TEFL Zorritos: November 2013

Wednesday 27 November 2013

TEFL Success Stories - Part 28

Genevieve - Shetland Islands

Taking a deep breath, I brace myself, ready to be blown along the windiest street in Lerwick. But tonight is unusually calm. As I walk towards the town hall, I can make out a procession of figures ahead of me. I follow it; past the green-eyed gargoyles guarding the entrance and into the chill of the vestibule where a crowd of people stand, waiting. Many of them hold plastic boxes. Enticing smells waft through the Tupperware and the air hums with cheerful anticipation.

Tonight the Shetland community celebrates the achievements of its ever-growing community of ESOL learners, who attend English night classes through the seemingly endless, dark Shetland winter. Many of them do this on top of long hours working in gruelling fish factory and catering work. This night, however, is for celebration.

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It begins with a speech given by one of the local councillors. His presence lends the occasion a certain pomp and circumstance. However, I wonder if many of his audience understand more than a few phrases; and when he utters the words "Your English is a lot better than my Russian … or whatever", I hope they don't.

With the speech finally over, we settle down to our evening of celebration. The learners read poems in their own languages: we hear a ballad in Latvian, a song in Nepali and an Arabic hip hop number. A dark and impossibly handsome Sicilian entrances the audience by reading a recipe in Italian. My class has made a film about their experiences of life in Shetland: I have been waiting nervously, dreading technical hitches, but none come. The audience laugh at the right places and the faces of the learners next to me are happy and proud.

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After the ceremony, we retire to the back of the hall where the contents of the Tupperware dishes are displayed on plates. What a spread we have prepared together! Hungarian langos, Polish bigos, Thai vegetables and Nepali dhal. One of the teachers has prepared a token Scottish dish: mince and tatties. It lingers forlornly on its plate, outshone by its exotic neighbours.

A handful of us venture out into the cold night: a mixture of Polish, Hungarian and Serbian learners. We head towards a small, fairy-lit pub on one of the lanes: Da lounge. Once inside, we are already planning our next film.

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Outside, winter's first snow floats past the window and the boats on Victoria pier are already iced with white. We spill out onto the streets and stand with our heads tipped back, tasting the icy flakes. An inebriated sailor amuses us with his monologue. My learners, emboldened by beer, banter and laugh with him.

Back inside Da Lounge, the barman is playing jazz on the piano. His friend takes up her guitar and they play on till closing time. By this time, Lerwick is covered by a thick white blanket. We end this perfect night with a snowball fight then walk home through a newly-light town.

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Monday 25 November 2013

TEFL Success Stories - Part 27

Ben - China

Sixteen students are absent from my grade one lesson. Almost half the class. This is by no means a common occurrence - there's no place for truantism in China's rigidly disciplined school system - yet they seem to think they can get away with it during my lessons because to them I'm simply not a teacher. I'm a Foreign Teacher, an entirely different species, and what I say or do just doesn't carry the same weight as my Chinese colleagues.

"They are not here," pipes up one of their more outspoken classmates "because they think your lessons are not very interesting."

"Do they do the same in your other lessons?" Even as I ask, I know I'm flogging a dead horse and that this line of reasoning will get me nowhere.

"Haha. It is not allowed." By now I've become accustomed to this particular variety of humourless Chinese laughter; it says, "Don't ask such a stupid question."

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Another of the more vocal members of class 6 joins the discussion:

"Your lesson is not very important to us. There is no exam."

As hard as this might be for me - their caring, sharing, progressive teacher - to accept, in a way it's actually true. No exam means that my Spoken English course will not contribute to their all-important final grade, and therefore will have absolutely no bearing on their chances of getting a good university place, and ultimately a job. To these students, grades are everything.

"We must study English well; it is vital for the development of our China", I have been told. But bland platitudes like this aside, and despite China's current obsession with adopting English as de facto second language, when it comes to the crunch for most high school students - not to mention their parents - the only thing that matters is a percentage score on a piece of paper.

