An experience that lasts for a lifetime

I completed the 100 hour TEFL course in 2009. It was a unique experience for me because I had the chance to work with a very experienced tutor. It was my first course for improving my working skills as a teacher who teaches English as a foreign language. At first I could not compare it with other courses since it was my first. But later after a few teacher training courses taken in my country, Macedonia, I realized that I definitely need the ITTT TEFL course. It was an online course. There are certain advantages to online training. Firstly, you can work from your home so there are no travelling expenses. Secondly, the working schedule is flexible. You receive an e-mail with materials and instructions and respond with the assignments in your free time. The course itself was very helpful. It covered a lot of topics like classroom management, teaching skills, language awareness, phonology, lesson observation and course materials analysis. It was my first year working as an English teacher when I started the course. It took me three months to complete the course. One of the best things was that I could apply into practice everything I was learning. I noticed how my teaching methods slowly started to change for the better. I became more confident and relaxed. The students, aged six to eighteen, enjoyed their lessons. The good thing about this course is that everything that you learn stays with you. It is present in your practice, when in the classroom, when preparing lessons, basically everywhere all the time. It is not something that you forget. The tutor was very helpful. He was assisting me in every way possible. My favourite part was when I had to make a lesson plan. The tutor did not agree with some of my ideas and he explained why, so I had to make a new one paying more attention to warm up exercises. In the end, of course, I did it well. I would highly recommend the ITTT TEFL course to other teachers. It is an experience that lasts for a lifetime.