Korean Job Discussion Forums

[aboxofchocolates]

Just photoshop the degree, buy a few beers for someone unlucky enough to have spent money on the course and get the lingo out of them. If you're feeling really spendy you can buy their teacher's favorite books.

The course is difficult, but not because the theories are hard. The theories are easy. The teachers like to tell them to you ass backwards or in no particular order while they play with their favorite teaching theories some other pompous CELTA teacher gave them. Mostly they come off as patronizing, and the end of a half hour long activity you have painsakenly elicited some of the blandest, least rewarding information that a child of eight would have understood in five seconds if you just told him.

They also don't give you required texts because then they have to give you readings and that is probably against some philosophy or other. But if you ask them what books you should read, you'll find they teach pretty much out of a book. Then you can read ahead out of the book and appear really smart in class because you already know the lesson (and therefore don't have to waste your time looking under chairs or on the walls for hidden lecture bits or trying to be civil to the guy next to you who is trying to be just as civil back all the while the point the group exercise is utterly lost).

Do these guys really believe there are different types of learners, or do they care? Man, I used to think groupwork and activities were fun in class, but now I think they are painfully dull and miss the damn point. I am tempted to never submit my students to them again: but then, my students will be children and will therefore still find games a fun distraction from all the learning we might be doing.

Rant over. Classroom activities are not for me. I found the book, I just have to look happy until I get my A.

[cubanlord]

[Illysook]

So, tell us...what book?

I'd like to know.

[Ruthdes]

Where did you do your course? I suppose it probably varies center to center, teacher to teacher, as the way any educational system or program does.

[aboxofchocolates]

[Kimsmith]

Usually for the CELTA you are advised to read "How to Teach" by Jeremy Harmer and 'Learning Teaching' by Jim Schrivener...

[xingyiman]

The CELTA is just another poster child of what is wrong with the concept of "certification" in the late 20th/early 21st century. Like any other certification(A+, CISCO, MSCSN,etc...) it's devolved into nothing more than a very high priced backstage pass.