Every student in China is required to study English up to and including University level, and standards in reading and writing are often very high, especially in schools like mine - this is one of the provincial education bureau's 'key schools' for English teaching. Grammar, vocabulary, sentence constructions; the traditional aspects of language learning are taught and tested thoroughly and by rote - perhaps not the most pedagogically useful of methods, but at least it helps pass those exams. The spoken and communicative aspects of the language, however, are almost never assessed. Even though there are some very talented students simply begging to be challenged and inspired in their English classes, my lessons will always play a poor second fiddle to grammar rules and textbook work.

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"You're not like other Foreign Teachers, Mr. Ben. You don't want to play games."

This frustrating situation is what an American colleague of mine has described as the dancing monkey syndrome. Balanced precariously between valuable educational resource and cut-price entertainment service, the role of the Foreign Teacher is not often clearly defined by the institutions that recruit or employ them. This is a situation which isn't helped by the flooding of the circuit in recent years with young, unqualified teachers who see an ESL job in China as a stepping-stone to an expenses-paid holiday in return for sixteen periods of hangman each week - acting the fool and playing the dancing monkey to keep the students happy. While I see nothing wrong with that in itself - China needs all the help she can get when it comes to English, and it's certainly great experience for anyone considering a teaching career - it leaves in the minds of my students a confusing and conflicting impression of the purpose of the Foreign Teacher.

The schools themselves don't help matters either. Competition in the education sector is strong, and having a pet Foreigner is a very prestigious mascot for a Chinese school. Middle-ranked schools especially feel they have to set themselves apart from local rivals, yet in the race to attract us the schools are tripping over themselves.

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I am left largely to my own devices when it comes to teaching. On one hand this is no bad thing - complete freedom in the classroom to teach whatever and however I see fit, with no textbook to slavishly follow is, I'm sure, a situation that many teachers would envy - but the flipside of this is that my classes just don't fit into the larger scheme of school life. Since coming to China I've taught classes of up to 60 for only a single, 45-minute period each week. You don't have to be a maths teacher to see that this doesn't amount to a lot of contact time per student, but this is all the timetable space the school have been willing to make available for what is - so they claim - one of their most important subjects. Not only that, but my classes are regularly moved or cancelled at no notice to make way for something eminently more important - like yet another set of exams. To add insult to injury I'm not even on the timetable as an English lesson. I'm a 'Foreign' lesson.

Neither are many institutions especially rigorous in their recruitment. The luckier ones get to work with organisations such as VSO or the British Council, who guarantee a certain standard and commitment from the teachers they provide, but this route is not open to every school - in most cases only to those, such as key schools, which already have a high calibre of student. The remainder, being almost too eager for their own good to employ a Foreign Teacher, seem to operate a no-questions-asked policy. I've even come across non-native speakers employed as English teachers; in many cases all that would seem to be required is merely looking Foreign enough.

As a result of all this, the students - too used to a rapid turnover of dancing monkeys - have decided not to co-operate. In short, they don't want my carefully crafted, inspiring, life-enriching lessons; they want a clown who plays hangman. At times I have felt like a wasted resource.

Outside the classroom - as a novelty, an interesting Foreigner to talk to, confide in, ask for advice or just to make fun of - they love me, but as a teacher they'll never truly like me.

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Thursday 21 November 2013

TEFL Success Stories - Part 26

Nihat - Turkey

Turkey is a strange country. On one hand, she is one of the biggest natural open museums in the world with Hegia Sophia, Ephesus, antique theatres, and the other ruins of all the ancient civilizations that dwelled in here. Being located in Eurasia, she bridges Asia and Europe and is also surrounded by three seas (Mediterranean, Aegean, Black Sea). She has got beautiful beaches, natural resources like spas and an incomparably beautiful nature. On top of all this the Turkish people regard entertaining guests as a holy mission. On the other hand, Turkey cannot make the best use of these beauties. People have been seriously suffering from an economic crisis for two years. You may think this has affected the English teaching sector in a negative way. "While people cannot make a living easily, how on earth can they spend money on language learning?" you may think. On the contrary, the crisis surprisingly contributed positively to the sector for people that were laid off have learned a lesson: they need to get more and actually working qualifications like English and computers.

