TEFL Institute Alumnus Mike taught in Madrid, Spain for a year after taking the TEFL Madrid certification course through the TEFL Institute. Hear what he has to say about his experiences.
Why did you decide to take the TEFL Madrid course with the TEFL Institute?
My wife and I decided to take the course in Madrid, Spain because it gave us an opportunity to adapt to a new culture, find work, and make friends while taking the course at the same time. This really enabled us to be completely settled in by the time that first day of class came around. Not to mention, our course started towards the end of the fall hiring season, so we didn't want to miss any opportunities because we weren't in the country yet.
What was the most important lesson this course taught you?
All of the strategies we worked on (lesson planning, classroom management, teaching children, teaching adults, etc.) were very helpful, but what I felt was most important was the work we did with grammar. Basically this course made me aware of how rusty by grammatical skills had become, and it made me realize how dedicated I was going to have to be in order to become an effective English teacher. This made my transition into the classroom much easier than it would have been otherwise.
Do you feel this course prepared you to teach English abroad?
I honestly think this course was very beneficial for me as a new TEFL teacher who was living abroad for the first time. As I said earlier, the strategies that we were exposed to in our course were very helpful, but we most benefited from this course by the way it made us understand that in order to be a great teacher you need to constantly grow. If you are in tune with the needs of your students, and care about your responsibilities, this growth will happen organically. It's a wonderful feeling to see your students improve as you do.
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