05/11/2021
hello everybody uh so it's liza here um i'm glad
to see you joining me today uh if you guys hear and see me clearly
please let me know via the chat box and today we are going to discuss a problem
related to teacher development so while i am waiting for more people to
join me please let me know that you hear me and see me clearly okay and um
just quickly um let me introduce myself so um i am a non-native esl teacher
and an itt tefl expert uh so i go live uh every week on tuesday
uh and uh this live stream is provided by itttt international tefl and tesol
training hello everybody yeah thanks a lot for
uh letting me know that my system is working that my equipment is okay um i'm glad you
are tuning in and by the way please let me know where are you guys from
so um i'm located in russia but i used to teach in china for um
a couple of years uh and then um i went to thailand for uh just to relax
and um well pull my myself together and i finally i came back to russia to
teach um from here to teach online and um yeah to uh work as a tefl
uh expert uh all right so i can see that there are some people
from india that's always um nice to know where you where you guys are from uh because uh it
it helps me to understand that we are uh truly global well from south africa that's awesome
um okay and um as i have already mentioned today we
are going to dwell upon teacher development and i'd like to share
a sort of a strategy for non-native english teachers but um frankly speaking um
native english teachers can also benefit from such an approach because i know that
especially new teachers um face some problems uh at the very beginning
of their career and i believe if you guys know how to
um how to start from scratch and how to build on your uh professional
skills uh it is really necessary and um i really want to share this um
piece of knowledge with you so i hope that you guys uh will find it useful and yeah
uh let's let's quickly move on yeah let me change the slide
okay um i can see that there are people from the philippines from
turkey um nepal that's awesome and even from the uk um all right
thanks a lot for tuning in um i'm always um glad to see new faces
and i also see that there are people coming again and again um so thanks a lot guys
and let's move on okay so just a quick reminder uh itttt
is presented on various social networks so uh if you want to stay if you want to
keep updated on teaching and tefl um and stuff like that please follow us or
on your favorite social networks and uh yeah let's let's keep in touch
okay so before we move on uh to the main point of today's topic
um i'd like to ask you uh are you guys new to this field or
uh you are or you have some experience here like um have you already been
teaching or have you already started teaching please let me know via
the chat box as well because i want to know uh where we are
at and uh if we are on the same page um in this point
okay so have you already been teaching or you are completely new to the field
so um yeah i see that some people are new and that's awesome but it doesn't mean
that this presentation is just for those who are new to the field
um we will also discuss um such cases when people are pretty uh experienced
but still need some practice and training okay all right
and um the first point i'd like to discuss is um pretty simple like
when you're new to the field or maybe you haven't been teaching for some time
and you need to start from scratch or you have this gap after
i don't know uh for example you um you taught in the past and then you
decided to stop for some reasons so how to begin again
or how to start from scratch um the general suggestion would be really
simple uh try to find some initial training and what i mean by this initial training um
i'd say that it is important to build on your basic teaching skills and um
as for some basic skills uh i'd say that um different types of trainings uh
help to develop them and it's pretty obvious that tefl is
that certificate which helps you to learn about uh methodologies um
teaching approaches and stuff like that so if you guys are willing
to uh build your basic skills uh tefl or t soul would be
uh probably best um here uh however there are some
other trainings uh and i'm going to talk about them a little bit later uh and if we still
are here on this page i'd also like to mention that uh sometimes there are such
problems as like um english speaking abilities or english english language
abilities uh so if you are a native english speaker uh that might be uh not the case
uh you have to think of however for non-native english speakers uh
it's really vital to understand the level of your skills
of your ability and for those who are pretty advanced i'd
like to still recommend that it is important to take this uh tefl
training or tesol training so um just some basic training which will give you
this um understanding of how to teach exactly
because there are so many uh people who are pretty advanced who have been
learning english for many years uh and they believe that this is
where they they can start teaching but it's actually not true uh because
um your life experience might be a little bit different it it
can be related to some other fields but not teaching and teaching english is not the same as
learning it right um and by the way the same point occurs um to non-native teach
to native english teachers who believe that knowing english is is enough but it's
not actually so it's really important to find some basic uh teaching training
