The Weekend Course, Checkpoint Three and Lying to my Boss

Last weekend, I did the Weekend course in Plymouth and had an awesome time. It was really good to put everything I've learning in the Online course into a context and to get some practice with teaching. It was really good to meet other TEFLers too and to hear about what they want to do and where they want to go. The one thing that never fails to amaze me is the many diverse things TEFL can lead to. I love the being taught in a foreign language section- it gave me a really good feel for how it would be to learn another language (and now I can introduce myself in portugese!). The teaching practices were really interesting though slightly odd seeing as we were teaching native speakers. I quite enjoyed lesson planning though I can imagine that being quite challenging at the beginning. I liked working on grammar too- talking about it seemed to make it much easier to understand. The Tutor, Kathy, was lovely too. The chat at the end where everyone got to ask questions was really helpful too.

One thing that has led from the course is the thought of me doing a CELTA course. Don't get me wrong, I think the 140 hour course is really comprehensive but it was amazing how much better I got with two little sessions of teaching practice. The only thing putting me off in the finance; the fees are pretty high and most don't even include accomodation. The only thing is that it would make getting a job in the european market a little easier and would give me some much needed practice. I think my plan of action is to see how it goes getting a job when I've finished this course and if I find it particularly difficult to reconsider my options.

I'm a little disappointed that the Poland internship is starting so soon actually. I think it sounds awesome but I'm nowhere near finishing the course yet, and I'd have to persuade them seeing as I'm 21 and I'm sure I read somewhere that the youngest age they really consider is 23. But fingers crossed that they elect to run it again in the New Year.

Speaking of course, wow, Checkpoint Three has been a nightmare. It's taken me practically two weeks to finish and when I submitted it I wasn't 100% happy with it. One of my answers (Question 25!) also got corrupted and I had to rewrite it it out which was very annoying.  The difficultly wasn't really a problem (it seemed naturally progressive) but I think I would have rather have had two smaller checkpoints. I'm not expecting to pass first time and I'm looking forward to the feedback much as I'm not looking forward to going through it again!

In other-life news, I have been promoted at work. Now I don't just work in a supermarket, I run a department. I did have to lie to my manager a bit though. He's under the impression that I wish to work my way up the ranks and become a Manager. I neglected to mention that my ambition is to eventually be an archivist and that I fully intend to jet off to somewhere in Europe after Christmas to teach small children terrible english. ;)

Good times. :)