This was a fabulous session with Ceri Jones in which we discussed ways we can develop beyond improving our teaching skills. We touched on a few topics, but there are some other areas at the end of the notes which are also possible avenues to look into and hopefully we’ll be able to look at these in future webinars.
Further qualifications
Ceri talked about how she started in ELT, having taken a PGCE in English and Modern Languages (a qualification for teaching in mainstream education in the UK) and then a Diploma after two years in ELT and an MA in TEFL 8 years later.
She talked about how for the Diploma there is also an academic and research focus to it. Often MA courses have less of a practical focus on developing your teaching skills in the classroom; however, Ceri did also mention that a module on grammar and parsing had a positive effect on her confidence to describe and explain language to her learners.
Part of her decision for taking an MA was also to provide further support to her students, as she was working on EAP courses in the UK – study skills and language support for people coming to the UK to study MA and PhD programmes – as she wanted to experience that higher level education herself.
Another point which she said helped during the MA was looking at data analysis and the ability to critically read research and journals.
Useful links – not listing ALL programmes as that would be a ridiculously long list!
- Phil mentioned the MA from Nile
- T took her Diploma with OxfordTEFL
- Cambridge offers the DELTA
- And we mentioned our friend Dirk has just got his PhD in Translation and Language Sciences from Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Obviously now we have a lot more options in terms of online study and Michelle mentioned how self-study is much more accessible these days. And you don’t have to limit yourself to something ELT-related either!
Academic management
We touched briefly on the fact that further qualifications sometimes don’t prepare you particularly well for an academic management position, despite the fact that posts for these positions will often require a Level 7 qualification (Diploma or DELTA). That said, DELTA module 3 is on ELT Management and International House runs a Director of Studies course.
Working in academic management tends to be something you learn on the job, rather than having formal training. The role will be different depending on the school you’re working in and what your responsibilities are: will you be required to deal with staff recruitment or the business side of the centre? Will your role involve working with individual learners, teachers, communicating with parents? Managing resources such as coursebooks, board markers and nowadays, the tech side of the classroom?
In-school ideas
There are lots of things you can do as well which take you outside your own four walls. These opportunities could come about through the type of teaching you’re doing, such as managing an off-site contract. They could be related to something that you’re interested in: leading a drama or film club, setting up a library, running a makers’ space.
The benefits of doing this is that it allows you to see ‘behind the scenes’ and to get a feel for having more responsibility and how you deal with issues as they arise. All these experiences can help you get a clearer idea of the direction you might want to take further can can also help to get you noticed – a voluntary role might turn into a paid coordination role or another type of promotion.
Owning your own school
Neither Ceri nor T have been interested in owning their own school – Ceri for the business management side of things, and T for the people management! And also it will inevitably take you out of the classroom.
However, there are lots of good reasons to do it:
- you can do things as you like, particularly if you’re not happy with systems where you work at the moment
- you can open a much more specialist school – Ceri mentioned that one of her colleagues opened up a school specifically working with VYLs
- there might be a gap in the market (both in terms of specialising and in terms of location)
- it helps you become a larger part of the community and build relationships with the people there
Borja mentioned how taking an MBA helped him with a lot of the managerial aspects of being a school owner. There are a number of school owners in the group who I’m sure would be willing to share their experiences of setting up their own centres as well as the day-to-day aspect.
Conferences
Attending (and presenting) means you get to meet a wider range of people so it’s a great opportunity to network and find out more about what options there are available to you. Conferences are a great place to make connections so talk to people in the coffee break and during workshops.
If you’re thinking of changing schools to work somewhere with better professional development options, it’s well worth taking a look at the agenda and seeing which schools are sponsoring speakers, as this is often a good sign that the school promotes PD.
If you’re interested in speaking at a conference, most organisers will have a call for papers a few months before the conference date. Many organisations have Facebook pages now so you can easily follow them to keep a track of what’s coming up. Some have scholarship opportunities as well for first-time speakers. Here are a couple which Ceri has spoken at:
- TEFL del Sur is a local teachers’ organisation in Cádiz and a friendly place to take your first steps in presenting
- ACEIA is an Association of Language Schools in Andalucía with an annual event in November. The call for papers is generally around May.
- TESOL-SPAIN has an annual event in March with the call for papers in October
- IATEFL normally has an annual event in the UK in April, but they also have a number of SIGs (Special Interest Groups) which run events through the year
- BBELT is the British Council event in Mexico
Nowadays, there’s a fair bit of eco-guilt around attending international conferences, as well as the growing discussion around who’s invited to speak at plenaries (largely in terms of gender and first language).
That said, at the moment, with lots of conferences moving online, there are LOADS of opportunities to attend conferences around the world. We’re trying to keep on top of things with our calendar…but there is SO MUCH out there now!
Running a PD session in your own centre is also a good way to get a feel for presenting and Paul suggested as well following up your session with an article and submitting it to onestopenglish or ETP. And Tim raised an excellent point that you don’t have to do these things on your own – Ceri presented with her ‘partner-in-crime’, Tania Bastow back in Italy.
Teacher training
In-house development sessions are an example of teacher training as well!
Ceri talked about having worked with teachers in mainstream education on a CLIL project when she was in Italy and local universities will sometimes run similar courses so it’s worth looking out for opportunities there.
Getting into teacher training will generally require a DELTA or Diploma and then centres which run courses will often have their own training course. Once you’ve been trained up, you’re generally required to complete standardisation training each year in order to be able to train.
You can find which centres run the Trinity CertTESOL on this map and Cambridge have a search feature to find centres for the CELTA.
Ceri mentioned an e-moderation course from the Consultants-e and the IHCOLT (International House Certificate for Tutoring Online) which is an approved course for becoming an online CELTA trainer. Cambridge offers a Train the Trainer course which doesn’t qualify you to be a CELTA trainer, but offers a good first step into training.
Writing materials
Ceri and Tania wrote a pairwork activities book when they were working together in Italy as they were supplementing their classes with speaking activities after noticing a gap in the materials they were using. They sent a sample to lots of publishers and then 7 months later heard from OUP that they were looking for writers of supplementary materials for Headway.
Having a blog is a good way to get into writing and can also help you showcase your work. However, if you’re not keen on setting up your blog, approach the people whose blogs you read and ask about writing a guest post (great suggestion from JG). If you’re interested in writing a blogpost for the TEFL Development Hub, feel free to get in touch.
As mentioned above, look for places to submit lesson plans (such as for onestopenglish) or IATEFL MAWSIG – here’s an interesting article from one of their scholarship winners with tips on getting into writing.
There are lots of other places where you can share your materials online to showcase your work (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook groups) and presenting materials which have worked well for you at conferences is another way to share your work with the world – and you never know who might be in the audience!
Working in teacher training is also a good way to get into writing teachers’ books as you often have the skills to write support notes which are clear and concise.
And, there’s always the option of self-publishing and Ceri mentioned the iTDi course which offers advice on how and where to start. ELT Teacher 2 Writer has books and courses on writing materials too.
Other ideas
There are of course lots of other ways we can progress, including:
- working in EAP
- providing support to learners through ESL in mainstream education or with immigrants
- Business English or ESP – finding your niche
- getting involved in local, national or international teachers’ organisations
- examining and assessment