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Teaching House

Why choose Teaching House?

Begin your career as an English language teacher with Teaching House. Established in 2006, Teaching House hosts a number of facilities that offer extensive training in English language teaching. Teaching House offers full-time, part-time and semi-intensive courses for the Cambridge University accredited CELTA certificate, one of the most prestigious and globally recognized TEFL certificates available.

Students develop their English language teaching education through daily input sessions, teaching practice lessons in which they are given a chance to learn and develop effective teaching methods, and by completing assignments. Resume and job assistance is available throughout the course and overseen by professional teacher trainers with years of travel and teaching experience. With an enrollment of over 3000 trainees you can be sure that Teaching House will provide you with the tools, support and encouragement you need on your journey to become a successful English teacher.

Founded
2006

Reviews

Default avatar
Jennifer
2/5
No, I don't recommend this program

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.

Pros
  • I have a CELTA cert
Cons
  • Lack of respect/concern
  • POOR job placement services
  • strict rubrics that they don't adhere to themselves.
Default avatar
Zach
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Hard work that pays off

I haven't been in school for 10+ years so it was hard to get back into that school work mode but it was ever so worth it. Great instructors - learned so much from them. Daily schedule is structured great - plenty of balance between input sessions, breaks and being able to actually teach in the afternoon was immensely important. Classmates were very helpful and everyone works together to complete tasks - there is no "i want a better grade than you so I'm not going to help" everyone was in it together. Do not expect this course to be easy but as long as you put the effort into it you will be able to pass. Glad I took this course and have the CELTA certificate that will allow me to begin the next chapter of my life.

Highly recommend this course if you want to get into teaching english.

Read my full story
Default avatar
Geoff
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Intensive Course that Teaches Many Things

At some point during the curriculum I realized, perhaps because hitherto I'd had no previous teaching experience, knowledge of grammar was far from being the main focus. That's not to say that I believe if one were deficient they wouldn't encounter a mighty struggle, no; only that there were many more details relating to other aspects of teaching. In fact, one thing that intrigued me most about this course was how it went about demonstrating the process of acquiring knowledge, and all that that might entail. It really is hard for me to go into detail, though I'd like to, because I wouldn't want to spoil anything! (and, in all honesty, because I am still looking through my notes and other literature in an attempt to apprehend more...). Paula Ellis and Lise Bell taught the curriculum and I believe were more than equal to the task of guiding us neophytes; especially when thinking, now, about what was being taught.

If you did this all over again, what's one thing you would change?
I would change the choices I made concerning time-management (hint hint)
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Anne-Louise
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Washington, D.C. CELTA

There was a lot of work involved in taking the CELTA! I loved the course, loved the people I studied with and particularly appreciated Paula Ellis and Adrienne Radcliffe, both absolutely fabulous trainers. The workload is challenging, and having the structure and clear guidance (at which both excel) to put order into the rather large amount of information we were absorbing in a limited amount of time, made my experience a really positive one.

Default avatar
Jeannine
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

"Intense" = Hard

I am a lawyer, so teaching English as a second language is a new career path for me. I've been out of school for a long time, too. I was probably the eldest in my class.

I took the CELTA course in 4 weeks, because my personal situation required me to take the condensed course. I wish I had taken it over a longer period to let the sheer volume of the material sink in more. It is VERY condensed, and quite demanding, and valuable.

There are two reasons I think CELTA is the premier ESL training program. First, you teach real students immediately, and second, you get thorough feedback after each & every teaching session. That's extremely important and I think it's unique to CELTA.

The trainers are grammar gurus, too. They KNOW their stuff and can articulate it well, and usually can help you figure things out for yourself (which is what we need to do for our own students, so they "walk the talk").

The only problem I faced (other than the sheer volume of information), is that there was a lot of education "jargon" which was totally new to me. Their methodology seems sound, so I trusted it even though the underlying theories were not always intuitively obvious. Also, there are a ton of different reference materials used in the course. But there's no central index, so you have to spend time looking for things that could be found more quickly with an index.

I graduated in late July, 2018. Within days of posting my ESL resume online, I had employers inquiring. I had to narrow my search down b/c I was actually getting too many inquiries. (This job search was more immediately productive than looking for a job as a lawyer, believe me). The CELTA course is more expensive than other ESL courses but I have a hard time believing the other courses are as thorough.

I signed a contract to work overseas within a month of graduation and am moving to Eastern Europe next week. I chose this particular job because they are modeled after CELTA's program so their content & approach were familiar. Also, the interview on Skype was with staff who were very warm, open and supportive. They were not recruiting so much as looking for a good fit. I didn't want to jump into a classroom without any support for my first teaching job. So that sealed the deal for me.

This career change is doing exactly what I hoped it would do. I have always wanted to live overseas, immerse myself in a new culture, and I've always wanted to teach. I leave for Poland next week, 6 weeks after graduating from CELTA.

