20 hour classroom course completed

Well here it is, my first blog post on the chalkboard!

I've just completed my 20 hour classroom course and thought i'd blog it as the first step in my journey to teaching overseas. I hope to keep updating my blog with my progress as a motivational tool for myself and anyone else who might read it, to keep me on track with my decision to combine a career change with teaching abroad.

The classroom course was an intensive and tiring, yet fun and very informative 2 days.  It introduced us to lots of new ways of thinking about language, all the basics of grammar, lesson planning and games targeted at everyone from the little kids to businessmen. We had lots of fun with our great tutor Steve, who went all out with his energy and knowledge to make these two days as fun and useful as possible. It really gave me a good idea of just how much energy you're going to need to teach english as a foreign language, miming and acting skills are a must!

It was great to meet 6 other people who were all similar to me in their positions and focus in life. People my age, people younger, a few had travelled extensively but most had only travelled as much as me. This inspired me hugely, as I was kinda thinking that tefl teachers would need to be well travelled, i think of course it would help with your confidence and settling in to a new culture, but i think more importantly my confidence and ability in the classroom will be my strong point, if i compare myself to the others in the class i was just as good at teaching, if not better!

I was intrigued that some of the quieter students were the ones who had travelled further and for longer, it seems strange that a personality trait of the well travelled is to be quiet and almost shy! Yet a quality for teaching is to be outgoing and energetic! Maybe i'm generalising hugely, but I'm confused as to how i can be such an outgoing confident person yet also so afraid of independant travel and living in another country! Yet they are so quiet and shy yet seem to have no fears of independant and lonely travel. Maybe loud people are actually attention seekers, so would struggle in a strange environment for fear of not having attention(and more importantly the support?)

I think that's one of the most important things i've learnt this weekend; not how to teach, but that the quietly confident may be much more sucessful independant travellers! I may appear outgoing by actually i'm quietly unconfident! Hopefully my trip to Nepal this November will help me discover some quiet confidence, and set me well on my way to relocating in a strange new culture.

• TEFL
• classroom course
• travel
• independence
• teaching
• fears
• lessons
• games