CELTA: You’re the ONE that I WANT!!!

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ImageThe CELTA of 2013!

It may not have been the summer of 69, but I definitely had the time of my life. Actually, now that I look back in the summer of 2013, I feel really proud of myself for opting for the CELTA because it’s been a great and rewarding experience full of learning, new friends and of course lots of racing against the clock.

The picture shows my amazing CELTA group. It’s been such a pleasure being surrounded by all these amazing and talented people. We had so much fun together!!!

I do still recall the days when we worked around the clock to meet our deadlines, it was such a hectic July indeed, but for what it’s worth I would do it again! Having said that I only see fit that I start talking about the juicy and most important aspects of my CELTA course.

So, what’s

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I have also been Tagged!

It’s only recently that I become CELTA qualified and member of the ELT community, so I guess it was about time to be tagged by Marisa Constantinides.

What’s the challenge?

Well, first I have to introduce the person who tagged me and answer the eleven questions posed by her.  Then, I have to share eleven random facts about myself and tag another eleven bloggers who will have to answer, in turn, my eleven questions.  So, beware!!!

About the “Tagger”

My very first meeting with Marisa was one year ago, when I applied for my CELTA course and I had to undergo the pre-course interview. She’s been one of my course tutors during my CELTA course in July.

So here are a few words about this busy woman…

Marisa is the Director of studies and the owner of CELT Athens. She is responsible for all the CELTA and DELTA courses at the center. However, these aren’t the only things that Marisa does. She is a teacher, teacher educator, conference presenter and ELT author. She holds a Diploma in TEFLA and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from Reading University. Also, Marisa is one of the founding moderators of #ELTchat, a weekly discussion of ELT teachers on Twitter which was shortlisted in the 2012 ELTon Awards for Innovation in Teacher Resources.

My 11 random facts

  1. I have an identical twin brother. We used to wear the same clothes at school until the age of 12!!!
  2. When I was seven I wanted to play the piano. I only managed to get a toy piano then. After my CELTA, I got a real piano as a present!
  3. I learnt to play the piano by watching piano tutorials on Youtube!  I’m still a novice piano player.  The first song which I managed to play from the very beginning to its end is “Someone like you” by Adele.
  4. I’ve got the most adorable cat in the whole universe. His name is Jack. He is partially handicapped. My family and I take good care of him. The vet had said that he would only live for one year after his surgery (summer 2009). Here we are…2014 and he is still alive and kicking.
  5. During my junior high school years, my sister introduced me to metal. A few years years later, I have let her down! Now, I listen to mainstream music and dance hits!!!
  6. My original plan was to study medicine, but I got myself to nursing school at the University of Athens.
  7. I’m a non-smoker. If only everybody would stop smoking!!! 🙂
  8. Unfortunately, I’m not a good team player. I’m not really proud of this fact, but I can’t change who I am.
  9. Sweets, tons of sweets. Mmm…Yummy!!! I’d rather eat sweets than homemade food. I’m crazy about them! If you want to get rid of me, poison the sweets that you’ll offer to me.
  10. When I was three, I bit a cat at the back of its head. It never showed up after that innocent bite! :p
  11. I’ve been to Crete once! I went sightseeing to Heraklion and to Sitia in one day’s time! I’ve returned back to my hometown (Salamis) at the very same night. It was exhausting!!!

