CIEE Teach Abroad & TEFL Reviews

During this 10 week TEFL course I developed my awareness of the field and practices of TEFL and gained a deeper understanding of the components of the English language applicable to teaching EFL. I’ve also developed appropriate lesson plans for a variety of learners to aid both their receptive and productive skills and their use of English. This course has given me the confidence to step into my classroom in Thailand. The practicum gave me first-hand experience with teaching so I could better understand what was to come.

Now I'm in Thailand teaching English to 6th grade students and I use the skills I learned from my course every day. I have an awareness of how to build my lessons in a way that brings the learners along with me to eventually create projects using the English skills I taught them. I know many games and have access to many resources to keep English learning exciting. I'm able to blend together my new learnings from the teachers here in Thailand with my understanding of TEFL theory I learned in the course. Currently, I am having a nostalgically joyous time teaching Christmas to the children in my classrooms.

The CIEE TEFL program really helped me become a successful teacher equipping me with the skills and confidence to kickstart teaching English to Thai students. I would recommend the CIEE TEFL course to anyone who is going to teach overseas.

The 150 hour TEFL course sounds like it would be a lot of work, but you learn so much from it. The weekly discussions with the tutor were fun and it was nice to get feedback throughout the course. Overall, I would definitely recommend the course to anyone thinking of taking it.

I'm sure anyone who's gone to Thailand will tell you they had an amazing time, so I'll just second that. My experience in Thailand was great. CIEE did a great job in preparing me before going abroad, and their on-site partner OEG was constantly in contact with us, and always there to help. Even while we were working in country we'd still receive information from CIEE, just checking in to see how we were doing or wishing us a happy-Thai-holiday.

I learned that teaching is not my life calling, but I didn't regret my choice of teaching in Thailand one minute. The students I worked with were extremely smart and funny. One class would always ask me, "Teacha Jenna, can we watch Mean Girls"? - I mean, how do you say no to that?!

My school was a little stricter than others, so we didn't have many days off, but I still feel like I explored the country to the fullest. I found time to travel to northern Thailand, the islands in the south, and took many short weekend trips to cities 2-6 hours from where I worked.

I'm glad I went with CIEE and not on my own, because it was great having their support during the preparations. When we arrived in country we had a week long orientation which is where I met all my friends and travel buddies for the time I was abroad. It also created a sense of community and support that I wouldn't have had if I would have gone on my own.

If you are considering teaching in Thailand through CIEE I would encourage you to do so. It was a great experience that I haven't regretted for one second, and I know an experience like that won't come around again.

If you'd like to hear more about my experience, you can read my blog from my time in Thailand here: https://jennaleighschumann.wordpress.com/

This was my first experience with an online course. An online course wasn't my first choice but it fit my timeline and schedule much better than taking a class in person. I was able to do most assignments on my own schedule and own time. However, it was much more work than I anticipated. Luckily, it was during the summer and I only had a part time job because if I had a full time job I am not sure that I would have effectively gotten the most knowledge out of the course. The tutor was wonderful and helped talk me through my decision to teach abroad in Spain. We also still keep in contact occasionally and she's still willing to give me ideas and assistance about TEFL!

I learned so much from CIEE TEFL. The material was easy to understand, but also valuable information to learn from. Our instructor welcomed any questions we had and made our online group sessions valuable and engaging. The projects and tests were productive. If you put in the time and effort, you saw the results of this. I highly recommend CIEE TEFL.

The course was fine. It covered a lot of material that has been useful in my first weeks teaching in Korea. I will definitely refer back to the downloadable units and the many links. The practicum element was great too; I learned many things from the teacher I observed. I would recommend to anyone looking for a solid online program.

I was hesitant at first to take the TEFL certification course through CIEE. I already had a teaching position and the course was not necessary for the job. I decided that it was still a good opportunity and took the class. I am glad that I took the course. It was a good refresher of some methods that I had learned at the university. It was a great opportunity to begin collaborating with other students and create lesson plans and activities that could be implemented into the classroom.

I usually feel pretty uncomfortable in front of a camera so having to record myself giving a 7 minute class to invisible students was a nightmare. I probably worked on in for a few hours because I kept making mistakes or laughing. In the end I just started having made up conversations with the students. I'm sure it was pretty painful to watch and I'm thankful only the teacher could see it.

The CIEE Certification Course was super helpful in helping me understand what I was going to be getting myself into when working abroad. I had never taught in a classroom setting before, so the course gave me a lot of insight in how to prepare for classes and create lesson plans. It also gave me different ideas for activities I could do in the classroom to make a more interactive approach to teaching. The course was a little expensive for me. I feel that I could have done a similar course for less.

I enjoyed the CIEE TEFL Course. They were very helpful during the course and afterwards when I was applying for a job overseas. The course was very informative, especially since I do not have an education background. It provided many ideas for teaching your own class and also provided links to many additional resources online for EFL.