I recommend the CELTA but not Teaching House

THOUGHTS ABOUT TEACHING HOUSE: I DO NOT RECOMMEND.

I did the part time course on Mondays (530-930p), Wednesdays (530-930p) and every other Friday (530-830p). Students were divided into 2 groups, A & B. Group A taught on Monday, Group B taught on Wednesday.

Mon: Brief review of teaching points assigned to students in Group B. Group A does their practice teaching. Group A students write their self-evaluation. Group feedback is given.

Wed: Brief review of teaching points assigned to students in Group A. Group B does their practice teaching. Group B students write their self-evaluation. Group feedback is given.

Fri: These sessions usually covered upcoming written assignments.

The course is divided into 2 segments, each with a different teacher (pre-intermediate (I had Bita Rezaei) and upper-intermediate (Adrienne Radcliff)).

Once you complete the first segment, you will have no further access to your first teacher. (I sent an email to Adrienne asking for some clarification on some vague feedback she gave, but she completely ignored my email.)

Upon course completion, I had a few questions regarding the criteria used to determine my grade. I emailed Lizzy Adams (the director of the teaching program who sent me my grade) and she replied “the criteria is the criteria. You can file an appeal if you want.” I reached out to both teachers asking from some clarification and they both completely ignored my email. After a week, I decided to escalate to Lizzy’s boss, James Peaver. Lizzy took 4 days to give me her boss’s name. Lizzy seems unable to actually answer direct questions. After an entire month of emails to Lizzy and my teachers, I notified James Peaver. He offered to set up a meeting (M-F of the following week) between me, him, and a trainer. I replied letting him know I was available anytime on Monday or Tuesday and didn’t hear back from him for a week. The only time the trainer was available to me with me was 6am my time! I decided instead to notify Cambridge directly about my concerns. They responded to me promptly but referred me back to Teaching House so it wasn’t very helpful.

The appeals process is basically a joke (they even charge you to file an appeal!)

They will hold you to strict rubrics that they don’t adhere to themselves.

The teachers are not very accessible outside of scheduled hours. One of my teachers, Bita, took 3 days to respond to a question I had about my upcoming teaching plan.

They have an elitist attitude (Don’t question the CELTA gods!)

They are very helpful up until you are paid in full, then they will ignore you or say anything to justify their actions.

They will pass just about anyone but only award 2% of students with Pass A. They need to do away with their grading system. They emphasize that it doesn’t matter if you earn a Pass, Pass A, or Pass B. If that’s the case, why not just have Pass/Fail? (I got a Pass B, btw)

There’s no accountability – A teacher no-showed, both teachers ignored emails, they did not deliver the job placement services they promised.

The website advertises a multitude of available job placement services, however, they are virtually non-existent. We were supposed to receive 3 sessions dedicated solely to job placement (according to Lizzy) but we only received one despite the fact that the teacher cancelled our last class and instructed us to log in 50 minutes later than our scheduled start time during the last 3 weeks. This was all time that could have been used to provide the promised services that we PAID for. There is NO one-to-one sessions with a job advisor. There’s basically nothing. Telling me I can teach on Cambly or Preply is not helpful. When I voiced my concerns, they tried to do some damage control by telling me I could email them my resume so they could look it over. That is not enough. They did not deliver what they promised. That’s wrong.

THOUGHTS ABOUT THE CELTA:
The course is mostly self-led. There is coursework on the Moodle platform that you can do at your own pace. You will be assigned “Forum assignments” that will be mostly ignored. I was the only student to complete the forum assignment but never got any feedback from my teacher, Bita.
About 80% of the “for additional reading” links referenced at the end of each lesson are broken. Moodle in general is cumbersome and could be organized better. It’s also not terribly reliable. The chat feature doesn’t always work, for example, so you will have to set up an outside group on Telegram or Text to communicate with your teacher/cohorts.
In general, I recommend the CELTA certification. But for your own good, take it somewhere other than Teaching House.