Voyage to Job Land

As CELTA reached its end, I asked around to see if any jobs were available, and if not, could I get help applying to jobs (in London or overseas). It turned out that the school where I’d taken my CELTA needed some cover work. This is usually the case when you start out, you get a bit of work here, a bit of work there, some work you didn’t expect (I’m writing a blog!) and so on.

Being fresh out of CELTA, I was spending hours planning these long, complex lessons that never went to plan (duh!) but slowly through repetition and by doing the thing I feared most I overcame my hopeless and horrifying anxiety (I’m joking – It wasn’t that bad really) of being in front of the classroom. One big change from CELTA was that we had to give one-on-one lessons. The mere concept of being locked up in a room with another person who would look up to me to lead the entire hour and monitor their mistakes and progress seems so daunting it was unreal. However, like most normal lessons, I just threw myself in and found them to be quite enjoyable (depending on the student).

Nowadays, I spend much less time planning lessons. And as one of my trainers on the course once said to me: “Most of us avoid lesson plans like the plague”. This, along with many other quotes has made it clear to me that I will fit in amongst this new community. I find myself planning in the half hour leading up to the lesson, and sometimes not at all (when I get a call at 8am to teach a 10am class) but I’ve learnt to improvise and plan things in the lesson, while the students do their warm up activity (often speaking).

I’ve been able to use the knowledge I’ve picked up here for other things. For example, I’m tutoring my 15 year old neighbour for her GCSE’s. So the skills are transferable (and private tuition pays better).

Stay tuned for Part 3!…. Travelling with CELTA