What would you improve about this program?
For me, it would have been useful to get a course overview with terms explained, upfront.

Suggestions - If I had known then what I know now, I'd have prepared more by reading as much as possible ahead of time. Review grammar terminology you have likely forgotten, and read the CELTA pre-course materials. Once you are in class, ask questions of your trainers early on, don't wait until you are behind.


Also, there were so many different sources of information & reference material, that it could be time-consuming to know where to look. For instance, as a lawyer, I'd know which book to read for specific types of cases and exactly where to go, just by checking online or in a centralized index. But that wasn't the case for the course, although the main student coursebook is solid. So it would be very helpful to have a central index.

These suggestions should not be confused with criticisms. I loved this course. I found it demanding, challenging, and valuable.

Programs

Displaying 1 - 2 of 2

Alumni Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with verified alumni.

Why did you choose this program?

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.

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.

Staff Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with program leaders.

Nahal Hale

Job Title
Local Center Administrator
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Nahal was born and raised in Iran and came to the US to finish her college education. She has a Master's in Chemical Engineering and has worked in Silicon Valley and for Microsoft in Seattle.

Nahal studied English as a Second Language from Kindergarten to college, and started studying French on her own with a private tutor and continued for several years. She also speaks some Japanese from one year of living in Tokyo, and some Arabic from studying the Koran in elementary school and from the connections with her own Farsi language. Her love of languages culminated in her decision to take the CELTA course at Teaching House New York, and she later became a Local Center Administrator and managed satellite centers in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Learning the business side of running an ESL teacher training school has provided Nahal an opportunity to be in direct contact with candidates from their first inquiry to their graduation, and gives her the opportunity to witness their success stories on blogs and social media -- an experience she finds incredibly rewarding.

What is your favorite travel memory?

During my last visit to my home country of Iran, my brother and I ventured off to one of Tehran's busiest squares and bazaars - Tajrish. There we found a small ice cream store selling my most favorite dessert of all time, "paaloodeh shiraz" or Persian noodle dessert. This is an unusual dessert made with vermicelli-sized noodles, mixed in a semi-frozen syrup made from sugar and rose water that is similar to a sorbet, often served with lime juice.

Eating it always reminds me of walking outside on a warm summer night in my birth city Shiraz. This store's paaloodeh shiarzi was one of the best I had had in a long time! As I sat at the cafe eating paaloodeh, I reminisced about the great memories of my childhood and travels to my birth city. It is amazing how a specific taste can trigger a great number of memories and past experiences!

How have you changed/grown since working for your current company?

I communicate daily with many people from around the world on various media such as snap engage, phone and email, who are interested in taking the CELTA course or English classes. I have learned to be patient and meticulous in answering their questions with the recognition that they may be communicating from a different culture with a very different background.

I strive to be completely present with the person on the other side and give them 110% of my attention in order to address all their questions. I realize that many people might be making life-changing decisions by taking the CELTA course and starting on a new path. Therefore, I make sure they have the most accurate and timely information.

What is the best story you've heard from a return student?

We have a very loyal ESL student from China, Shi Hua, who registers for every ESL class and has been returning for 2+ years. He is a Chinese immigrant here in New York City. When his wife passed away, he started taking classes with us as part of the teaching practice English lessons of the CELTA Certification program.

We have been a stable reference point for him, always welcoming him to our classes. I feel he is not only improving his knowledge of the English language, but also making new friends and having an enjoyable pastime. At first, Shi Hua was shy to participate in end of course parties but now he is one of the first ones at the party and shares delicious treats from China with all the other students.

If you could go on any program that your company offers, which one would you choose and why?

I would love to travel to the various locations and centers to train new employees. Not only would I become familiar with our other locations first hand, but I would also enjoy meeting my colleagues in person. I would especially enjoy visiting London, Oxford, and Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Each center/city offers a unique experience for the students, both with their location and their personnel. For me personally, it would be wonderful to put a face to the voice of those I work with on a daily basis.

What makes your company unique? When were you especially proud of your team?

Doing whatever it takes to make sure the trainees have the best CELTA training experience and that the ESL students learn and improve their knowledge of the English language. Our trainers bring a vast experience of teaching abroad to their classrooms which is greatly appreciated by the trainees.

Whenever one of our graduates calls, writes, or stops by to tell us of their great adventure as an ESL teacher, I feel proud and happy.

What do you believe to be the biggest factor in being a successful company?

A successful company continues to strive to be the best in their field. There is a collaborative and inclusive environment where ideas and suggestions are taken into consideration and everyone is encouraged to have fun while getting the job done.

At Teaching House we take our graduates' feedback very seriously. We read and address each of the reviews with the goal to be best in class in the teacher training industry.