Teaching < Testimonials

My testimonial:

The Oviedo TEFL Center Intensive Course was an extremely hard, exhausting, and remarkable experience, that’s for sure!  Expect heartache, but also a massive sense of achievement and a steep learning curve.  The trainers had to turn us into “real” teachers in a matter of 4 weeks, and this task was taken seriously. 

The curriculum, an adaptation of the CELTA course, included classes in the mornings, practice teaching in the afternoons, lesson preparation & plans in the evenings, and essays and reading on the weekends.  The course focused on grammar, teaching theory, lesson plan writing, classroom management and strategies, usage of technology, teacher development, and the nuances of working with different age groups and levels, supplemented by primary source readings and video observation. Of note, unlike the traditional CELTA, the Oviedo TEFL Center includes teaching practice with children.

The chief trainer in the course is Adriana Real, and she is largely responsible for its success.  Adriana is a dynamic and witty instructor who motivates her trainees with a conversational style, ready sense of humor, and uncanny insight into each student’s persona.  At the same time, she challenges her intensive-course trainees with a hefty amount of reading and homework; Adriana is in the business of making good English teachers, and she’s renowned for doing it right.  She has a long list of academic contacts who call her when looking for teachers: within one week of starting her course, I had a job offer!

What was the hardest part of the course?  I’d say the teaching practice was the most challenging.  Each teaching experience involved writing a lesson plan, finding or creating handouts, figuring out which books to use and how to use them, teaching the lesson to “real” students, and afterwards sitting down with Adriana for a detailed review.  How nerve-wracking!  How to deal with the tension?  It helps to remember that the course is about learning, and that mistakes are key to learning: if I were the perfect teacher, I wouldn’t have signed up for the course in the first place!

After a month of studying, reading, and teaching, and after my fair share of praise and constructive criticism, I can say I have emerged in one piece, happily worn-out and bursting with wisdom, and with a new sense of confidence to face my future.  The long nights, the reflective conversations, the time and financial investment, the rush of vocabulary and skills and grammar, the painful aims that refused to match my lesson, they were all worth it.  I can only thank the trainers, other trainees, and our practice-students for the opportunity!  It’s been an amazing experience!

If you want a challenging, high-yield, and meaningful course to prepare yourself for a career in teaching English, the Oviedo TEFL Center Intensive Course is for you. 

Kim Rosenthal