Job Discussion Forums

[pollitatica]

I started off similarly to the above poster, and only about a year ago! I had read a lot about teaching english, and my senior year of college decided to volunteer with a campus organization that taught english to the latino community. I loved it, so got an instructional assistant volunteer job (which turned into a paying job, lucky me) my last semester of college at the community college in the town i went to school in. I ultimately ended up teaching the class when the instructor had to leave the class before the semester was over. At that same time, I was taking a Second Language Acquisition grad class and a Linguistics course. Took a little TESOL summer workshop at the University of Pennsylvania in August, getting some more practical teaching advice, etc. Since then, I have been tutoring ESL and volunteering, and leave in November to teach 1st and 2nd grade EFL in Honduras. I never did get TEFL certified, but I have experience - and plan on getting a Masters. And since I don't need it, it would be a waste of money. It proves to be invaluable to others, however!

My future plans include eventually coming back to the US and getting my Masters in TESOL and my teaching cert and teaching ESL in primary schools here. But ... we'll see where the wind takes me.

[katybell]

Just curious why you thought that people would "start out" teaching kindergarten... just because it is the lowest grade does not mean it requires the lowest level of qualification and experience... in fact maybe believe the exact opposite... Many serious safety issues, and you have to be really good with anxious parents sending their kids off to school for the first time...

[ll86]

oh im perfectly aware of that, its just that since ive started posting, everyone has said you can get a job at a kindergarten without qualifications and if you do have qualifications, then try a primary school, i actually want to teach at kindergarten but have been told its just boring, hard work and just a starting point, are there any well paid good kindergarten jobs out there?

[SirBeagle]

I was home and decided it was time to get out of town. I was going to travel Europe for a year and stay with family in various places, but calculated it all up and decided, broke is bad. So, I found a large number of websites and forums relating to employment overseas in Asia whilst finding lack of employment for Americans in Europe. So found a school and packed up the house, stored the cars and came abroad. It's actually a pretty cool gig. You end up banking/spending the same amount of cash as home, but alleviating taxes and commuting, housing, insurance (health and auto) and everyday living costs. The people are generally nice, the children are fun, the bosses are... well bosses and the system leaves you alone.

The difference between CELTA and TESOL courses was stated above. But to add, the CELTA can help and at the same time may not be necessary. It really depends a lot on when you apply, the need of the hogwan/uni, who you know, where you are coming from(sometimes), etc... As for Europe and other continents, the CELTA is asked for in many of the posts that I have read.

I'm looking into a MATESOL. I have been asking around and have found mixed reviews on higher education for ESL teaching. If you get into a uni position here in Korea and work your way up (if they allow that in their program and don't have a term-cap on your employment), then having a BA/BS and using your experience and preparing for the interview will get you and keep you in a good position without a masters or even a TESOL or CELTA for that matter.

Hope it helps. The best information on the subject of teaching ESL in Korea seems to be posting on forums and getting answers from current teachers, just like this. Many of us want bigger and better things, so we continue to research and ask around to make sure we have the best opportunites and are going places.

Take some with a grain of salt (maybe even me, if you like) and live by others advice to make your life easier.