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certified TESOL teachers: was it worth it?

 
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thunderpaws



Joined: 12 Oct 2011
Location: Handan, Hebei, China
PostPosted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 8:40 pm    Post subject: certified TESOL teachers: was it worth it? Reply with quote
Hey there gang,

I'm in the process of applying for teaching positions in South Korea. I have a BA in English, but I would like to take a SIT TESOL course to better prepare me for teaching ESL. I'm hoping those of you who have esl certs (in particular SIT TESOL) would be willing to tell me if you feel your cert course was worth it.

Do you feel you use the stuff you learned? If you found it to be useful, what in particular do you think the cert course helped you with that you might otherwise have been in the dark about? Do you think it was money well spent?

Thanks bunches!
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english puppet



Joined: 04 Nov 2011
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 2:48 am    Post subject: Re: certified TESOL teachers: was it worth it? Reply with quote
thunderpaws wrote:
Hey there gang,

I'm in the process of applying for teaching positions in South Korea. I have a BA in English, but I would like to take a SIT TESOL course to better prepare me for teaching ESL. I'm hoping those of you who have esl certs (in particular SIT TESOL) would be willing to tell me if you feel your cert course was worth it.

Do you feel you use the stuff you learned? If you found it to be useful, what in particular do you think the cert course helped you with that you might otherwise have been in the dark about? Do you think it was money well spent?

Thanks bunches!


Of course SIT is offered in different locations so there may be some small variations in Instructors. The course is checked for quality at the end of the course by an outside evaluator etc.. It's 130 hours and your classroom work is supervised unlike some other courses.

It's a great course and I'd highly recommend it. It's less recognized than Celta but I don't think you could say it's less well regarded.

If I had to say one thing negative about SIT tied to Korea it's that you will have some great ideas and approaches and the Korean education system will not be terribly interested in any of it......sad but consistently true in my experience here.

Good luck and feel free to pm if you like.
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ttompatz



Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 4:00 am    Post subject: Re: certified TESOL teachers: was it worth it? Reply with quote
thunderpaws wrote:
Hey there gang,

I'm in the process of applying for teaching positions in South Korea. I have a BA in English, but I would like to take a SIT TESOL course to better prepare me for teaching ESL. I'm hoping those of you who have esl certs (in particular SIT TESOL) would be willing to tell me if you feel your cert course was worth it.

Do you feel you use the stuff you learned? If you found it to be useful, what in particular do you think the cert course helped you with that you might otherwise have been in the dark about? Do you think it was money well spent?

Thanks bunches!


"worth it" is a relative term.

If:
a) you are NOT going to be teaching elsewhere or
b) you only plan to do this for a year or two
c) you will only be teaching kids (k-6)

THEN No, it will not be "worth it". You will NOT recover your costs as compared to finding a generic EFL job and not having it. What you learn will largely be useless in a k-6 classroom.

If:
a) you are going to do it for longer than a year or two,
b) you may want to go to other countries or
c) you just want it so you know what you are doing when you get dropped into a class
d) will actually be teaching adult learners

THEN yes, it will be worth it.

.
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english puppet



Joined: 04 Nov 2011
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 4:08 am    Post subject: Re: certified TESOL teachers: was it worth it? Reply with quote
ttompatz wrote:
thunderpaws wrote:
Hey there gang,

I'm in the process of applying for teaching positions in South Korea. I have a BA in English, but I would like to take a SIT TESOL course to better prepare me for teaching ESL. I'm hoping those of you who have esl certs (in particular SIT TESOL) would be willing to tell me if you feel your cert course was worth it.

Do you feel you use the stuff you learned? If you found it to be useful, what in particular do you think the cert course helped you with that you might otherwise have been in the dark about? Do you think it was money well spent?

Thanks bunches!


"worth it" is a relative term.

If:
a) you are NOT going to be teaching elsewhere or
b) you only plan to do this for a year or two
c) you will only be teaching kids (k-6)

THEN No, it will not be "worth it". You will NOT recover your costs as compared to finding a generic EFL job and not having it. What you learn will largely be useless in a k-6 classroom.

If:
a) you are going to do it for longer than a year or two,
b) you may want to go to other countries or
c) you just want it so you know what you are doing when you get dropped into a class
d) will actually be teaching adult learners

THEN yes, it will be worth it.

