By Walter Wilson
Traveling to Prague to start a new career was one of the great challenges of my life, but it was only half the story. I was also moving away from home for the first time: from the United States, from, Michigan, and from my family. I had lived in the same house for over 20 years, and now I would be living with my girlfriend in a foreign country. In my head, I always thought the transition would be easy, but there were a lot of things I hadn’t considered. I went from driving regularly, to traveling only by public transportation. I didn’t know where anything in the city was located, and I didn’t speak Czech. Even getting acclimated to life with my girlfriend was a new challenge. Each step felt like trying to walk on a lake covered in thin ice. But through all the difficulties, TEFL Worldwide Prague was the entity that made life more simple in my first two months. The school’s daily and weekly routines added more stability to my new hectic lifestyle, and I was able to build my new life around that schedule in a structured way.
Right from the start, TEFL Worldwide Prague gave us students the schedule and syllabus for the entire course. Classes were Monday through Friday from 10:00am-6:00pm, so I knew that for a large part of the day I would be at their facility. I would wake up at 8:00am, and head off for class an hour later. To this day I have the same routine, always giving myself an hour before I leave to teach my classes. I would usually arrive at the school 15-20 minutes before class, allowing me time to get prepared and talk with my fellow classmates. From there, the day would operate like clockwork. On Mondays, we had four 90 minute classes, with a lunch break in between. The afternoon was reserved for teaching Tuesday-Friday, so we knew there would be two morning sessions. As the course moved along, the need to stay until 6:00pm lessened, but the option was always open, and the teachers were there to help you in any way that they could. After class, I made my way home, and would be inside by 7:00pm.
When I arrived home, I would have dinner and try to rest for a bit, but I couldn’t get too comfortable because there was a lot of work to do. There was always studying that needed to take place, and I had to prepare for my group and individual lessons. This required a lot of time and energy. I spent about five hours every night making sure I was as ready as possible. There was never a lot of time at school because of the morning sessions so I had to get all the planning completed at home. This was one of the hardest challenges of my life, but after three weeks it began to feel natural. TEFL Worldwide does a great job of setting high standards for excellence, but if you commit to them, you will see the benefits show up in all aspects of your life. At times the workload seemed impossible, now I only wish I had taken the course at an earlier time in my adult life..
The toughest part of being a teacher in my opinion is not the 60 or 90 minutes that you spend teaching a lesson, its learning to maximize your time outside the classroom. There’s all the normal challenges that come with life, and then finding time to study and prepare for each of your lessons. The people at TEFL Worldwide understand this, and they have developed a course to help you learn how to teach English, and to successfully organize your daily schedule. The school also serves as a reliable place you can visit and utilize while you are still getting adjusted after the course. You will see that after a month of school days at TEFL Worldwide Prague, (www.teflworldwideprague.com) your approach to the day will be forever changed, for the better.
