Our July 2023 TEFL course just graduated, and before they departed for the last time, we asked them what advice they would give to the new course attendees.
Here’s some of what they said:
- Do not miss out on spending some time with your peers and socializing! It is important to have some fun too.
- Allow yourself to make mistakes. Learning from your mistakes helps you to grow rather than putting yourself down.
- Have fun. Teaching can be fun and students who enjoy their lessons always come away with something they didn’t know before.
- Spend time with your classmates and get to know them. They are going through the exact same thing as you and you are each other’s best friends. If you need help they are right there with you.
- Use all of your resources! The library, the Internet, your classmates and of course, the trainers!
- Make sure you give yourself time outside of the course. Take breaks as needed. Go outside and get some fresh air. Go out with your classmates.
- Do everything that you can ahead of time and not to do multiple assignments on the same day even if they are due on the same day.
- Use the other students as their support systems.
- Be sure that you come into this program for your own right reasons, not anybody else’s reasons.
- Progress is not a straight line, there will be good and bad days as well as good and bad lessons. As long as you are open to criticism you will do great.
- Make friends with the other people in your TEFL group as they will be there for you during the hardest times of the course as well as during the fun times.
- Do not be afraid to ask for help when you need it.
- You may feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information presented, but take things one step at a time.
- Utilize your online resources, it will be your best friend and can provide you with so many different ideas and activities.
- Use games and use them in your lessons. It gets the students very excited about learning and wakes them up.
- Stay on top of your work, use your resources wisely, and create strong bonds with those in your class.
- Practice your instructions out loud to make sure they make sense beforehand, this helps with being concise and easier to understand to the students.
- Prepare to be challenged. Prepare to give your best, even though some days will be harder thanothers. Prepare to be invested in this program because it can be the beginning of a whole new adventure.
- Reading the feedback about your teaching practice carefully. The feedback from your trainer is very useful and helps you toget better in another lesson.
- It is okay to mess up, especially in the beginning. The first lesson is hard for everyone but it does get much easier.
- Don’t wait until the day of to complete an assignment or create your lesson plan.
- Write your stages, ICQs, CCQs, and important boarding into a small notebook for you to reference in class. Also have a page for error correction.
- Not to kill yourself making the most creative materials of all time. Focus on a creative tasks, and use materials to help you do that task.
- Practice saying your lesson at home before teaching!
- You better know you want to have this. It is a very hardprocess, there will be ups and downs, but if you’re confident you want to teach and your classmates have your back, you can do it.
- Almost nothing goes according to plan and it is ok not to be perfect. Over time, it will get easier.
- Make your grammar points as clear and simple as possible.
- Never overestimate your students – always grade your language (both your grammar and vocabulary), so that the students can understand you clearly.
- Always expect the students to give you unexpected questions and be ready to answer them with a smile and appreciation of the question, even if your answer is that you don’t know.
In just 4 weeks you can be teaching English abroad. TEFL Worldwide was awarded as the Top TEFL Certification Course of 2018 and 2019! Courses offered monthly.