and then move on and if you uh are not
that advanced uh you can simultaneously work on both
um parts um as well so it doesn't mean that if you're for
example um upper intermediate uh it doesn't mean that you can't start teaching from here uh
yes you can but as you have to also work on your personal um experience like
uh like a language learner okay so uh just just remember
that um nobody is perfect and uh it's just a matter of practice and um
acquiring those skills both uh teaching skills and uh english language skills
and uh when it comes to some various modes of training uh there are two
uh general ones like online and offline oh here is the typo on my slide
i'm so sorry um okay it doesn't matter anyway
um it is important to um take to to decide like which type of
training uh you'd like to take uh either online or offline uh and here
um i'd say that there is not much difference um
well in terms of programs or skills you can acquire however um
we can definitely think of affordability and then demand
so um because of this pandemic situation
uh nowadays um probably offline training is more challenging
simply because it's not accessible to get to some
other countries to find find some training to seek some training
that is why online is a great uh mode to get this teaching experience
uh both from from the um development perspective and from the
practical perspective so it's it's really easy to both uh
study and work online these days uh and another
thing is that it's much more it might be much more affordable to get your
training online more and more centers like um more and more
uh educational institutions provides online courses and they are
equal to offline courses and the same um
thing happens in the esl teaching so if you want to get this teacher
training online isn't bad uh and i'd also like to remind you that if you
for example take a tefl certificate um it doesn't say what type of training
uh you had it doesn't say that it was completely online or completely
offline and uh moreover nowadays um more and more
employers and [Music] hr managers prefer to choose those
teachers who have online teaching experience and online study experience
just be just simply because uh such people have faced more challenges
and have had more
like have had uh more various type of training so if if you get what i mean uh
so just online um trainings are a new reality for us
um and yeah if if we go back to this program and skills uh
things uh they are pretty the same however i'd say that those teachers
who study offline uh who take um their courses online
um they probably uh are lacking some online teaching skills
um as a result so that is why there are more and more uh trainings
which offer developing offline online skills as well
okay and um as for some further development uh
let's let's just discuss these two things uh they are pretty um
they're pretty common to the esl world and they're really famous uh teachers
and like new teachers and experienced teachers um look forward to getting celta
or delta and i want to um tell you a little bit
about those uh certificates and uh also explain you like when it is
um the right time to take such certifications uh so if we take celta
as an example i'd say it's um this this type of type of training is
basic um according to um just websites and teachers who
obtained celta however if we compare celta to tefl
or tesol certificates celta is much more expensive and if you decide to take
celta um you'd probably need to uh like spend a month
or something doing nothing but celta so celta is a great certificate
uh it's a great training but um it's only affordable
to those who have time and money of course because it's pretty expensive compared
to a tefl certification for example however uh it is also basic it's not a special
certificate it doesn't give you um more opportunities uh when you go to look for
in your job or some something it's it's more like the same as tefl
however uh those teachers who um obtained celta in a real classroom they
uh mentioned that uh it provides with um a lot of practical experience so uh
if you for example haven't worked for a long time it might be a great
opportunity to get this real-life teaching experience um another difference
is that celta is really great for those uh who want to work with groups
either online or offline so if you for example it's not your case and you are willing
to work with maybe uh one-on-one students
with face-to-face students um it's it's probably
it's probably something to do either later when you're ready to to
work with groups or maybe you don't need it at all um and when we
also talk about some other types of trainings
some other types of certificates there are such certificates as tkt or young learners
these certifications are from cambridge as well however they are more specified
they are like specialized courses um for example uh if you took
your tefl certificate with itt already you could also take a
certification related to teaching young learners or business english
so these uh certificates are pretty the same as well but they are more
specified so basically there are a lot of ways how to
develop your teaching skills and how to deepen your knowledge
but it doesn't mean that you have to take celta only and when we move on to the next
um thing which is delta um i'd say that
this certificate it's not actually a certificate it's more like a diploma uh but it's not a
single course uh and it requires a lot of time energy and money
