Job Discussion Forums

[rotemmay]

Hi all,
I've been doing searches on these boards for online certifications and so far have found a lot of good information. However, I still wanted to put my questions out there .

My situation: I have a BA in English from the Ben Gurion University in Israel and an MA in English from Texas Tech University. I have an Israeli and American citizenship and speak English and Hebrew fluently. I have been teaching English classes (English composition, literature, and business writing, not English language) courses since 2004 and, since 2008, much of that has been online courses with American universities. However, I am now in Israel for the time being and possibly looking to stay here.

I've been doing some research based on comments I've seen on this board that have been quite derogatory regarding online TESOL certification programs. However, it seems that in Israel, there are no TESOL certification programs available (at least, none that I could find) and the teaching certification programs offered are geared towards those who want to teach in the Israeli school system (which I definitely do not - let's say that I've been told that classroom management is an issue here - 'nough said
). I'm interested in teaching adults and possible private lessons for children and teens. I also want a certification that might allow me to teach ESL classes in the States if I decide to return.

So I'm wondering if, given the fact that I have an advanced degree in English and also some teaching experience, doing an online certification with a practicum component will suffice. From what I've read on these boards, the program standard should be a 6 hour (at least) face-to-face teaching real students (not peers) with supervision and feedback. So far, I've found in my research 3 schools that offer the following:

OnTESOL: 20 hours F2F teaching at a local school. The student, as far as I can tell, needs to arrange for the place and the person to supervise but the school offers guidelines for feedback and supervision and moderates it. I actually have some connections with people who teach English through a school here in Israel, so I'm pretty sure they would agree to let me volunteer for the practicum and supervise me.

TEFL Institute: 20 hours F2F teaching at a local school. It sounds like it works pretty much the same as OnTESOL, but this school seems to have fairly detailed documentation, such as a time log, supervisor evaluation sheet, and practicum review sheet.

ITTP: 10 hours F2F teaching at a local school. I can't seem to find too much information on how this is supervised and documented, so I just sent an email to the school. We'll see what they say.

Another option I'm looking at is the following:

Transworld Schools (based in San Francisco): They have an online component and then require a one week residency for the practicum, which meets the 6 lessons requirement that seems to be the standard. I'm only considering this because I have family that lives in SF and I lived there for a while so I know the city well . If I were to take that, I wouldn't have to pay accommodations because I would stay with family.

Any ideas would be much appreciated. As I mentioned, I simply can't find any TESOL/TEFL certification courses in Israel, which is why I'm considering an online option.

Rotem

[MarkM]

As you already have teaching experience, do you really need to do a supervised practicum?

[spiral78]

Yes. Unsupervised teaching practice doesn't make up for teaching practice monitored by qualified teacher trainers. Their feedback after on how well you've done (or not) is the real key here.

I've worked with some 'teachers' with years of unmonitored experience - and some of them have been utterly dreadful.

Even those of us who have been around a long time can use some monitoring from time to time, to be honest. I've worked on in-service professionalisation projects, in which we monitor and are monitored, with specific aspects of a classroom in mind. It's extremely valuable, as is reflective teaching.

Student feedback is also helpful, of course, but students sometimes have their own agendas - and aren't necessarily aware of best practice in a language classroom, by definition.

[naturegirl321]

I think you've done lots of research and all the schools look good. The most popular three are CELTA, Trinity, and SIT. CELTA will be adding an online cert, but not until next year at least.

The courses you have are not the most popular 3, but that doesn't mean they're inferior.

I'd go with the one your gut feeling says is good.