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Employed or unemployed, business (wo)men or employees, a lot of people are nowadays taking English courses. There are a lot of successful entrepreneurs in Turkey that follow the technological developments closely and try to catch up with the newest innovations. They have seen that the domestic market is too small for all, so they need to open to the world market. They are using English in their web pages to advertise and/or to import and export.

I've been teaching English to Turkish students for 7 years all of which passed in private schools. Private schools in Turkey have preparatory classes during which students are taught about 25-30 hours of English a week.

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Turkish students, like the aforementioned Turkish entrepreneurs, are aware of the fact that only if they can communicate in English, they will have an advantage over the other candidates when applying for a job. This encourages them to learn English, which even leads them to go to English courses on weekends or in the evenings. What's striking about them is their interaction and warm conversations with the expatriate teachers whose main duty, most often, is to teach speaking. To illustrate, I remember a hot discussion between the two people on whether Washington apples or Amasya ones (a city in Turkey) are more scrumptious. Students even brought into the class some apples to add to the discussion. What I am trying to get at is, once you call their attention, they can blow your mind with their participation.

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State schools are not as lucky as the private ones, though. Due to the economic crisis the whole country is suffering from, they cannot afford to employ expatriate teachers to teach their students. They have to make do with enthusiastic Turkish teachers of English. Yet, the new policy of the Ministry of Education seems to contribute to the significance of English in Turkish education curriculum. The Ministry is planning to teach first year students in the high schools 20-25 hours of English a week – not 2-3 hours as it used to be. This means more students needing to learn English, and, accordingly, more demand for teachers and English materials. Maybe, as a requirement of the new policy, the Ministry will agree to employ foreign teachers soon. Who knows?

In brief, the status of English in the Turkish Education Curriculum and also in the commercial arena is gaining more importance every day. It is now an imperative that each and every Turkish citizen learn to communicate in this language. If you are a person that loves teaching, that enjoys sharing and dealing with young learners, then Turkey is the right place for you.

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Tuesday 19 November 2013

TEFL Success Stories - Part 25

Kate - Italy

The Italians call Mantova La Bella Adormentata, or 'the Sleeping Beauty' because this town gets so deathly quiet, especially at night. Mantova's high school students are the exception to the rule. They are most definitely wide awake and full of prodigious energy.

I'm teaching conversation at Liceo Virgilio, the classical and linguistic high school in the centre of the oldest part of town. The school itself is also very old, and built as a gift to the town from Marie Antoinette's mother, Maria Theresa of the Habsburgs. The ceilings are frescoed and 30 feet high but not much has happened since the 1700s by way of renovation. The gym, for example, must have been an old ballroom. Now a flimsy net on the ceiling protects the paintings from basketballs. Technology is almost as scarce as it was Maria Theresa's day, making my teaching tools varied out of necessity – YouTube clips in one classroom and chalk in the next.

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I am the first conversational teacher the school has ever had, and since it is the program's first year there is no set structure so I am free to approach teaching anyway I choose. Through a little trial and error, I think I have found ways to spark conversation among each group of students.

My first class this morning is a second-year class from the classical school. They study French, English, Latin and Greek, as well as all the other necessary topics. Despite the ambitious curriculum, they are not overly bookish and retiring. Quite the contrary. As I approach the classroom, I hear the hum of chatter. When I walk in, there is an audible spike in the energy level. "Kate is here! We don't have to work!" I can practically hear them thinking. The secret is to help them learn without them realizing they are doing some heavy lifting.

