First week over

It is Sunday night and I have finally finished my first assignment- FOCUS ON THE LEARNER- A CASE STUDY. It was a more practical essay than a theoretical one. Apparently, everything in this course is made for a practical purpose. I LOVE IT.
I have learnt what warmers or fillers are (Five pointed star warmer), EFL terminology like model-drill-elicit. I have also learnt Gaelic!!! "Dia dhuit!" I've taught 100 minutes divided into three lessons (listening, language focus and vocabulary). It was a wonderful week but I don't think I would repeat it if I were to.... It is tiring, simply tiring. I slept for two hours at noon today, in my free day and i felt as if I needed more.
One tip to successfully go through Celta intensive course is to get enough healthy food during the day and enough sleep during the night, which I haven't lately. That's it! Going to bed! Good night! 

Second day CELTA

Evening everybody!
Day two is over! Teacher Practice TP is up to now... insane! The good part to it is that I am already applying what I AM LEARNING. This course is totally worth the money. Our guide teachers are friendly yet strict, so we can feel the pressure a lot! 
My colleagues come from many different cultural backgrounds, so we are constantly learning things from one another, too.

Today was my first 20 min TP and it seemed like 2 hours! Basically because the lesson preparation lasted around 3 hours...I strongly think that I will shortly get used to this everyday lesson planning and hopefully I will finish it in less time. 

I have received a TO STANDARD mark, which everybody received actually..., so I do not know if that was to encourage us or...It represents the middle mark. I guess it corresponds to final mark which is PASS B. I definitely need to improve.
The reason I feel I am more free tonight than yesterday night is that I have completed my tasks two days in advance, just like Joanne (our guide teacher) advised us to. The idea of making it work is to do as much homework as possible in advance. So there you have a tip.

 Finger crossed! (well, actually this is not a matter of luck, but a matter of hard work, discipline and work ethic).

CELTA experience

Hello everybody! I can finally give meaning to my blog by telling you about my CELTA intensive course experience!
I have recently decided to take the course in order for me to continue the ESL teacher career path. The reasons I took this were:

• I want to improve myself as an English teacher
• I want to gain more observed practice experience 
• I need an internationally recognized teacher diploma to work in other countries
• I want to travel to the Middle East to find a job as an ESL teacher
• I needed a new challenge in my life and this is definitely the one!

For those who do not know what CELTA is here is the website for the clarification. Basically it represents the minimum requirement all language academies, private and certain public schools ask for when they are seeking a new English teacher. There is another Cambridge title all professors might want to get their hands on, it is called DELTA. Unfortunately, one need to complete a two year teaching practice and have Celta in order to be qualified for the Delta. 

Basically, my course started today and it is going to finish on the 26th of September. 

I have done a lot of research before paying for the course, because let me tell you, it is not cheap! I paid 1450 euros for mine but you can find cheaper ones or even more expensive ones depending on the country you choose to take it in. I am taking mine in Valencia, Spain, the same city I have completed my Master's Degree in Computational Linguistics. The academy I am with is named Campbell College and the two guide teachers and amazingly professional. 

Till now so far so good! I have been warned that lesson preparations and homework would take me up all night, but hey! it is 12 a.m. and I have just finished two lps and a some language analysis exercise...

Yes, it is tiring and overwhelming but it is so worth it! 

We are 12 students-teachers in the class and we were divided into two groups in order to have our teacher practice more organized and maybe because the classes are so small we wouldn't have fit all in one room :) Imagine 12 teachers in the same tighten place with another 8 students...funny. Actually I have no idea why they split us like that but I guess they have a good reason for it. 

On the first day, which is today, the guide teachers gave us working material like white board markers, post-its, correction tape, clips, some elastics, some white cards, glue and some other sticking material THAT I sincerely do not comprehend its usage,but I will shortly find out. We have also received a very thick portfolio with blank pages for us to fill in. The portfolio is divided into these chapters: ADMINISTRATION, INPUT METHODOLOGY, TEACHING PRACTICE, LESSON PLANS, LESSON EVALUATION, WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS, OBSERVATION TASKS OBSERVATION OF EXPERIENCED TEACHERS. So there you have it, more or less you got a hint of what I will go through during the following 4 weeks. The word for it is INTENSE.

I will call it a night, even though I wished to have written more about this amazing first day but hopefully I will get back to you in the following days!  

 

Who is she?

Sorry... Disculpas, miles de disculpas por no haberme presentado previamente. I hope it is not too late though...

Who is she? Pues...

She is this young bilingual outgoer who is passionate about English and Spanish. Only 26 years old and already a mother.

Most of you will now think that this is a "mommy blog", well it's NOT, NO LO ES!

This blog right here is aimed at those who want to learn some English y quizas un poco de Español. It is especially "designed" for ESL and Spanish learners. So go ahead! She might promise you a funny, lively, new way of studying and being up to date with English! Or Spanglish???

Bye- bye!

British Council Event (Gratuito)

Sesiones del British Council en el Rincón de Inglés de la Biblioteca Pública de Valencia. Esta abierto para todos los lectores de ingles. Ademas es gratuito! Pincha AQUI para mas información sobre del evento.

Que es un buen profesor?!?!? WordCloud

What Makes A Great Teacher

A great teacher sets up high goals for his/ her students.

A great teacher makes sure every student is keeping up.

A great teacher is not afraid to change his/ her lesson plan if it is not productive or efficient.

A great teacher is funny and approachable yet firm.

A great teacher puts educational information into context. That way, he/ she proves that it is not pointless learning it.

LEVEL TEST

Click HERE to level your English. It is a multiple choice test that only takes 10 minutes to complete. After you take the test I will revise it and send you a copy of the answers together with the score. Good luck!