“Tagger’s” Questions

Here are my answers to the questions posed by Marisa:

  1. It’s really difficult to choose only three qualities, but I’ll give it a try.
    1. Rapport builder – it is really important to make sure that your learners get on well with each other, because a class full of prickly learners can lead to nothing.
    2. Facilitator – again it is crucial that you do your best to help learners to achieve their goals. As teachers we have to encourage learners to participate and contribute ideas. Not to mention that we have to guide them throughout their learning process and provide support or advice on their performance.
    3. Language resource – we shouldn’t be the source and center of knowledge, but it’s a must that we have a sound knowledge of our subject matter.
  1. I’d love to work in a language center where CLT is the prominent teaching approach along with the “cherry picking” approach or otherwise known principled eclecticism. Since I’m a tech-lover, I’d also love to be surrounded by cutting edge ed-tech tools.
  2. The first activity that got my learners extremely involved was a board game, which I designed for my last TP. Students were rolling the dice and had to practice the second conditional. So many funny ideas. The second activity was a pair discussion about their favourite singer.  As for the third activity, which is my favourite, I get learners in pairs to think of questions that they need to ask me so to get information about a story.  They are only allowed to ask Yes / No questions! So much fun!
  3. I prefer finger correction and peer correction. I usually use finger correction to help my learners visualize a grammatical error. As for peer correction, it takes place throughout the lesson and aids learners’ autonomy.
  4.  I am currently using the PPP method, mainly because it is divided in three stages and helps learners to assimilate the target items. However, it seems to me that many learners fail to transfer their acquired knowledge to real-life situations, so I’m also seeking for another, more effective way of teaching grammar. Any suggestions??? 🙂
  5. Hmmm another difficult question, but here they are:  www.busyteacher.org , www.eslgold.com and www.onestopenglish.com
  6. No, I don’t seem to share the same passion as people of my age do. I don’t like online games!
  7. No twitter account sorry!  I guess I don’t like it because it reminds of Tweety. You know, I am cat lover and always felt pity for that poor old fluffy, Silvestro. However, it seems that Twitter is gaining more ground than ever in the ELT community so it is only wise that I create an account.
  8. I’ve got three words in my mind: CPD – Continuing Professional Development. I’m really keen on my advancement in the ELT field. I want to become a teacher trainer and ELT materials writer one day!
  9. Well, I’d talk about songs and their benefits in an ELT setting. But wait a sec, I just did! On 15th March, I presented at the 35th International TESOL Convention. The title was: “Hit Learners with Music! They feel No pain!”. I’ll blog about it in the days to come!
  10. Yes. I’ve recently created my own official blog. The link is: http://lalostheodore.wordpress.com/                                               Another blog of mine which is mainly concerned with posts about the different topics tested in TKT: KAL can be found here: http://lalostheodore.edublogs.org/

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The bloggers to be tagged are:

  1. Vaggelis Chrm
  2. Panayiota Vlahopoulou
  3. Ola Bakri
  4. Kelly Vraka
  5. Ioni Maki
  6. Xrysanthi Papatzanaki
  7. Daniel Tiutiun
  8. Pedro Montrois
  9. Maria Margie Angelis
  10. Alexander Makarios
  11. George Vassilakis

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Bloggers, it’s your turn:

  1. Have you taught abroad? If not, would you be interested in doing so?
  2. Which teaching approach / method do you favour the most?
  3. How do you usually teach a grammatical structure?
  4. How do you select a coursebook?
  5. What are the prominent roles of a teacher in the classroom?
  6. What do you think of songs as a teaching tool?
  7. Are you aware of LyricsTraining.com? Do you use it in the classroom?
  8. How often do you reflect on your lessons?
  9. Have you taken up a new course to help you develop professionally?
  10. What’s your greatest ambition?
  11. What will you be doing in 10 years’ time?

CELTA trainees and Edtech – Can it be done???

Living in the era of technological advancements, it only seems rational that technology becomes a vital teaching tool. As it can be defined, technology in education is most simply and comfortably considered as an array of tools that might prove helpful in advancing student learning and aiding the work of the teacher.

samrPhoto Credit: tim.klapdor via Compfight cc

So, what happened during my CELTA course?

Well, while following my CELTA course both of my trainers kept encouraging me to employ different techniques and tools to aid my teaching.

Some of these tools included PowerPoint Presentations and websites that could bring the material of our assigned coursebook to life.