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Today they are going to partner up and describe the perfect job for each other. I ask them to list different kinds of jobs, and I write them on the board. "Furrier!" "Mafiosa!" "Astronaut!" "Housewife!" With the list as their inspiration, they're off. They must consider their friend. What is she good at? What characteristics does he have? Then they put the pieces of the puzzle together. "Mario would be a good president of Italy because he is lazy and does not like to work, but he wants to make lots of money easily and be a leader." Everybody agrees that they have been accurately judged, except for the girl who was told she would be a policewoman.

Next class: older students from the linguistic high school. They're too sophisticated for games, so I ask them to consider stereotypes. I came up with this approach because the students constantly ask me what Americans think of Italians. Jersey Shore comes up a lot. "Do Americans think we are like the Italian Americans on Jersey Shore?" I've realized that I've never really had to think about how Americans generally perceive Italy. As we talk, I realize this country probably conjures up visions of pizza, wine, Tuscan villas, the seaside and beautiful people.

Now I turn the table on them. I ask them what they think of Americans. Most of the students at the school are girls, so Gossip Girl and the The OC are their reference points. "You are rich!" "You live beautiful lives!" "You have expensive cars!" "Big houses!" And, of course, "You are fat!"

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I respond by showing them a clip from Eat Pray Love. Julia Roberts is talking to some caricature of a man in a barber shop in Rome. His last name is Spaghetti. He is saying, "You Americans, you don't know how to enjoy yourselves! The point of life is not to work but to pursue la dolce vita. Relax and don't worry so much all the time." I ask the students if this is a true depiction of how Italians approach life.

"No! We work all the time!" they say. Given their multitude of classes, I believe them. To keep up with so many languages, they must have to study all the time.

The school day finishes early here. When we spill out onto the cobblestone streets, sunlight is pouring down from the tile roofs of the stone buildings. Down the street, I can see the blue cathedral dome and the old, empty towers of the medieval city. The laziness inherent in the la dolce vita philosophy might be a myth, but it is certainly sweet to live here.

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Sunday 17 November 2013

TEFL Success Stories - Part 24

Mark - Mexico

I arrived in Mexico in the summer of 2000 fresh from a TESL course. I'd taken a job in the city of Queretaro in central Mexico after a 20-minute telephone interview with the school's Swiss owner. I didn't really know what to expect but was just looking forward to something new…something different.

On arrival in Queretaro I was amazed. I found myself in one of the most beautiful cities I'd ever been in - full of beautiful Spanish colonial architecture, terrace bars and restaurants, plazas with ample seating and beautiful fountains full of families in the evenings, narrow winding streets with vendors selling all kinds food and local handcrafts and grand old houses with beautiful, open "patios". With so much history around me, it felt like I was walking around a movie set. I felt incredibly lucky to have ended up in such a place but was soon to find out that Mexico is full of equally wonderful cities.

At 7am Monday morning however, I remembered that I was here to work. The school was smaller than I'd expected as was the system of teaching. I was told that I'd be teaching classes of no more than 4 students of more or less the same level but that they'd probably each be doing a different chapter from the book. Later, I came to realize that buzz words or phrases in the marketing English institutes in Mexico are "native teachers" and "small classes" and that various other schools in the city offered very similar systems.

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The first few weeks flew by trying to teach 3 or 4 different grammar topics in one hour. After a month it felt like I'd taught everything in the book. I realized that in fact it was impossible for a student to possibly understand how we use, for example, the present perfect simple after their 15 minute explanation from me but that this wasn't my problem. Too keep myself motivated I started trying to think of imaginative, "student centred" ways to present the topics and thus keep the students engaged even if they weren't exactly learning what I was supposed to teach them.

Within the first month the school converted my FMT tourist visa to an FM3 working visa and paid the $1700 pesos to the immigration department. I would just say to anyone whose thinking of coming here to get your TEFL certificate, birth certificate and degree certificate notarized back home first otherwise you won't get the visa.

