Hallelujah - Internationally Recognized TEFL Courses with i-to-i!

 
Twelve months ago I started full-time at i-to-i as Academic Director, after five years as a Classroom TEFL Tutor.

It was quite a change of direction, after a long career teaching in universities and language colleges, and running Cambridge CELTA courses.

So why was I keen to join i-to-i?

The online course is high quality.

I believe in the course. It's practical and sound. Just like a CELTA, it's a fairly prescriptive methodology (e.g. you're expected to stage a lesson in a certain order), but I believe it's useful to have a clear framework you can experiment with later.

The online course is serious. You receive feedback from a real tutor, which is crucial for development as a teacher. There are a lot of TEFL courses around, but quality varies greatly and I wouldn't recommend paying for online PDFs.

I love the fact the course prepares you for young learners as well as adults. A lot of TEFL teachers plan to teach children, so they need to know the sorts of games and activities that are going to work.

The classroom course is great.

Because of the short time-frame, the classroom course has to focus on the big picture  what's really important. For example, did the students learn and practice something? Did they get to talk? Did they enjoy the lesson?

Of course people get nervous about the teaching practice sessions. But for most participants teaching turns out to be the highlight of the weekend. It does wonders for your confidence to stand up and actually teach.

From my experience, trainees on longer classroom courses can get caught up in the detail. Rather than be obsessed with the minutiae of your plan, it's important to relax and respond to your students.

Serious learning face required on the weekend course.

i-to-i has a strong reputation.

i-to-i tends to be the one online course provider people in the industry know. The classroom course has been running since 1994, and the online course since 2001, and 127,000 people have graduated.

i-to-i has high-quality staff and tutors.

My colleagues are an inspiration: 'high-energy' springs to mind. i-to-i tutors need to have a Cambridge DELTA or equivalent, which does mean they practice what they preach. Our Online Director of Studies, Thomas Kerr, specialised in communicative methodology in his postgraduate study and was instrumental in shaping the current course.

The Chalkboard community is unique.

Chalkboard is the only TEFL social network. And this field is all about networking to find work, to share ideas, to make friends on the ground.

We're confident in our courses and are happy to open ourselves up to criticism. We want Chalkboard to be a forum for open discussion, so potential enrollees have a true picture of what we do. And we want feedback, positive and negative, so we can act on it to improve our courses.

i-to-i is helping to professionalise the industry.

Frankly, you could jump on a plane and get a job in a lot of countries with nothing. i-to-i TEFL courses fill a need for teachers who can't do a four-week full-time course but still want to do a great job in the classroom.

I'm often blown away by the amazing lessons I see on the classroom course. By contrast, you wouldn't believe the amount of dodgy teaching that goes on worldwide, with teachers who have no idea what to do.

i-to-i is going places.

i-to-i's always been innovative. Most recently, the internships have proved pretty popular people seem to want a supported entry into the classroom. We're looking at ways to expand this sort of on-the-job training, and to offer other qualifications. The future looks pretty exciting for i-to-i TEFL… so now’s the best time to get on board so you’re there for the ride!

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