My colleagues and I were also introduced through input sessions and through observation of our “Trainers in action” to various ways of employing educational technology.

I do still remember the comment on one of my TPs regarding a quick quiz that I created using the Smart Notebook 11 App : “Your quiz was fast & furious. It energized your learners and kept them on their toes” – such  positive feedback could stimulate nothing more than a strong desire to learn more things on how to use educational technology.

smart notebook

But I mustn’t  neglect to mention that, even though my Trainers did give me some very strong incentives to use educational technology, they also advised me that moderation in all things is my best friend.

I was not forced to use technology in my lessons but motivated to do so!

I have been Tagged

I’ve been tagged in the Tag-a-Blogger challenge by Marisa Constantinides, so here I go!

What are the rules? They are simple:

  1. Introduce the person who tagged you.
  2. Share 11 random facts about yourself.
  3. Answer the 11 questions posed by the blogger who tagged you.
  4.  List/tag another 11 bloggers.
  5. Put your 11 questions to the bloggers you nominated.

Let me begin by introducing Marisa Constantinides.  She is the Director of studies and the owner of CELT Athens. She is responsible for all the CELTA and DELTA courses at the center but that’s not the only thing this busy lady does.  She also does off-site seminars and public speaking engagements quite often at conferences worldwide.  She has also written materials for Cambridge Exam set texts and Basic grammar books.  She contributes articles on Language and Foreign language teaching and Education and started #ELTchat on Twitter for other EFL professionals to have a chance to discuss various topics regarding our profession every week.

You may find information on her center at the following website: www.celt.edu.gr.

I was very priviledged to have completed my CELTA under her guidance.

11 Random facts about me:

1. I am new to teaching, recently getting my Celta in December 2013.

2. I have two beautiful daughters age 10 and 12

3.  I love Mexican food, my second favorite is Chinese.  Anything with some spice in it.

4. I am an avid horse back rider. I used to ride three times a week.

5.  I am from the Great State of Wisconsin which made the news all over Greece with it’s -55 F temperatures this year.

6.   My favourite color is purple

7. I have a Bachelors of Arts in International-Relations.

8. I have a great sense of humor and like to have a smile on all the time even if I don’t feel like it.

9. I am currently unemployed but am currently looking at private schools for future jobs.

10.  I usually go every summer to the States with the kids. We have horses there on the farm.

11.  I love cheese. I could put it on just about everything.  (Wisconsin is the Dairy State)

Here are my answers to the questions posed by Marisa:

2013-11-19 13.42.421. My three top qualities as a teacher that I aspire to: I always want to be engaging with my personality and teaching style.  I would always like to have clear objectives and knowledge of my subject matter.

2. My dream teaching situation would be to work in a private International School here in Athens. I would also love to have all the latest technology at my fingertips, interactive white boards etc. I would love to have a library onsite.

3.Three classroom activities that really go my students talking like there is no tomorrow:

1. The first thing that worked for me was having them talk about where they live and what they like about their own city, (or mine) and why. 2. Having them divided into two groups, one teenagers and the other parents. Having them discuss  their problems from the point of view of the groups they are in.3. Having them discuss pictures that go along with an old Country western song. Trying to figure our the story before they listen to the song.

4. My favourite techinque for error correction is usually delayed. I like to write the mistakes I have heard and ask the class to do peer correction. Sometimes if a bad habit is there to do some repetition.

5.   Grammar lessons really freaked me out in the beginning. Being a native speaker I felt way out of my league. In the end, they are really the easiest kind of lesson to teach. Personally I like using videos or songs to teach grammar. I follow the initial listening with some elicitation of the TL and then follow up with a controlled gap fill .  Here you can watch a couple of minutes from the end of that lesson which my tutor videotaped.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rbrAtgp08E

6. My favourite teaching websites are: www.busyteacher.org , www.Eslpartyland.com, (good for video and film clips), www.Englishgrammar.org.

