Since a very young age, I knew traveling was going to have a significant role in my life. I've always been in search for that elusive thing...thanks to mom and dad, traveling has been pretty regular growing up, so packing up my bags and leaving was never tough for me. I would be so excited and curious for anything new; guess things haven't changed much...
As for Prague...stunning! This city as an incredibly charming appeal full of castles/beautiful architecture. When I first arrived, it was something like 6am and walking out of a 9 or so hour plane ride felt unconsolable. All I could think of was a bed, but I'd waited hours until my head hit any pillow. The transport service desk I was supposed to check-in at arranged through the school was nowhere to be found, so after wondering and almost panicking, finally I found someone who spoke English and helped me. Seems like most people here are happy to go out of their way to help. For example, the other day I was standing in the metro in front of a map of Prague looking pretty confused I'm sure, an old man came over and pointed me in the right direction as his train came and passed! He didn't seem to mind he'd just missed his train; it was really kind of him to stop to help. That's just one example of the friendly and helpful disposition I've encountered here.
So, anyway, the TEFL course...The 'Praguest' [August] TEFL course, or I've even called it TEFL Boot-camp...hahah...probably the most intense four weeks of my life thus far. Anyone who completed the course, I'm sure, would be happy to agree with that. The main instructor, Terry, was/is an amazing teacher with a wealth of knowledge. I now understand why this school is in the top five TEFL schools in the world...the course was invaluable. It was really interesting to learn how to teach English compared to the States. We learned to keep the students engaged and laughing while they learn. There is significant emphasis based on having the students engage in activities together. The curriculum is mainly based on pair/group work and playing games to learn the English. If you have the students laughing and playing games together while learning, you're doing a great job. In the States, much of the curriculum is based on the teacher; here, the curriculum is based around the students. It's imperative to be student-centric. Much of lessons taught are one-to-one, in which lesson plans are tailored to one student. Say, in a 45 minute lesson, the teacher talks for about 15 minutes of it, and the students are doing all the other talking, it's a success. With that said, it's a very interesting contrast and I prefer this way of teaching because the students seem much more lively and excited about learning when laughing and games are involved. The course was a total of 120 hours and I had the opportunity to teach 8-10 hours in the classroom with elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate and upper intermediate. We also were required to teach 'one-to-one.' I was paired to teach a woman named Mila, a very nice native to The Czech Republic. I taught a total of three lessons with her. She was interested in learning English mainly for social reasons [conversation], like many who learn it. In the last [fourth] week of the course, we had a 13 page evaluation of our one-to-ones which included analysis of Mila's reading, speaking, writing, listening skills, etc. I graduated with a 'Strong Pass' on September 4th after all of that hard work and couldn't have been happier!!!
Anyway, I'll catch up with this soon and update, but for now, I think this is sufficient. :] I miss friends and family terribly, but am happy to meet friends here and create somewhat of a 'family' in the meantime...
<3
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