Furthermore, I was getting paid my $6000 pesos per month on time and occasionally received a bonus. The pay was enough to rent a room in a house in a good neighborhood, eat out several times a week and go out at the weekends. I couldn't save too much and couldn't travel very far, but that didn't matter too much as I had no time to go anywhere.

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The students were great and I made some good friends. They ranged from business professionals, university and high school students to bored housewives. The small classes meant that I was able to get to know some of them quite well. I found myself invited to all kinds of parties and celebrations and got a great insight into Mexican life (at least an affluent, middle class version).

In general my students seemed quite motivated – most of them needed English to find good jobs or to enhance their chances of promotion in their existing jobs. The demand for English as a foreign language in Mexico stems the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. NAFTA meant that many north American companies set up plants the in industrial areas of Mexico such as Monterrey in the north, Mexico City, and the Bajio region in central Mexico which encompasses the cities of Queretaro, Leon and Celaya.

The only problem was that I was exhausted after teaching 8 hours a day plus Saturday mornings. The shifts were split; the mornings began at 7am and the afternoons ran until 9pm. I also began to notice that the morale amongst the staff was pretty low. Everyone felt the same about the system and the hours. As the months went by, teachers came and went…few stuck out their year contracts. I kept working, realizing that the system at the school wasn't the greatest but that I was learning a bit of Spanish, traveling a little and getting to know the local area and its people. I'd taken a risk going there, my relationship with my boss was good and I was enjoying life.

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After a year, strangely, I found myself as the most experienced teacher in the school just because I'd stuck it out. My boss offered the opportunity to become the academic director of one of his new schools in the smaller city of Celaya which is about 45 minutes from Queretaro. My pay was doubled but the hours got longer. More money meant I could rent my own apartment and live more like I would back in England. It also meant that my Spanish got a kick start as I suddenly became responsible for selling courses when people came in for information and dealing with my secretary who didn't speak any English. On the plus side, it gave me an opportunity to shape the teaching system and change some of the materials and more generally develop a more effective learning environment.

Another year went by and things were good. My boss asked me to move to Morelia, another beautiful colonial city 3 hours away, and open a new school for him. I got another pay rise. Once again I found myself in another beautiful place, this time closer to the pacific coast. Things were good. I realized that I'd got lucky in Mexico.

After a year in Morelia I returned to Queretaro, back where I'd started. This time I was to work as a teacher trainer. I did for 6 months but realized that my heart was still in Morelia. In February 2004 I returned to Morelia and started working freelance, teaching business English in-company and running TOEFL preparation courses in the evening. Mexico has been good to me and is a wonderful country to live and work in. The historic cities have beautiful colonial architecture, there are mountain ranges, forests, jungle and desert like climates. There are beaches to cater for all tastes from undeveloped virgin stretches of coasts to luxury resorts. Traveling long distance in Mexico by bus is cheap and comfortable, although not always fast, which means that teachers here are able to really enjoy what Mexico has to offer. Mexican culture is rich in variety which manifests itself in the countless festivals and national holidays such as the Day of the Dead and Independence Day. The people are warm and friendly although more conservative and religious than I'd imagined and are very family-centered. Sadly, there is a deep divide between the rich and the poor. English classes in private institutes are obviously for the better off and this means that living and working in affluent neighbourhoods, where most institutes are situated gives you a rather unbalanced view of life here.

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TEFL Zorritos: What could be better? Study in a beautiful Peruvian beach town, free surfing lessons, great accommodations available, including delicious local food. Fully accredited 160 Hour TEFL course with a practical approach that provides you with 5 advanced certifications at absolutely no extra cost! And a guaranteed job waiting for you when you complete the course.

Class sizes are limited, so don't wait, make your reservation today!

Friday 15 November 2013

TEFL Success Stories - Part 23

Annette - Norway

Hello all teacher friends I don't know yet!

