From an Online Student

I was working full time so I couldn’t take the time off to do a month long course. Instead, I did iTTT’s Combined Course, where you do the book online and then you do your actual teaching practices in a real classroom.

The first part is the online completion of 20 units of the course curriculum as well as doing one lesson plan.

I then traveled to Thailand to do my observed teaching practices over a ten-day period at iTTT’s Bangkok center in the north of the city. This is where I taught in front of non-English speaking students in a real classroom setting. Importantly I got detailed feedback from Vantage’s trainers for each session I taught.
Each of my six teaching practices had to be on a different language topic. That meant I had to formulate a separate language plan for each practice session. Afterward, I got invaluable feedback on before I stepped into the classroom. While I did have to get on approved in the online portion of the Combined Course, it was getting this six approved by Vantage that really honed my talents.

This part of my course—the practicum—was invaluable. While I had a lot of knowledge from doing the course book online, it was really the real teaching where I developed the skills I needed to be successful in a classroom. It was a big help in that Thai students are great to teach as they are attentive and are very polite.

I just wish that I had the time to do the In-Class Course rather than the Combined Course version. After sitting in on some of the center’s lessons—and insights the trainer gave us which wasn't in the book, I realized what I missed by doing only the book on my own.

Overall a really great and fun experience. I highly recommend this course.