um it is desired by thousands of teachers or all over the world uh and not all of
them are like not all of us actually are ready to take delta like
when we are at the beginning of our career uh simply because uh it is a requirement
to have uh an initial tefl certification or like celta for example
however um it is a great opportunity to develop your professional skills
when you uh want to seek like higher positions
especially if you want to work as a managerial staff
for example you've been teaching for several years already and you're pretty
experienced but you're looking forward to becoming a head teacher or a head of a department
then delta is your case like it's time to take delta but as i have already mentioned
you have to need this experience uh and if you know something about delta
you probably um understand that there are uh three single modules uh
to take uh and they are pretty time consuming like um you have to
um you have to uh put a lot of efforts uh and that
you have to uh spend a lot of time on development developing skills uh
to uh pass uh all of the modules okay
and um well apart from celta delta and other
specialized trainings there are actually some alternative development opportunities
and you can see them on this slide um if you've watched my previous live streams uh
you probably could hear this word um massive online courses
it it has this abbreviation like m-o-o-c-s
this massive online courses are really affordable because you can uh
find them on such uh platforms as futurelearn
uh or for example coursera they are provided by famous educational
institutions for example british council cambridge oxford and
whatever there are thousands of various um
certifications which can be not certifications probably like
qualifications which can be obtained either for free or for little fees for example um a couple
of years ago i studied uh with future learn um i i took a course from
british council related to uh teaching english to early childhood students
uh it was really really useful and helpful to me at that time because i
started i i worked in china with um like four years olds and i had um
i i didn't know anything about how to approach to them how to um explain
english to those students who don't speak their mother tongue so
that course was really helpful and they paid about 60 dollars for the certificate
for the hard copy which is really affordable uh but there was an option just to
observe the course to study and not to get the certificate
at the end of the training so it's actually up to you if you want to
develop some special skills and get some more qualifications
massive online courses are also great
another point to mention here would be observed teaching practice which is uh a
vital part of your uh teaching progress
uh and teach teaching development um it is um accessible to those
who work in a real classroom uh or uh
with online teaching schools online teaching providers for example
when i again when i worked in china um every month
or yeah every month or something like that i was observed by other teachers and
uh they just commented on what was good what was uh not that good and gave me
recommendations that was really valuable and
it helped it helped me to work on my
problems and challenges as well
then when i worked for an online school here in russia
i also was observed every couple of months and their methodologists gave me a
report and their feedback and explain like uh at what areas i had to look at
and um how it is better to
how it is better to change something and improve my
teaching skills but if it is not something
that um is accessible to you like if you don't work in a real classroom or
in an online classroom uh there is still an opportunity to get this observed
teaching practice because different tefl providers offer this opportunity and
if we talk about tefl um if we talk about itttt we also have this
option um so you can check our website uh if you need something like
that if you want to get um assessed if you want to get
a feedback on your um real teaching um it's a great opportunity and by the
way from time to time i also get observed teaching practice
from my colleagues like there are many freelance teachers who
communicate with each other and who um are ready to like exchange their
experience uh so i i found one who gave me her feedback on my
teaching i just sent her my video the recording of my online english class
and she gave me her feedback it was really valuable because
i learned a lot uh she pointed um at some minor
problems that some uh specific issues i had and it helped me to
improve a lot so um just bear in mind that observed teaching
practice is really valuable and you can get it um it's it's also um
a step to becoming a professional and a more skilled teacher
and um last but not least uh self-study is also vital uh if you
want to be updated in terms of uh english teaching
and uh esl world it's necessary to look for
information all over all over you so
as for me for example i try to follow different blogs and um yeah
as i have already mentioned um in russia we we've got a really really great
community of english teachers those people are really interested in
the field and they always try to share their experience um ask for other
other people's experience and many teachers run their personal blogs
on social networks and it's really helpful um especially when you start from
scratch or when you are like stuck somehow for example
uh like a year ago no it was actually in the beginning of