My name is Hege Annette, I'm 36 years old and I teach English in Kristiansand, Norway. The town is situated in the very south of the country. I hope you don't think that Norway is the capital of Sweden! From now on you'll know that Norway is a country way up north in Europe, and our capital is called Oslo.

In Kristiansand however, I'm very lucky to have a fulltime permanent job as a teacher at Tangen Senior High School. Our students are in the age of 16 - 19 and they have several choices of subject areas to choose from during their 2 - 3 years here. We offer areas of study within vocational trades, like: arts and design, media, food and service and wood and brickwork.

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In addition to this all students take compulsory subjects like English and Norwegian which I teach. I love my subjects and I hope that this love of languages and literature is contagious: that it will give the students the inspiration to really enjoy learning languages. I try to use humor and feelings as one of the motivational keys. On the other hand I don't neglect the formal or the academic sides of language teaching. In my opinion the 'communicative approach' has ruled too long in language teaching and learning. The results of this method have been, and still are, that students lack basic language knowledge like grammar, vocabulary and spelling competence. This also causes demotivation and frustration because of not succeeding in using a language like English.

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But the winds of teaching approaches are changing - thank God - now we will have (some teachers have always treasured this of course) a clearer focus on skills and actual/ factual/ formal academic knowledge. Both in teachers' colleges, and in the lower levels of education (primary and secondary school) our government has initiated a new school reform which allows learning to be the pillar in school. Before this (last year and some years back) it was socializing and feeling good that were the main goals in Norwegian classrooms. I guess Norway must be the nation in the world which is best at school reforms (the last ones were in 1994 and in 1997). Some claim that it's because of our oil fortune (what else is there to spend money on...) I think that we are not persistent enough in what we do, we need to be confident in some methods that work beyond time. Like being proud of knowledge and demanding high standards of academic skills from the ones who become teachers. When it comes to English, it is one of the subjects that will be given more lessons according to the new reform along with languages like German, French and Spanish.

Anyway, when I am with the students I can't help being struck by the feeling that I'm like a doctor in a desperate search for the right medical treatment, instead of being an inspired teacher constantly willing to sacrifice all my time to the subjects that I love so much. No matter the salary, the lack of opportunity to study and develop my own knowledge is the real problem.

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Still this is what I need to do and what I've always wanted. If you're curious to get to know me, my students or my school better you're hereby invited to get in touch with me. Don't hesitate! We have an international focus some years ahead and I am the coordinator at our school. We'll use English as the instrument to get in touch with young people around the world. Students who are on the same level of education (16 - 19 years old). In the first place we'll use mail as the communicative tool - since it's fast, but I also think that mail contact can be too difficult: lack of lessons (my students have only 2 English lessons per week) lack of good equipment, network problems and last but not least the lack of responsibility to follow up such communication. I tried this out with 2 classes last year (2 times 15 students). We used a network called ePals. It was partly successful, but I think it took too much time waiting for responses. That's why teachers need to make a solid and binding communication first. This year I'll try to use our local network which is easier to use in most ways. In order to succeed we need curious, responsible, skilled and friendly English teachers around the world. So don't hesitate to send this mail!

I look forward to learning more about the English language, about culture, life and how to transform this into meaningful English lessons at Tangen Senior High School.

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TEFL Zorritos: What could be better? Study in a beautiful Peruvian beach town, free surfing lessons, great accommodations available, including delicious local food. Fully accredited 160 Hour TEFL course with a practical approach that provides you with 5 advanced certifications at absolutely no extra cost! And a guaranteed job waiting for you when you complete the course.

Class sizes are limited, so don't wait, make your reservation today!

Wednesday 13 November 2013

TEFL Success Stories - Part 22

Marsha - Israel

I am an American who has been teaching English in Israel for 22 years. My work is very challenging and rewarding as most children in Israel strive to learn English.

