ITTT TEFL Course in Cebu, Philippines

The program was fun, but probably due to my inexperience in teaching, I experienced a fair amount of anxiety. There was little doubt that I could succeed in the training, but I began to question whether I really wanted to be a teacher. I pushed through my doubts and did my best, and in the end I was able to prepare for and complete all of the required teaching practice sessions.

While the anxiety preceding each teaching practice session never went away completely, it was tolerable and I tended to feel much more comfortable once the sessions began and I was actually interacting with the students. Our teachers, Nancy and Ace, are very experienced and they gave us constructive and encouraging feedback throughout the course and particularly after each practice session.

This course has been an excellent experience on many levels. From the first day, I was impressed, and indeed inspired, by the two instructors, Ace and Nancy. Both possess a genuine passion for teaching as well as breadth and depth in both knowledge and experience.

For me, as a veteran teacher, the biggest challenge was expanding my horizons as to lesson planning and teaching style. Hitherto, I had mainly taught adults out of a textbook, and now I was being challenged to come up with original materials and to teach students across a wider spectrum of age and language level. I am happy to say that the instructors really helped me to utilize and properly channel my abilities. In learning about how to create materials, I learned what actually GOES INTO making a textbook.

Another advantage of taking this course is that one learns how to make each lesson more effective. Part of this involves making the lesson well-rounded, i.e. including listening, speaking, grammar, reading, and perhaps also writing. Henceforth, I am confident that students leaving my classroom for the day will feel that they have indeed learned something and know how to use it.

I certainly feel that this program is much more than simply a "piece of paper", and is rather a serious and essential step for those who wish to teach ESL.

I now put in my heart that every experience I encountered in my life may it be good or bad, poor or satisfactory is a dot that would connect everything in my existence and therefore my experiences during the TESOL training were taken as advantageous to me.

Memorizing lines or dialogues was not my cup of tea but I realized that in teaching a second language to other nationalities memorizing basic dialogues are vital, and becoming familiar with the procedures would somehow greatly help the teacher in executing the lesson in a more successful and less chaotic manner. That's where I came to know the importance and usefulness of making a lesson plan.

Another good thing about the training was the incorporating and preparing of our own visual aids. I believe that the visual aids helped the students and the teacher enjoy the lesson more and transfer of learning is more memorable and realistic because of the colorful and well researched visual aids.

Practice teaching and demonstrating with classmates and students helped me develop my confidence and knowledge on how to execute the lessons properly. My strategies in teaching had been refined and improved, and much to my amazement I have observed that I was able to deliver lessons that were orderly, worthwhile and successful...

Because of this I could say that TESOL has been of great help to me in all ways.

Very knowledgeable staff, current, relevant course. Good experiences. Classroom teaching experience afforded at all levels. Some mundane busy work, but not bad.

Very helpful with visa issues.

Very nice friendly community in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

The month long TEFL program was divided into two parts: the first two weeks were dedicated to lectures while the final two weeks were concentrated on actual Teaching Practice (TP).

Lecture weeks were pretty straightforward as trainers taught trainees how to write lesson plans and handle students using proper classroom management. At the end of the second week, I was personally more confident in my abilities to teach a larger group.

TP weeks were hectic and mind numbing, but also informative and humbling. Preparation for each lesson was a taxing affair but the contentment I felt after each lesson made up for the late nights and large intake of caffeine.

The trainers were able to prepare us sufficiently for each TP and graded after. I met great people and had a wonderful time at a beautiful location.Overall, it was a completely different, but amazing experience.

It was really good for me to learn how to teach foreigners as also one of foreigners in the Philippines. Even though sometimes we should do lots of assignments at a time a day it was helpful to enhance my reaching skills with good peers and teachers. I made many various friends there during the program and still contact them sharing information about English education. Staffs and teachers always help me to find good jobs available so I really appreciate them.

TEFL International`s TESOL Certificate program was very intense in schedule with so many activities. The learning and inputs from the trainers are amazing. The center people were very supportive to all of us. The program helped me improve my teaching and classroom management skills.