2020 when when the pandemic um started i um
i followed a lot of english teachers on instagram and uh like looked at the ways
they started teaching online um because they shared different tips and
tricks on how to um enhance your teaching and it helped me a lot like
i i learned about mira and quizlet and other stuff like that
from their blogs and it's something really helpful
so make sure you try to be proactive in terms of self-study
uh look for as many opportunities as it is possible
because self-study helps you to build your personal
skills as well and teaching skills of course and
maybe this point is pretty obvious but experience is also something
necessary to add when you work on your teacher development i know
a lot of teachers who not not even teachers i know a lot of
people who take their certificates uh who finish
their studies and stuff like that um trainings but they don't
start teaching they don't start getting that experience which is even more necessary
than having a tefl certificate or their sell time so um
getting as much of experience as it is possible is really necessary if you want to
become better if you want to provide your clients with the best services
and even if it means that you'll get that you'll get paid a little less uh
it is still vital it is still important to take um any jobs and get this
experience and yeah i've already mentioned that i worked for an online teaching company
for an online school here in russia and just just to give you this piece of
knowledge like uh online schools in russia pay a lead
pay just so few to english teachers uh there are many reasons for that like
um they provide with materials they provide with students uh
so you basically don't need to do anything that's why they pay you a little
and i believe my um basic hourly rate was like oh let me
let me remember it was less than four dollars i believe uh but i still
worked for that company for several months because it was necessary to get this
experience and understand how to work with students online because before that
i actually taught uh in a real classroom only and i didn't have that experience
so um real life training and um yeah real life experience is
necessary and um as for this part of the
presentation that is all guys um but i can see that there are several
questions from you and i'd like to go to them
and answer but if you still have anything on your mind if you want to ask
me something related to tefl teaching i don't know teacher development
anything please go ahead and write your questions on the chat box so let's take this um
10 minutes or something um and do this q a session but uh
also a quick reminder if you are looking at uh taking a tefl certificate um
taking a tefl certification uh if you scan this uh qr code you'll get
to um the itt website and you will get this thirty percent
discount of any itt tefl courses
if you for example have your tefl certificate uh but you are willing to get an
observed teaching practice uh why not just go to the website
and check out if there are any opportunities and this incentive will help you to get
a discount it's actually the biggest discount you can get
um well um another way to get to the website
is to uh click on the link um in the chat box yeah and
uh you'll get to the itt website as well and now let's move on to the
questions all right so by the way guys thanks for joining me today
i really appreciate that um i know that you guys are all busy
english teachers are always busy but i hope to keep in touch um
like weekly okay all right so um i see that there are
some teachers who have already been teaching for several years that's awesome thanks sabina
for letting us know okay five years of teaching experience that's
great awesome um all right even 18 years of teaching experience and you
still come to this live sessions guys thanks a lot um it means a lot to me
all right and let's see
all right so the question is uh if you uh obtain your tefl certification
uh can you start teaching online as well yes you can so uh tefl certification
is really flexible uh the course is related to teaching in general and to explaining um methodologies
uh teaching approaches and how to create your lessons not necessarily
in a real classroom but you can also well you can also try to be flexible
and create your lesson online so uh for example
as for me um i took my tefl certificate uh in 2017 uh and i learned about that
esa strategy engage study activate in that tefl course um
from itttt as well and nowadays this is like the only approach
i use in my online teaching because it's really simple and um any materials any teaching
uh resources can be adjusted to that strategy yeah
so um it doesn't necessarily need to be um like like if you take a tefl
certificate or a tesol certificate uh you can totally work online as well right
uh all right uh thanks a lot for your uh
kind message i really appreciate that as well so greetings from jerusalem
thanks a lot for coming yeah yeah so the same question here i've
answered it already and if you uh look at your well um
it depends so um what kind of training would you like to
take um let's uh quickly go to the itt
uh website yeah let's see so
i've already mentioned that um we give this 30 percent discount
so if you get to the itt website
let's see just one second i'd like to share my
screen and show you how it looks and what courses you can look at
all right just one second
no problem thanks a lot for coming to this live session i really appreciate that and i always
