Job Discussion Forums

[coledavis]

[formality.register]

I was asked to do this fresh out of CELTA with no experience in a public university in Peru. At first, I was pretty nervous, but it ended up being a great experience. As another poster said, you should definitely find out what they expect to get out of the class (the best way to do this, I've found, is to have them write a formal letter to you detailing their perceived strengths and weaknesses along with their learning style and whatever else... that way you can assess their grasp of English vocabulary and grammatical structures as well as their writing ability from day one).

If I were you, I'd snag an FCE coursebook for your lower level class and a CAE (or CPE if they're really good) coursebook for your advanced. None of the other reputable international exams work for the purpose of training teachers (as the IELTS and TOEFL are academically oriented and don't place too much weight on grammar or vocab). I used FCE Gold and CAE Gold coursebooks in my classes, and they did a pretty great job boosting general proficiency while keeping things somewhat entertaining ... plus I was able to assess my classes with practice exams in order to check progress and problem areas.

Another tip is that you can't forget you'll be teaching teachers. If you teach a half-assed, lazy lesson they WILL catch on because every teacher knows what a half-assed lesson looks like. Even if they aren't paying you to prepare your classes, you had better be prepared to devote some time to preparation or you'll risk losing the respect of your students as well as being reported to your boss (especially if they are making the teachers pay for the course). I can't stress how important it is to maintain their respect, as a colleague who was hired after me to assist me with teacher training did not have their respect, and definitely had some problems. Anyway, good luck.

-f/r

[coledavis]

That was very useful advice. Thank you very much.

[powerrose]

If its Poland, you can check out the Polandian blog. It's always analyzing Polish language in a way that you can springboard into a good English discussion....

[coledavis]

Actually it's in Belarus, thankfully in Russian rather than Belarusian.