Job Discussion Forums

[S.E.]

Hi there--

I'm currently enrolled in a TESOL Graduate Certificate program at a university here in Boston. I'm able to do this course largely for free as I work at the university and thus my tuition is waived (I'll probably end up paying $400 in total for taxes, registration, etc.) My problem is this: I'm not too impressed with the course so far and am only doing it here because it is free to me. I would have preferred to do the CELTA in Krakow but took this one due to the convenience. I'm not planning on staying at my current position for any time past when my course would be done (June) as I'd like to get out of the city.

Question: Does it really make any difference if I get my TESOL certificate here as opposed to my CELTA in Poland if I ultimately would like to teach in Poland? Would I be better off just finishing my TESOL here, saving some money and going to Poland for around July 08 and knocking on doors, etc? (I've lived abroad in a few places before and am use to really searching for jobs, though I did have work visas before (for the UK))

Like anyone, I would ideally like to find a school that would help me arrange for a visa, but as an American I'm also aware of the red tape.

Also, do schools generally do most of their hiring during the summer months for the upcoming school year?

(For the record, I'm in my mid twenties, have a BFA, in the process of getting my MA. as well as some minor teaching and tutoring experience (writing courses at the college level). With a TESOL certificate in hand, what kind of options might I have?)

Thanks,

S.E.

[spiral78]

If your current program includes supervised teaching practice with feedback from experienced teacher trainers - and with real students, not peer teachers, it will be considered a basic generic cert and should be acceptable to most schools in Poland.

The name brand CELTA is nice, but there are lots of generic certs out there that also fit the bill.

You should post on the Poland forum for more specific info, but schools generally hire end August- early September for the year - I think July would be too early.

You should be fine with a basic certification and your plan of knocking on doors.

[ITTP]

I just wanted to put in my 2 cents and (without the aim of self promotion) to point you in the direction of a blog from one of our grads who was teaching in Poland and who took the TEFL certificate. I have also placed a link to her testimonial (located towards the bottom of the page) as this very clearly demonstrates what Spiral mentioned in his post concerning the 'branding' of CELTA and whether CELTA is in fact the only cetificate which will get you into international English teaching.
http://tefl-tesol-online.com/blog.html
http://tefl-tesol-online.com/testimonials.html
Once again, it really isn't my aim for self promotion and I do regularly add useful info on the Czech Republic forum.

[spiral78]

I started as a newbie in Prague 10 years ago with a generic cert. It was a standard 100+ hours on-site, including supervised teaching practice. I've since got an MA TESL/TEFL, but when I had just the generic cert, I worked in the Czech Rep, Luxembourg, and Nederlands - in no case was the generic cert a drawback while I was working for private language schools, though when I moved into university positions, the MA was really needed and required.