Last year I received a job in the gifted program at Ein Ganim Elementary School. It was the first year that the children in this unique program were at this school. My school is one of five schools in the whole country that offers this special project. Children that participate in the program come from schools across the entire city. I realized it would take a tremendous amount of effort and investment on my part. It was a learning process for everyone that the program includes.

Normally, according to the Ministry of Education, regular classes start to acquire English as a second language in the fourth grade. However, schools begin English in the third grade. Teachers teach the oral skills through games, songs, drama, and visual aids. The written skills are usually taught at a later stage after the reading stages.

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The gifted program includes three classes: fourth, fifth, and sixth graders who study together as one unit from the third grade until they finish high school in the twelfth grade. Each class contains up to 25 pupils.

Israeli authors usually write the textbooks we use in Israel, although it is possible to purchase books at teachers' centers from other publishers from almost anywhere in the world. Since parents have the responsibility of buying children their books, it would be too expensive to buy materials from abroad. Although many teachers purchase additional materials, it would be a burden on the parents.

Regular classes in the fourth grade normally begin to acquire basic English at the age of nine, since it is mandatory to begin in the fourth grade. Teachers put a tremendous amount of effort into reading and writing skills. It usually takes a year.

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Teaching the gifted children is so different from a regular class of children. After ten lessons my fourth graders were all reading fluently. Their capabilities amazed me so much that I began to teach the fifth grade curriculum and, believe it or not, at the end of the year they had also succeeded in completing that too! It has truly been a real joy working with them and I hope to help them advance as much as possible.

Gifted children are normally very creative and especially talented in their oral skills. I began to take advantage of these skills by using songs and drama. These are two excellent ways to encourage all children, especially gifted ones. They particularly enjoyed songs by the Beatles, and they acquired many skills through songs, such as vocabulary and grammatical structures. More importantly, they learned about different cultures through the music and expanded their horizons in many areas. I can even say their oral fluency improved tremendously.

At our school, children also have access to the computer and so do I. They love using the Internet and it has contributed so much to many of our lessons. As an English teacher, I feel fortunate that I am able to take advantage of the marvelous free lessons from onestopenglish and additional sites which are excellent and most effective. The knowledge that can be gained is endless, and at the same time a regular boring lesson becomes more enjoyable and delightful for the children.

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TEFL Zorritos GUARANTEED JOB UPON COMPLETION OF OUR TEFL COURSE and FREE SURF CLASSES WITH EVERY TEFL COURSE

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The pay in Israel depends on the teacher's qualifications. Teachers are encouraged to attend workshops and this may contribute to enlarging a certain percentage of their salary. However, for the last few years there is a lack of English teachers and the Ministry of Education is trying to encourage people to enter the teaching profession.

Everyone is aware of how important it is to know English. The whole world revolves around English as an international language. Children should be given the opportunities to stay on their own paths of excellence. Since English is a very prestigious subject within the Israeli curriculum, it is vital to expose these children to a variety of opportunities for success.

It is my belief that this program for the gifted might become a tremendous asset to Israeli society and Israeli education. It has helped me to become a better teacher. I feel blessed in teaching such children.

I would like to thank onestopenglish.com for the marvellous lessons. I am sincerely grateful.

Shalom and greetings from Israel.

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TEFL Zorritos: What could be better? Study in a beautiful Peruvian beach town, free surfing lessons, great accommodations available, including delicious local food. Fully accredited 160 Hour TEFL course with a practical approach that provides you with 5 advanced certifications at absolutely no extra cost! And a guaranteed job waiting for you when you complete the course.

Class sizes are limited, so don't wait, make your reservation today!

