A Reflective Review of 2019

I would say, hand on heart, that if 2018 was the year that I dug myself out of a hole, 2019 was a year of stability and calmness career-wise, and eagerness to develop as a teacher. I was firmly back on the saddle ready to get back on the trail and in full control of my life and career, something that eluded me the previous year. It was a year that fashioned a trajectory of positivity and yearning to do more that, perhaps, propelled me forward to this time of writing. This year was also less dramatic, so this should be a shorter blog than the previous ones! 

Thinking back on it now (being 2021 at the time of writing), 2019 was when things finally started to click, or the way I always tended to be self-critical – overly at times – the needle seemed to slowly move away from that mentality. I was starting to be more assured and confident with what I was doing in the classroom. I guess the nascent stage of my career came to an end during this time. 

A Reflective Review of 2018

Moving into 2018, I was very much looking forward to putting the previous year behind me which really proved to take a toll on me physically and mentally. The year started really brightly. I had put my time on placement firmly to the back of my mind, I was working hard on my written assignments, and my girlfriend and I were settling into our first home we had just bought. 

We were incredibly lucky to have got the place and for the banks to have accepted our bid. The place was a doer-upper so we were excited to learn a few skills on our way to renovating the place. Some of the rooms and the way they had been treated by the bank/previous owners, e.g. the bathroom and kitchen, were egregious and were in need of urgent surgery; far from being a sight for sore eyes. It used to be the case for most of the year that we would do our 9 to 5’s then try to find the energy and motivation to work on the house when we came home, not that we were complaining, mind; we were in a very fortunate position, those in our age bracket don’t have it as good as our parents had it. 

Thoughts on having my first article published

I was asked earlier in the year to contribute an article to a brand-new ELT magazine from New Way Press Publishing (NWPP) – a new publishing house that you can find out more about here – and I jumped at the chance.

I am delighted to announce that the magazine has now been published and I am fiercely proud of everyone involved from the writers, to the editors and everyone at NWPP, and to the graphic designers who got this magazine over the line. I was excited like a kid on Christmas morning running down to the tree when I received the email from Mara, the magazine editor and my former Delta tutor, to let me know that this magazine was ready to come out of the oven.

My top 10 tips when doing the Cambridge CELTA

I completed my Cambridge CELTA in June 2015. With regards to the full-time course, when they say it’s an intense course, you’d better believe it. Before I started my course, I was rummaging around the internet to find any information I could on what I would be expecting from the course and good advice to enable me to have the best possible chance of passing the course. 

Now, I want to give back to the community a little bit and help any trainees in need of support as they embark on this journey. Here are some tips to keep in mind while navigating the course.

Consider your motivation(s) before enrolling on the course

CELTA is a very intense course. Your tutors will get you through a lot of content, you will need to complete a lot of assignments, and you will be expected to practice your teaching from the get-go. This may go without saying, but it’s very important that you ask yourself before the course if teaching is something you really would like to explore as the course demands a lot from you. 

Make sure you have an idea of what you want to do after the course with the certificate later in hand. A lot of graduates go on to work in schools in their country and/or abroad. You will hear of other courses such as Dip-TESOL and Delta, but don’t be confused as I often see on social media of candidates not knowing if they should get a CELTA or Delta. CELTA is just your initial teaching qualification. It will get you in the door. Those other certs are diplomas to help you pursue careers in management, teacher training, publishing etc. As you can guess, you need to have been in the game a fair bit before taking those courses. 

What is the Cambridge CELTA?

The Cambridge CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) is a pre-service teaching qualification for those who want to teach English as a foreign language. CELTA is recognised and required by a lot of employers around the world when you are looking to step into the industry. 

I completed my CELTA in June 2015 and have written a few blog entries on my experiences:

My CELTA Story

My 3 Takeaways from Doing the Cambridge CELTA

The course is great for those who are complete beginners, like I was, when it comes to teaching. The course provides you with the knowledge, skills and practice you will need to be a successful and confident English language teacher. Experienced teachers who are looking to provide evidence to prospective employers that they meet the required standard for teaching or those who are looking to improve their skills also take the course.

A Reflective Review of 2017

2017 was without a doubt a whirlwind of a year for me. It was a year where I felt that I had fully spread my wings in the teaching world and things were really starting to click.

If you remember from my review of the previous year, I had spent some time travelling around South America. It was an amazing experience, memories I will cherish forever. When my girlfriend and I got to Peru, she received word of a job opportunity back in Dublin that was hard to pass up. Just when you think you have escaped the rat race, they find a way to reel you back in. So, we made a collective decision – a surprisingly quick one – whilst eating food in a bus station, that we would stop travelling and head home. For me, I would take my next step in my career – post-primary teaching; something that I had initially planned to do at some point while teaching English but was putting it off until I felt comfortable in my role as a teacher. I needed to apply for a Masters and was going to go with Hibernia. I was very sad to scrap our plans to travel around South America, and I hope we can pick up where we left off again some time in the near future.

After Christmas, we were back in Dublin, my girlfriend was settling into her new job, and I applied to Hibernia. The next thing for me was to find a job. I applied to four schools: Delfin, Berlitz, Atlantic, and The English Academy. I didn’t bother with Kaplan as I knew I probably wouldn’t get the hours I needed to pay for my college tuition fees. My first interview, with Atlantic, was awful. I was given a coursebook and was asked how I would go about planning a lesson from one of the book’s two-page spread. I drew a blank. I didn’t know how to go about it. I was offered really low-pay based on my interview, which was fair enough because that interview was an absolute stinker. I just needed to blow off a few cobwebs and get my head firmly screwed on that I was back teaching and not travelling. 

Different and similar skills and techniques I learnt from my German language teachers

I took a 4-week online German course with the German Language School (GLS) in Berlin to try and prepare myself for an immersive experience when I move to Berlin later this year. 

I wrote about my experiences which you can read by clicking on the links below:

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

10 things I learnt being a student on a language course

I was blessed with having four amazing teachers who enabled me to speak confidently in the language, understand the grammar structures, and informed me of life in Berlin as a whole. 

Review of 2016

I started to find my grove in 2016. I think things started to click for me in the summer when I had two great groups of young learners from Italy and was also given the responsibility of managing the FCE class at Kaplan.

For the first few months of 2016, though, things were relatively quiet. Being a new teacher around this time of the year doesn’t augur well in terms of receiving a stable income. Students are on Christmas break to escape the Irish cold and senior teachers are assigned to most classes, leaving me to scratch and claw to secure work. There were moments when I was on the verge of giving up and finding something else to do, but I hung in there, and I am glad that I did.

Review and major takeaways from – The 6th annual Future of English Language Teaching Conference (FOELT) presented by Trinity College London and Regent’s University

I managed to pull myself away from decorating my house to sit down and spend most of the day in front of the laptop watching some great talks at the 6th annual FOELT conference. Here are some takeaways from some of the talks I was able to get to:

Revisiting teacher language proficiency and the native speaker

Presented by: Khanh Duc Kuttig

As part of the ‘Teacher Education’ (TE) strand

‘It is language that enables you to do things in the classroom.’

My 3 takeaways from doing the Cambridge CELTA

I completed my Cambridge CELTA in June 2015 with Kaplan in Dublin. I’ve written about my experience here. Below are my three biggest takeaways from the course: