Korean Job Discussion Forums

[JennyJJ]

I'm semi-new here and my teacher certification in Arizona (USA) expires summer of next year. Does KTESOL do any training that I can use to renew my certification? I have heard that they do. At the annual convention?

Where I can I learn more about KTESOL? Did a google search with poor results . . .

Thanks!

Jenny

[mokpochica]

JennyJJ...I don't know about Arizona, but in Michigan you can get a renewal of a provisional certificate for 2 years, I believe even without training. Getting more education, in any shape or form, also will give you a waiver and a renewal in my state.

If you haven't already, check out the webpage for teaching certification in your state. You might be able to apply for a 2 year renewal even without that course.

Maybe this page will help you...
http://www.ade.az.gov/certification/

[JennyJJ]

Thanks for the link and information. However, I am renewing a ten-year certificate - it is not provisional and I am required to submit 60 hours of in class education. Quite possible to do in the year-and-a-half I have left. But! Where can I get such education here? That is what I am really asking. I've been teaching overseas most of the time and have accumulated little in additional training. It is important to me that I maintain my eligibility to teach back home.

Suggestions? KTESOL?

[Canadian Teacher]

Ahhh, Kotesol, a favourite subject of mine. Remember the chess club in junior high? All the geeks played chess because they were too unpopular to do anything else. Pimples, pocket protectors.

Now we get to KOSH*TOL. The genesis of the chess club. What you get is a load of misfits who strut around and pretend to be Great Academics. Usually the Great Academics have distance degrees (read: "Mail Order"), big hats and do not look you in the eye when they talk. They also have ugly Korean wives whose parents bought them their place in Great Korean Academia. One such sage has a book that is so awful he has to put it on his own reading list.

The annual KOSH*TOL meeting is like a qaygook freak show. Great presentations such as "how to play bingo" are given. Events often cancelled due to poor planning. Jack Richards (or one of his doubles) gives a rambling sales pitch for the most boring, and rarely updated, book in history. KO-GEEK-OL members tell you their job is better than yours ("I work one hour a week for a Billion-teen Won a month). People get drunk at lunch.

If you are still interested, His Majesty, The Esteemed Dr. Dick**, will gladly take your money.

[kimcheeking]

[OiGirl]

Regardless of the quality of KoTESOL, It can be used to fulfill professional development training requirements back home. I did it, but I had also returned home to teach. I just listed all the KoTESOL sessions I had attended (annual conference but also monthly meetings) and my Assistant Principal approved them and now they count as hours on my license. I also got those monthly workshops by Oxford approved as well.

If you are not returning home before the license expires, ask your licensing board how to document staff development. If necessary, you can submit copies of meeting agendas, or even make up little certificates to have presenters sign. You might get a runaround from the licensing board, but it's likely because it has not been done before, not because it can't be done! What would be the procedure to follow if you attended a workshop at home sponsored by an outside agency?

Good luck!

[MrTESL]

[ExpatriateJoe]

My oh my, aren't we filled with bitterness? Me thinks you have a bad taste of KOTESOL and have swallowed some inferiority complex pills.

For your information, KOTESOL is associated with some big name TESOL/TEFL associations around the world. IATEFL and Canada TESOL are two just to mention.

In addition, there are quite a few special interest groups to choose from to get involved with when you become a member.

We should not forget "TEC" or The English Connection magazine and the yearly journal that is published.

In the past, I have wrote a few articles for TEC and even made a few presentations at local conferences. I am also the current secretary for the Busan chapter of KOTESOL.

People become members of KOTESOL for a variety of reasons. I became a member in 1997 because I wanted to educate myself about my TESOL profession. Living away from Canada, I realize that it is my responsiblity to develop professionally. KOTESOL provides such an opportunity.

If you don't like KOTESOL or various distance education programs, don't worry about it, because we don't need people like you as members.

[Canadian Teacher]

Well, I would never join any group what would have me as a member and besides, I can't find a panama hat or a pocket protector in Korea. What is more, I am resigned that all KOGEEKS-ALL members all have better jobs than me, are smarter, make more money, have more friends,work fewer hours, have cuter kids, a better degree and a faster computer.

So you will not be getting my money.

[OiGirl]

Jenny,

What did you end up doing and what were the results?