Finished my TEFL :)

One of the requirements for EPIK this year, was that you had to have completed 100 hours of more of a TEFL course. In previous years, this was only required to move up a pay grade, however this has now become a requirement.

I started looking around at which course to take, and if I am pretty honest, I was a bit overwhelmed with how many different courses there were! EPIK had advised that we could take either TEFL/TESOL/TESL courses, as long as they were accredited and over 100 hours.

In the end I went with 'Online TEFL courses' which is part of TEFL Scotland.

I choose the 100 hour course and this comprised of:
50-hour Online TEFL course
-  Here I learnt about lesson planning, preparation and delivery, as well as classroom management, teaching styles and advanced TEFLmethodology.
30-hour Grammar and Language Awareness course
-  Here I learnt about the terminology and rules of English grammar. (Surprisingly my French lessons helped me with the terminology part of the course!)
20-hour Online Video course
-  Here I observed real TEFL lessons and looked at what worked and what didn't work

I liked that you got the same personal tutor throughout each course, who would give me helpful tips on the assignments. There was also a course forum where you could bounce ideas off other students that were also taking the course. Not all of the other courses provided this, and it was one of the reasons that I decided to go for this company.

The course cost £229 / $329 / €259 and I definitely think that it was worth the money. I feel a lot more confident in planning lessons, game ideas and teaching different types of grammar.

After spending a couple of hours most nights working through this, I am very happy to have finally passed and my certificates should be arriving home very shortly :)

In other news, I gave my first English lesson today. One of the mums at school, asked if I would come and spend an hour with her son to help improve his fluency and to make him talk a bit more. So, I put my newly qualified self to the test, and I think it went pretty well, his mum was happy and I am going again next week to continue the lessons :)