Job Discussion Forums

[lucy lace]

So, I just got my Celta - and I got a B. Sigh. My trainers said this is good -but I can't help but feel a bit let down. (I admit to an over-achieving academic past). Also, my trainers seem to feel that Celta is the end-all-be-all of ESL courses. Do schools overseas really care - about Celta versus other courses, or about your mark on said Celta course? (I realize "overseas" is a bit vague. Work with me.) What about teaching in North America?

Also - In the sentence, "There are two oranges left" is "left" acting as an adjective?

Random, I know, but I had a student ask me some tough questions yesterday (I'm subsituting at my first job) and I couldn't find an answer in a grammar book.

Thanks!

[ls650]

CELTA or Trinity seem to have some name brand recognition in Europe and seem to be prefered there. In the rest of the world, it usually makes little difference - though yesterday I saw a job posting for South America that said "CELTA or Trinity - no generic TEFL".

Adverb: 'left' describes the state of the verb 'to be'.

[Gordon]

Your CELTA grade means absolutely nothing. Be glad you have the most recognized TEFL certificate in the world. It will open doors for you.

[Mark Loyd]

But all of the doors will be low paid and deadend.

[Gordon]

[Cdaniels]

CELTA means nothing in the US education market. Actually no ESL certificate is worth much of anything for teaching in US schools. It might look good on applications to MA programs, I wouldn't know. From what I can tell, it is better to have a US teaching certificate and no ESL training at all for ESL teaching jobs. If you are bilingual (cert or not) that might open some doors for you. I am hopeful that the ignorance of ESL certifications might change in the future, but presently its not good.

[Justin Trullinger]

It's a good cert. As good as any, and MUCH better than most. Congratulations.

And I agree with Gordon, the grade is irrelevant. Of my current teachers, more than half have the CELTA. (I have Trinity.) And I don't know what grade any of them got. With Trinity, the "course grade" doesn't even appear on the certificate. Is this true for the CELTA? I guess I could check the files...

When I did my cert, the pass or fail of a course was monitored rather strictly by the Trinity people, but the center could basically assign grades according to their own criteria, provided that the overall course grade didn't exceed the teaching practice grade. Or something like that. It's been a while. But most people hiring teachers won't care what your grade was, and after you have a year or so of experience, nobody will.

I disagree with Mark Loyd. And I suppose we're both used to it. NOT all the doors are low paid and dead end. I know there is a lot of crap in this industry. I also know that there is room in this profession to work your way into a rewarding, financially stable place. I'm not the only person on this board in such a place, and I'm less so than many. So don't pay too much attention to the naysayers.

Welcome,
Justin

[ls650]

[lucy lace]

Thanks for all the replies...

I guess I'll just start applying places, and see for myself. I just finished my first teaching gig, at the school where I received my CELTA training. They asked me to subsitute for them because I'd "done well" in the course, a gratifying and nice way to ease in (I know the building and resource room, photocopier, etc). BUT - I went from the big CELTA final-week wind-up of a whomping one hour class, to all of a sudden having to teach six hours a day, five days a week, at two different levels - and this school doesn't use course books, just provides the grammar and function points that should be covered in a session. I spent many many hours looking through book after book, trying to find the "perfect" reading to present phrasal verbs, or the "perfect" listening to present regrets about the past. Is this lack-of-coursebook/workbook thing normal? I mean, I'm all for supplementing, but having NO structure or guidance made me feel like I was re-inventing the wheel.

Thanks so much for providing a space for these kinds of questions/rants/concerns....

And thanks so much to the grammarian who provided the answer to my "left" question.

[Gordon]

Lucy, usually there is a book. That is tough when you are first starting out. I have some lecture classes now and could never do it when I started teaching. You will get the hang of it. My first teaching job was in Korea and we also didn't have any books.

Justin, I am pretty sure your grade is not on the Celta certificate.

[Gregor]

Putting the grade on the certificate would be crass. And very unprofessional. Some institutions might do that, but Cambridge University is certainly not among them.
Lucy, a B is a good grade. As are not handed out easily. It's meant to be a tough course.
I recently finished my TESOL Diploma (Trinity's version of the Delta). I was really hoping to get distinctions on this thing while I was doing the distance learning portion.
By the time I got to the face-to-face portion, those hopes went right out the window - I found myself (an atheist) praying that I just didn't FAIL, as a lot of my classmates did.
I didn't fail. But I didn't get any distinctions either. I passed by the skin on my teeth, and I'm pretty flippin' proud of THAT.

Overseas, the Celta or the Trinity certificate are prefered. I understand that those two are more or less required in Europe, but elsewhere it really doesn't matter. I don't know why it matters in Europe, to be honest, because it IS an entry-level qualification. It's a good one, but it is just entry level.

The no coursebook thing is unusual. My first job was almost identical to what you described, and it was awful. I'm sure that my classes sucked. But live and learn, right? Once I got into a "proper" ESL environment, I did pretty well. You'll almost always have a coursebook at least.

By the way, what was the answer to the grammar question? It's a participle, right?

[Mark Loyd]

[Gregor]

Mark Lloyd wrote:

[fluffyhamster]

I've just looked through the first page or so of your posts, Mark...short and "sweet" seems to be your style.

An 'excellent local salary' may to your mind be "just, exactly" that, but I myself am imagining that it allows ls650 to do a little more than barely afford a net connection with which to (not) post loads of crap.

You may be fed up with "your" job (because you perhaps feel the pay generally is lousy), but don't assume others are equally so.

Of course, we'd all not say no to more pay, and there are some jobs which can start looking like "charity" cases (which true professionals should be less willing to accept, to help avoid lowering the average going rate wherever), but ls650 has never struck me as being an unprofessional type or in that kind of situation.

[Mark Loyd]

''We'd all not say no''?