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Aramas
Joined: 13 Feb 2004
Posts: 874
Location: Slightly left of Centre
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 Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 7:14 am Post subject: How much writing does a CELTA involve? |
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As some of you may know, I recently injured my right hand in an accident at work. I have enough use of my hand at present to write if I had to, but it would be painful and my occupational terrorist would blow a gasket if she found out.
How much writing is involved in the CELTA course? Is it much like traditional lectures with frenzied note-taking while failing miserably to follow what's actually going on, or do they use a more modern approach with hand-outs and an emphasis on class participation? How do they feel about run-on sentences? 
What level of calligraphic endurance is reqired for the course? Would I need to be able to write a page a day? Ten pages? War and Peace? I intend to take along a clunky old laptop that I can use for lesson planning and so forth, so it seems that my departure date will depend on the quantity of writing required in the actual classes. |
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t_muraoka
Joined: 01 Jul 2004
Posts: 6
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| Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 10:44 am Post subject: Re: How much writing does a CELTA involve? |
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| Aramas wrote: |
How much writing is involved in the CELTA course? Is it much like traditional lectures with frenzied note-taking while failing miserably to follow what's actually going on, or do they use a more modern approach with hand-outs and an emphasis on class participation?
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I'm doing a CELTA now.
Most of the stuff is in handouts so you don't have to write too much. They teach you the same way they want you to teach your students i.e. lots of activities, elicting stuff, etc. No lecturing while students copy stuff down. There are a lot of exercises and activities where you need to write but given your circumstances, they're not going to care if someone else in your group does the writing.
Big tip: I've found that having a laptop makes things significantly easier. Definitely bring your own or rent one. The centre I'm at has computers available for students but they're pretty crap and the whole setup is unreliable. Having a laptop means I can work on stuff in my hotel room. Plus I've got WiFi so I can do my research there as well (woo hoo!)
[edit]
/me thinks for a minute...
There are certain times when you do need to write e.g. you have to observe several hours of lessons, take notes and write a report on it. You might be able to get away with buying a cheap dictation recorder (my MP3 player has one) and whispering into it
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sojourner
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 738
Location: nice, friendly, easy-going (ALL) Peoples' Republic of China
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| Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 10:49 am Post subject: |
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Pardon my ignorance,but what is "WiFi" ?
Peter |
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t_muraoka
Joined: 01 Jul 2004
Posts: 6
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| Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 12:03 pm Post subject: |
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| sojourner wrote: |
Pardon my ignorance,but what is "WiFi" ?
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Wireless networking. I can get online through my laptop without having to plug anything in |
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 4:39 pm Post subject: |
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The vocie recognition that comes with XP is pretty good. If you have an older OS consider buying a copy of speech recogntion suftware - IBM produce one that has a fair reputation.
I would start training the speech recognition program now since it gets better with a lot of training, and you also need to get used to its quirks.
Suffice it to say that there are lots of computer programmers with RSI who can still work as a result of voice recognition.
And to avoid ever getting RSI you want to get an ergonomic keyboard (I swear by the MS Natural Keyboards, but there are alternatives, though all require you to be a touch typist). Whatever you do don't use your laptop for typing eight hours a day - after a couple of months you will be hurting, and after a year you will be crippled for life. |
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patchwork
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 55
Location: in transit
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| Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 4:02 am Post subject: |
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i jsut got a copy of Dragon, and that's apparently the best voice recog software out there. i'll give it a try over the weekend, i'm in Atlanta for the rest of the week.
I'll try to remember to post some feedback here |
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vre
Joined: 17 Mar 2004
Posts: 371
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| Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 12:32 pm Post subject: |
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| I remember having to write on a white board. That's the only writing I can remember doing! |
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