try to be helpful okay so all right so
this is our tefl um tefl course.net website uh this is where you can get
[Music] your tefl certification and let's see uh how much
does a certificate cost so if you look at this three sections
you can see that um the prices start from uh 249
yeah um and it will be an online certification um but by the way uh if
if you get your hard copy of the certificate uh upon completion of your course
it won't state that you obtained it online it will just state how many hours
you got how many hours of training you got and uh if we look at this online tefl
certification uh the most basic training would be 120
uh twenty hours um or you can look at some uh
bigger certificates like um at those uh courses which have
more hours and they are not that expensive they are um
just starting from 289 dollars but remember that with this 30
discount from itt you can also get some some more um like
some some more i don't know dollars off okay uh and there are two more
modes in each certification in in each option so uh for example if you go
to the 120 hours tefl course uh you can take this course
uh just um for 249 dollars uh
and it won't contain any uh tutor support but if you are willing to
get some feedback from a tutor for from a real teacher uh it will cost a little bit
more like 339 but you will get this support
and all videos and stuff okay yeah so this is how our tefl
uh course.net website looks like and if you are interested in tefl
certifications or for example in jobs
there is a great job listing you can go to this
page and see what are some opportunities oh let's see this one is empty probably
um okay so let's see i know that china is usually full with
different um offers maybe it's not the case today
i'm not sure okay so for example there are jobs in south
africa um yeah if i'm not mistaken there is someone from south africa and if you are
willing to get a job um yeah you can look at this job listing
all right so that's all um about uh the website
uh do you guys still have any questions uh if you do please feel free to ask
me via the chat box or we can actually uh think of wrapping up
yeah i think we've we've done a pretty um extensive discussion today we've talked
a lot okay let's see there is another question
um all right so uh there is a question on uh how to look for students
well by the way we don't work with uh single students like our job listings
are more for um employers so you can find
jobs from companies there but if we talk about uh one on one
one-on-one classes i'd really recommend you to look at my
pre one of my previous live streams related to um online teaching platforms
uh because online teaching platforms are great placements where you can find your
one-on-one students yeah definitely
okay so uh but if we talk about the um our website
our itt website we don't post post um offers from
single students unfortunately uh but yeah if you are willing to learn
a little bit more about um online teaching and um
working with individual students uh please check out one of my previous
live streams um i actually did a couple of them um one of
one of them was related to um teaching on prepley and i did an interview with my friend
who is working for um prepley uh she
told uh different stuff like how to start uh how to build on your uh profile
there and things like that and also um i devoted one of the sessions or
maybe even two sessions uh to various uh platforms where you can also create
your profile and start teaching there
and uh the live stream from the last week was devoted to
uh building your personal brand uh on social networks um it's also
a great video to get some inspiration and start
teaching one-on-one as well because
here is like a problem how to find your first
students but there are actually so many ways to do that um and just just quickly to remind
you of your personal network uh this is how i usually look for my
students i i tell my friends that i teach
english and they usually ask me either to help them or they
recommend me to their friends and yeah it's just this word of mouth
um yeah so that's it um
so there is um the last question um i'm not sure how to understand that
uh what what do you refer to
is it free or what okay just give me some more information
uh yeah and i believe um we are yeah wrapping up
we're at the end of this presentation and let's see yeah
this is the final slide yeah thanks a lot uh thanks a lot for
coming and thank you for your nice words it's it's so pleasant to
um know that someone can benefit from it someone finds it
useful and interesting uh thanks a lot but by the way uh i usually add
another slide related to my facebook group uh so i created a facebook group uh
to keep in touch and if you guys are willing to communicate
with me um like uh apart from these sessions uh you can totally follow this link
from the chat box and join me on my english lifestyle group um
yeah if you have any questions if you have any concerns on your teaching
or i don't know like if you have questions about tefl you can totally ask me
uh just join me the um join this group uh you can also add me uh
to your friends list i usually try to be friendly like i i don't try to be
friendly i am friendly and um i always welcome to uh communicate so if you if it is
something interesting to you yeah just keep in touch with me uh thanks a lot guys for coming today
and yeah this is the end of today's sessions uh today's session uh i hope to see you
next time next week yeah bye bye guys see you next time
