I knew from a young age that working with children was a passion of mine. It wasn’t until later in life that the opportunity presented itself for this to happen. While traveling the world, I was in a café in Montevideo, Uruguay and began a conversation with an elderly woman who was a professor. During our conversation, we began speaking about CELTA and how it seemed like it would be the perfect tool for me to achieve my goals.
Alumni Spotlight: Zach Anastasi
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Zach has a passion for working with children and seeing the world. He decided to put the two and two together and complete his CELTA certificate to pursue this journey.
Why did you choose this program?
What did your program provider assist you with, and what did you have to organize on your own?
The CELTA program provided everything that I needed to complete this course. The assessors were fantastic during the course, providing us everything we needed to complete the written assignments, as well as to prepare for our teaching practices. The students in the class were also great to work with and it was a real teamwork-like atmosphere.
What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone going on your program?
I would let them know that they need to be prepared to put aside and on hold everything in their life for that month. This is a class that requires 100% of your attention and if you aren't fully invested with the right mindset, it will crush you.
I would advise them to not think that, because they are a native speaker, this will be an easy class (that is the mindset I somewhat went in with). Don't make the same mistake.
What does an average day/week look like as a participant of this program?
Each morning begins with an 1:15 input session followed by a 15 minute break. You then have 45 minutes for TP time, which is where you brainstorm/start putting together your next lesson plan. Then another 1:15 input session followed by an hour lunch break.
The afternoon is 2 hour class of teaching to real English students - every other day you are teaching a 40-60 min lesson. Followed by the teaching, you have an hour group feedback discussion, which is extremely beneficial.
You also have about 1 writing assignment a week or 2, depending if you have resubmissions to do. Everything is spaced out accordingly and you are always told what needs to be done.
Going into your experience abroad, what was your biggest fear, and how did you overcome it? How did your views on the issue change?
I have travelled significantly, so I am excited to begin the journey of actually living abroad and beginning a life internationally.
Is there any other advice you'd like to share with prospective travelers?
Be open to all opportunities and do plenty of research on where you would like to end up and why.