7. I don’t usually play online games but if I do I love UNO.

8.  I am a Twitter user now. I’m not very good at it yet but I’m working on it.  I try and follow #ELTchat and find the topics are really good for a teacher like me just starting out. I’m starting to build my PLN and have followers now 🙂

michelle

9. My greatest ambitions in my TEFL career is to never stop learning and developing myself to be the best I can be.

10. If I were to present a paper at a conference I would probably talk about the benefits of being a reflective teacher. To keep a teaching journal as I find that this would really show a teacher how far they have come in their career and how to better themselves by looking at past teaching experiences.  Self -improvement would be the key message here.

11. I just created my own blog and as I get more familiar and have more experiences I thnk you will all be hearing a lot more from me. Currently it’s link is: http://www.michelleos69.wordpress.com

These are the people I am going to tag for the next blog post:

Chara Michalatou, Vicky Loras, Theo Navarro, Chara Machairianaki, Sofia Petropoulou, Periklis Chatzikyriakidis, Alexandra Koukoumialou & Kostas Kemparis.

My 11 questions are:

  1. What advice could you give to a new teacher?
  2. What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses in the classroom?
  3. How do you manage mixed ability classes?
  4. What was your most memorable lessson and why?
  5. Why did you choose ESL as a career?
  6. How often do you attend workshops,seminars,or conferences?
  7. How many years have you been teaching and where?
  8. Do you find the use of technology in the classroom helpful or hazardous?
  9. Do you tend to be a more traditional teacher or the kind that thinks out of the box more?
  10. What books have you read that you could recommendt to other teachers to promote their own professional development?
  11. What have been some of your favorite course books for teaching?

Do Grammar lessons need to be boring?????

michelleos69's avatarMIchelle's engaging Celta blog

Grammar lessons used to freak me out, literally FREAK me out. Grammar lessons seemed to be the least creative and most rule based lessons we teach.  Not so in the end.  Teaching Grammar forced me to look more creatively at how best to meet my learners needs and my own.  I want to share a successful lesson of mine where the target language was wishes and regrets. I taught it within a song.

 

I began my warm up with a series of black and white photos in a power point presentation.  I had my students discuss in pairs for about a minute the possible story these pictures told. Without confirming any guesses yet we listened to the song, “A lot of things different” by Kenny Chesney.  After the intial listening I was able to elicit the singers feelings, his regrets, his wishes and confirm their guesses.  They really responded well to a lesson with music. …

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My favorite activity on the CELTA course – a successful lead in activity

A successful lead in activity

A lead-in stage is  the first stage of any lesson and one of the first and  really basic  tools for an efficient and successful learning experience.

With the right lead-in, students will be motivated and become more interested in the lesson.

It is usually a short activity, but if it is well designed,  it can quickly attract student’s attention and help them clarify the purpose of the lesson.  A good lead-in can make them take an active part in class activities.

I have always focused my attention on creating effective lead-in activities because I consider them to be really important as I mentioned above.

My favourite lead-in on my course

In one of my later Teaching Practices my main aim was to develop reading sub-skills, and for that reason I used a text that was relevant to lotteries.

In order to draw my student’s attention to the topic  I very quickly showed my students two lottery tickets (flashed them really!!!) and then I hid them behind my back.

Then they had some time to guess what the mystery object was. After the time was up, I revealed the lottery tickets in order for them to confirm their guesses.

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Me ‘flashing’ the lottery tickets very quickly!

Why was it successful?

This was one of the most effective lead-in activities and generally one of my favorites throughout the course.

I think that this was an effective activity as it was brief, it was authentic and close to students’ life.

Another reason is that I used the element of mystery which almost every time attracts students’ attention.

As a result of this, the students were much more motivated and curious and read the text with great interest.

If you have any good ideas for lead ins, please add them as a comment below my post

Download my lesson plan and handouts

My CELTA experience

This is my first attempt at blogging so I hope my followers will find this interesting.

