid like the plague.

This is also one of those situations where it's probably best to go for the most mainstream option (apologies to all the hipsters out there); because if a lot of people have already signed up to it, it's likely to be relatively decent. In the case of the UK, TEFL Org UK is probably the most popular course provider out there, and definitely appears to be the most Kosher, even  from first glance. Although I spent some time ummming and arrring about it, I eventually decided to go for TEFL Org UK because:

-They offer a really good range of courses, and you can tailor your course to individually suit your needs
-There's a really good support network available, from forums to an online chatting service with TEFL 'experts' (I spoke to a rather nice young man called Lewis through this the other day, he was pretty helpful).
-Their courses are cheap(ish), and there's often an offer or deal going on so you can save an extra bit of dollar.

The TEFL Org Wales logo is particularly pretty (YAAAAY Cymru!). 

On the latter point, money and how much to spend can often be a point of contention for many. In the case of TEFL Org UK, courses range in price from £79 for courses focusing on specific areas of TEFL Teaching, to £399 for a comprehensive 150 TEFL Course, which covers pretty much all the basics and a few extras. Although I can understand that most of you won't want to spend any more money than necessary, my advice would be-go for the most comprehensive course that you can afford. This is due to the fact that the more hours of training you have under your belt, the more likely you are to get a decent job-and also, the more prepared you're likely to be for any situation that may come your way! The afore-mentioned lovely Lewis also informed me that as a rule of thumb, most employers expect a minimum of 120 hours of training from you, and that doing any less than this may severely limit the job opportunities available to you. All of this makes perfect sense, of course; as the best language schools will want confident, able teachers secure in their abilities to do their job well.

In the case of TEFL Org UK, the other important decision to make is whether to take a purely online course, or whether to also invest in 20 hours of classroom teaching on top of your online lessons. On this point, I would say-DEFINITELY take the classroom-taught course if you can. I'm going to write another post about my experiences of the classroom course, so I won't go into too much detail here, but I will say that my intensive weekend in Cardiff helped immensely-and was a lot of fun, too! You can do the classroom component of your course over 2 days (typically a weekend) or 3 days (typically weekdays) depending on what suits you best, so it's convenient even if you have a very busy life. It does cost a bit extra, but this is definitely a case of money well spent.

With all of these decisions made, you should be in a good position to sign up to your TEFL Org UK course, and start the TEFL journey. In my case, I signed up about a month ago to the 140-hour Premier Combined Course. This sounds like quite a plush option, but there was actually an offer on at the time which meant it only cost me £259 (which was less than the 120-hour course at the time). So far, I've been really happy with it-the online course is a little dry at times, but (as afore-mentioned) the classroom course is great, and there's loads of resources available to help you along the way. I'll give a more detailled evaluation on it when I'm a little further into proceedings.

Also-although the TEFL Org UK course is good, I've since discovered that doing a CELTA or Trinity CertTESOL is even better, if you have the time,energy and finances to committ to it. It's all classroom taught, and you will get hands-on classroom teaching experience, which seems to be pretty invaluable. It also maximises your TEFL career prospects-some language schools only accept this qualification. Ah well-at least TEFL Org offers that extra bit of flexibility.

Anyway-it would be great to hear about your TEFL experiences with course providers etc. If you have any top tips-then please share them. I may even include them in a future post!

Also, if you have any questions, then please ask them. I'll help as best I can (although as this post proves, I'm definitely no expert!).

I'll be back with more soon...in the meantime, hope you all continue to enjoy this amazing weather!

The Tiny TEFL Teacher xx

A Huge (Explanatory) Hello from a Tiny (Potential) Teacher!

Hi everyone!

If you're reading this, then you've just discovered my new blog on a little corner of the internet. You probably know me, but just in case you don't-my name's Hope, I'm 21, and I live in Wales. Unfortunately, my track record with blogging isn't great...I've tried to start one in the past, but the habit just didn't stick. However, I feel like I might stand more of a chance of making this one a success for a few reasons; namely:

-I'm a little bit less of a teenager than I was last time I attempted to write one
-I'm starting it for a particular reason (more on that later)
-I've just finished university so I have no essays/dissertations to write and quite a bit of time on my hands (more than I care to mention, actually).

Referring to the latter point- finishing uni is a weird one. In one ways, it feels like I've just begun another long, drawn out summer break; but there is something rather different about it, this time around. Perhaps that's mainly to do with the questions I'm asking myself; rather than wondering 'What the hell should I do with my summer?', I'm asking 'What the hell should I do with my life?' instead. Which is both incredibly exciting, and utterly terrifying at the same time.

In the academic world, whenever a big problem needs solving, the advice usually given is to break it down into small, manageable chunks. Being so used to academia now, I've attempted to apply the same idea to my career path; so I'm currently just thinking about the next couple of years, in detail. The plan is to take a  much-needed gap year (because, as represented above, I kinda need to get out of the education system for a while), before doing an MA or similar course to really refine and improve my career prospects in a highly competitive field (Drama & Theatre, if you're wondering!).

Having already applied for an MA, my next challenge has been to plan a decent gap year. There's still loads of ideas flying around, at present; being in control of your own decisions and life choices is a bit overwhelming, at times! But from the outset, there's been one thing that I've really wanted to do-and that's train to be a TEFL teacher. For those of you who don't know, TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language, which is guess is pretty self-explanatory.

TEFL appeals to me for the same reason that it has appealed to generations of other twenty-somethings, I would imagine...it's a decent qualification that will make me stand out in the job market and open up a new career path, many courses are cheap and flexible, and I could potentially teach all over the world once I've completed my initial qualification. Also, I would maybe like to be a teacher in the future, so this is a great first step to figure out if this suits me or not. What's not to like?!

Currently, I'm still right at the start of my TEFL journey, as I'm yet to complete the first module of the course. So really, I've started this blog so that I can share with you the inevitable trials and tribulations along the way...from this point to when I (hopefully!) get a proper teaching job in a foreign country. The aim is to also help and support any fellow TEFLers, or those that may be considering doing a TEFL, and make all the mistakes so that you don't have to.

Occassionally, I may also write about other things that are a little off-topic, but may still be of interest to you. We'll see!

Anyway...they'll be more from me very soon. In the meantime, I'd be SO grateful if you could share this blog with your nearest and dearest; particularly any fellow or potential TEFLers!

Thanks guys!

Hope (AKA The Tiny TEFL Teacher) xx