getting back into teaching - please help!!!!

[belly]

Hi! Thanks for reading my message!!!
I'm looking to get back into teaching English, after taking my CELTA three years ago. Since then I've had next to no experience (a few weeks volunteer work in '01). Any ideas about how i go about getting a job? Do I need to do a refreshers course? Will anyone hire me? Do i need to volunteer first? If so, any ideas? I'm looking to teach long term, it's something i really really want to do!!!
Thanks for any help and advice given, it's much appreciated!!
Annabel

[celinehoran]

Hi Annabel,

Where do you live, if you don't mind me asking.

Depending on where you live in the world this might have a bearing on your career chances and appropriate advice given in this forum.

Now if you're in England, I know they are crying out for quality Teachers all the time and here in Switzerland, where we now live, they are always on the look out for good quality English speaking teachers too but it is advisable to speak good German.

If we knew where you lived we could help you better.

We are here to help.

Regards
Celine Horan
Personal ESL Trainer, Switzerland

[belly]

Thanks for your reply!
I'm living in London at the moment, do you know of any lovely schools who might consider taking me on as a kind of project? I'm really serious about teaching, but the more replies i get from this dilemma, it seems i should do another course, as they think i'm mad with no experience and no degree. But I make up for that in sheer determination!

[fluffyhamster]

Now if you're in England, I know they are crying out for quality Teachers all the time

The keyword there is "quality" (if you agree with employers that certificates mean and prove everything). As lolwhites has pointed out on the "DELTA?" thread in the ESL Management forum, the CELTA is probably the bare minimum now in the UK, and if schools are hiring beginning teachers (for peak summer seasons only, and/or for very limited part-time, temporary positions, I'd imagine), they'll probably go more for those who they themselves trained or have recently qualified from the gluts of teachers available.

Anyway, as belly herself has just replied, '(but) the more replies i get from this dilemma, it seems i should do another course, as they think i'm mad with no experience and no degree. But I make up for that in sheer determination!'.

Oh I've just noticed that you say you don't have a degree, belly, so a lot of the advice that I and woodcutter (e.g. work in Asia!) have been suggesting (and also Stephen Jones) in response to the similar query you posted on the AL forum is irrelevant. It really does look like you're going to need to do at least the CELTA refresher course, if not a degree also (although British employers don't require it in the same way as e.g. Japanese employers do - it's not like you're applying for a residence permit and a work visa in the UK! - it's a fair bet that the majority of other applicants have not only a CELTA but a degree prior to that, too).

[celinehoran]

Dear Annabel,

I really admire your guts and determination and have some wonderful news for you, but first let me tell you this;

I too am in the same boat as you, in as much as, I don't have a degree in teaching either but am a natural born teacher, who has been teaching/influencing/leading all my life and now run a small and very successful teaching ESL business from home and I don't even speak much German yet!

I feel it's a shame that your talent is going to waste and a small little thing like "lack of experience" etc is stopping you doing what you love best?

I know you really want to go into mainstream teaching but hear me out here because I might just have what you are looking for and right under your finger tips! If you do this, within week(s) you could be teaching ESL and do very well too!.

I strongly advise that you seriously consider jump starting your own teaching business from home.

As you may know, working from home is the new thing now! There is a quiet revolution going on under your nose and you could be part of it in the ESL profession. There are a lot of us out here !

The demand for ESL teachers is huge and you are in the prime position to take advantage of it and in the privacy of your own home.

I teach from home now and it's wonderful, I set my own hours, I decide the curriculum based on the students needs and learn so much from them in return it's fantastic, whilst making a good living too and all on my dining room table.

All I did was research some wonderful FREE teaching sites online, which I can give you and also purchased a wonderful PDF book called "How to become a Personal ESL Trainer. It's easy to follow, quick to read being only 46 pages long and teaches in simple to follow steps how to teach, powerfully and effectively and also shows you how to set up your own professonal teaching business from home. Believe me, if I can do this you can.

This book could be the passport to a very lucrative ESL career for you Annabel but it's up to you.

What Miriam says is; all you need to have is a desire to learn, be able to speak and write a very good standard of English and love teaching and helping people, that's it!

The book only costs £10 so email me straight away and I will show you how to get the book and get cracking on getting your teaching business going.

If you can't wait, you could do a search on google yourself, remember write: "How to become a Personal ESL Trainer + Miriam Lavi" and download it NOW and get cracking!

Best of luck!

Regards
Celine Horan
Personal ESL Trainer, Switzerland

[fluffyhamster]

Yes, as Celine says, you could go private and teach from home, but again, a lot if not most of the people doing that in the UK might have more than a CELTA to hang on their wall, so you could be in for some "tough" competition if you decided to "sell yourself"!

By the way, belly, when you say you have no degree, you mean no first degree at all, rather than no "degree in teaching" (as Celine seems to be saying), right? (Then again, Celine has called you Annabel, and says "either", so you two could've exchanged a few P.Ms for all I know! ).

I can't think of what else would explain the negative responses you are getting from employers: I mean, a first degree, regardless of the discipline, is obviously important and is apparently meant to say a lot about "you" (I myself don't believe that is entirely true, by the way), and a large part of the reason that potential CELTA trainess are often if not usually required to be graduates might be to reflect the realities of the job marketplace rather than just the supposedly "demanding" nature of the course itself.