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Me in Teaching Practice – Monitoring!

I just finished my CELTA course last month at CELT Athens. It was quite an experience!

I consider myself to be of above average intelligence, a classic overachiever, but I have to say that the first week of this course made me feel pretty stupid. It challenged me in so many ways.

The amount of material to be absorbed is daunting! I am so glad I finally decided to do it!!!

If anyone is considering taking this course in the future I can highly recommend it. I now look back at it with such satisfaction. The knowledge and confidence I’ve gained I can’t measure as it’s still growing.

The course is demanding with 6 hours of teaching practice, planning, teaching and four written assignments but it’s well worth it.

I put in numerous hours and had no social life for four months but in the end I got an A.!

Here is a short video clip of me teaching in one of my last Teaching Practices

10 things you need to know about the Cambridge CELTA course

 

And why it’s the best step forward in your TEFL career

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Image1 “CELTA” originally stood for ‘Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults’ but was recently changed to Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. It is now a Level 5 Qualification and some Universities even offer credits in their TESOL courses for having done it!

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2The CELTA is an initial credential/qualification for teachers of English as a foreign language. This means that you do not have to be a practising teacher in order to do it.   Having said that, the CELTA also accepts experienced teachers who have never received any formal training or who have been teaching young pupils and would like to change their career focus.

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3It is internationally recognized and highly respected. The CELTA is the most frequent requirement for those entering the field of English language teaching. Many international language schools consider the CELTA as an absolute prerequisite for employment.

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4You do not have to be a native speaker of English to follow a CELTA course. Your English doesn’t even have to be perfect – official requirement is C1 or C2 level in the CEFR – but it sure helps to have a sound knowledge of the language as you are expected to be able to teach even higher levels.

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5The course is highly practical: everything you discuss in the input sessions is translated into action straight away in your teaching practices during the course, so you get a chance to try out new ideas and new way of teaching in every single one of your lessons!

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6 During the course you teach actual classes of students, after you have first observed experienced teachers or your tutors teaching these classes. You get immediate feedback on your teaching and you are also asked to develop your awareness and critical thinking skills by observing and giving feedback to your colleagues.

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After every lesson you teach, you are encouraged to reflect on what worked and what didn’t. Your self-reflections are written down and are part of your learning record for future reference. Then you can compare notes with your tutor and colleagues, and form a clearer picture of your strengths and weaknesses. This is a great feature of the course and helps you continue your development for long after the course is over!

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There is no final written exam in order to pass the course. In fact, you are not   assessed at the end of the course only, but throughout the whole process, in other words, assessment is continuous and integrated with focus on your development from lesson to lesson, rather than on grade averages.

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Yo9ur assessment is based on a portfolio of lesson plans, reports and written assignments, which you  compile yourself.  This is what the external assessor, who visits your CELTA centre at the end of each course, looks at to decide – jointly with your course tutors – on your final grade.

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10You do not have to do the full-time course option, although it may be your first choice for various practical reasons. There is a part-time option, which does not include daily attendance and may be more suited to those with a busy work schedule.

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Questions?

We are sure you have more than 10 questions about the CELTA course, so please feel free to contact us at  CELT Athens  for more information.

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About the Author 

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Alexandra Koukoumialou, or Alexandra Kouk (as many have come to know her on Facebook and Twitter) has been a teacher of English for more than 15 years. She obtained her Cambridge Diploma for Overseas Teachers at CELT in 1993 and ran her own private language school for 10 years in Athens. She now teaches general and Business English and Modern Greek courses at CELT Athens for which she is responsible. Alexandra also recently completed her Avalon Certification Course for Teaching Languages in Second Life.  She is one of the online tutors supporting our Distance Diploma in Translation Courses from and into Greek.

Alexandra has just completed her trainer training induction programme and is now an Approved CELTA tutor.

She is @AlexandraKouk on Twitter