.


Especially good point about teaching adult learners or other kinds of schools where you might teach mixes of people. Really the market in SK seems so geared to kiddies (nothing wrong with that but...) and there seems to be a preference for teaching right out of textbooks or on auto-pilot on some level you might not really find it directly applicable here in SK.
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thunderpaws



Joined: 12 Oct 2011
Location: Handan, Hebei, China
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:12 am    Post subject: Re: certified TESOL teachers: was it worth it? Reply with quote
english puppet wrote:
thunderpaws wrote:
Hey there gang,

I'm in the process of applying for teaching positions in South Korea. I have a BA in English, but I would like to take a SIT TESOL course to better prepare me for teaching ESL. I'm hoping those of you who have esl certs (in particular SIT TESOL) would be willing to tell me if you feel your cert course was worth it.

Do you feel you use the stuff you learned? If you found it to be useful, what in particular do you think the cert course helped you with that you might otherwise have been in the dark about? Do you think it was money well spent?

Thanks bunches!


Of course SIT is offered in different locations so there may be some small variations in Instructors. The course is checked for quality at the end of the course by an outside evaluator etc.. It's 130 hours and your classroom work is supervised unlike some other courses.

It's a great course and I'd highly recommend it. It's less recognized than Celta but I don't think you could say it's less well regarded.

If I had to say one thing negative about SIT tied to Korea it's that you will have some great ideas and approaches and the Korean education system will not be terribly interested in any of it......sad but consistently true in my experience here.

Good luck and feel free to pm if you like.



I don't yet have enough Dave's ESL street cred to PM you...

Thanks for responding! Where did you take your course? Can you tell me how you think it HAS helped you in the classroom at all?
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Swampfox10mm



Joined: 24 Mar 2011
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 3:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
In terms of teaching at a university, it doesn't meant more money.

We receive no compensation for any TESOL certificate, be it an online cheapie, a Trinity, or a CELTA.

If I were working at a public school, I could get an extra 100,000 per month. Depending on the cost of the certificate, and how long I worked at that level, it could pay for itself.
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plchron



Joined: 26 Feb 2011
Location: Korea
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 5:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
ttompatz is correct, I would like to add that for public school positions they will bump you up to the next pay grade with any type of certification. if "SIT" is expensive, then you can do an online one for less money and recoup your costs in the first 4 months. Then you have 8 months of extra pay, so it is like an investment.
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thunderpaws



Joined: 12 Oct 2011
Location: Handan, Hebei, China
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 7:17 pm    Post subject: dig it, but... Reply with quote
Hey,

Thanks all for the replies! I really appreciate the feedback.

I know the ins and outs of the pay issues, though. What I wrote this post for was this question:
--do YOU (if you took a certification course) feel it was worth it to YOU?

English puppet got the gist of my intention. ttompatz, did you take a cert? Did you feel, for you, it was very useful in the classroom?

Thanks!
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ttompatz



Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 11:04 pm    Post subject: Re: dig it, but... Reply with quote
thunderpaws wrote:
Hey,

Thanks all for the replies! I really appreciate the feedback.

I know the ins and outs of the pay issues, though. What I wrote this post for was this question:
--do YOU (if you took a certification course) feel it was worth it to YOU?

English puppet got the gist of my intention. ttompatz, did you take a cert? Did you feel, for you, it was very useful in the classroom?

Thanks!


I actually have a CELTA and then I "went out and got" a real certification (degree) in TESOL and not just a 30-day cert TESOL. I do however teach in a TESOL certification program occasionally.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, IF you are doing the (specifically) SIT TESOL cert (the same people who bring you the Peace Corps) it will certainly be beneficial if you are working with adults or OLDER students.

Other than the mechanics of lesson planning it is virtually useless when you are working with young learners (k-6). Young learners are not just small versions of older learners and the methodologies for teaching ARE different. If you want to add a YL module (CELTA or other provider since I don't think SIT has a YL module) to it then, for professional development, it is a good start.

If you are looking for a financial return to justify the costs (both out of pocket costs and opportunity costs) it won't happen (at least not in Asia).
If you are looking for continued professional development then yes, it is worth it even if it doesn't relate directly to your present employment circumstances.

As I said above, "Worth it," is a purely subjective evaluation.

.
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