Monday 11 November 2013

TEFL Success Stories - Part 21

Sally - Galapagos Islands

When I told people I was going to work as an English teacher in the Galápagos Islands for 3 months I had varying reactions. To some it was a dream destination, but others had no idea where the islands were, or even that people actually lived there. To set the record straight, the Galápagos Islands belong to Ecuador and are located 600 miles from its coast. Of the 19 islands, only four are inhabited and for most tourists the spectacular wildlife is much more of a draw than the human population. Visitors usually dine and sleep on cruise boats, rarely coming into contact with the locals. However on Santa Cruz and San Cristóbal, the two most populated islands, there are large communities largely dependent on tourism or fishing. And typically for a place where tourism makes money, the ability to speak English is a desirable skill.

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The Galápagos are a popular destination for 'volun-tourism', and although most of this revolves around the wildlife, there is also a need for English teachers. A word of warning though, it is extremely uncommon to find paid teaching work here and, unfortunately, very common to find volunteers paying unreasonable sums of money for the privilege of working here. I came across more than a couple of unscrupulous-sounding companies who extracted lots of cash from potential volunteers with the promise of wonderful opportunities. On arriving, these volunteers had the frustrating discovery that there was actually nothing for them to do, the school they were supposed to be working in was closed for the summer, or the position simply didn't exist. That said, there are some excellent organisations that look after their volunteers very well and clearly value their skills. Some larger organisations may even pay for the flight from the mainland and provide accommodation and/or food. I was working for a smaller charity which couldn't afford to do this, but helped me to find excellent inexpensive accommodation and organised for the $100 National Park Entrance fee to be waived.

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TEFL Zorritos offers FREE Surf Classes as part of our TEFL Certificate Course with the renowned local surf school "Hands & Surf"!

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My position on San Cristóbal island was with a charity called New Era Galápagos which aims to empower the residents through education. They provide English classes so that locals can benefit from tourism and educate children about conservation to encourage them to protect their unique, and fragile, environment. I worked on a month-long summer camp for children of all ages (4-15!), and also taught adult evening classes. The kids were wildly undisciplined, in classrooms too small to accommodate them and in age groups too disparate to keep them all entertained – but these are common challenges of summer camps! Ultimately, the kids had great fun, learnt some English and gained confidence in using what they already knew.The evening classes were more obviously rewarding. I was teaching fishermen, taxi drivers, full time mothers; busy people with busy lives who made the effort to attend an English class every day. Some inevitably dropped out, but of those who completed the course it was hugely satisfying to watch their progress. The final lesson was very memorable – the students transformed the classroom into a candlelit dining room and served up a meal caught by the fishermen in the class and cooked by the women.
Aside from the teaching, daily life in the Galápagos is something special. You walk out of school and the streets are covered with sea lions lolling about on the road and the benches. There are exotic birds swooping around the bay. At the local beach, you can snorkel with turtles a few feet from the shore. You can dive with hammerhead sharks at nearby sites. And apparently, it's a surfer's paradise, but I never sampled this, as the waves looked terrifyingly big to a novice.
There are frustrations to island life too. There is a distinct difference in pace of life that often makes it seem impossible to get anything done. Fresh food is hard to come by and you find yourself longing for a large, well-stocked supermarket as opposed to dusty tins in a corner shop. Some of the locals were deeply suspicious of 'gringos'; others were just so used to the stream of volunteers passing through that they didn't see the point in temporary friendships. But I'm glad to say there were many exceptions to this and some 'Galapagueans' welcomed us into their homes and their hearts with great warmth. I feel lucky to have spent three months in such a beautiful place and the connection I have with the place will last a lifetime.

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TEFL Zorritos GUARANTEED JOB UPON COMPLETION OF OUR TEFL COURSE and FREE SURF CLASSES WITH EVERY TEFL COURSE

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TEFL Zorritos: What could be better? Study in a beautiful Peruvian beach town, free surfing lessons, great accommodations available, including delicious local food. Fully accredited 160 Hour TEFL course with a practical approach that provides you with 5 advanced certifications at absolutely no extra cost! And a guaranteed job waiting for you when you complete the course.

Class sizes are limited, so don't wait, make your reservation today!