Gabrielle Dow

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In the next year, I’ll be working as an English Teaching Assistant in Zadar, Croatia on a Fulbright grant where I’ll be working with university level students as well as with middle school students. I’ll be hosting workshops for middle school students on life and culture in America. I hope to utilize storytelling activities to both engage the class and provide an opportunity for language acquisition. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gabrielle K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For the engage phase, I might ask students to tell the class, in English, about their favorite Croatian holiday, having them include descriptions such as food, decorations, or themes....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Over a hundred years ago, in the late 19th century, a Polish-Jewish eye doctor named Dr. Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof wanted to bridge the gaps and misunderstandings between different ethnic groups that he grew up around. Being from a Polish city that, at the time, was a polyglot, multi-ethnic mixture of Poles, Russians, Jews, Lithuanians, and Germans, he saw there was a great deal of distrust between each group, and he believed it was due to the language barriers that each imposed. To create a common ground between every group, he created an international, universal language called Esperanto (Yaffe, 2017). While it was a great idea to create a language that did not belong to any ethnic group and could be used universally, it did not take off in the 20th...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas A common theme that has been present in the 120-hour TEFL course, the 50-hour Business English course and the 50-hours Young Learners course has been that different age groups of students have different expectations of their teacher. Adult learners, for example, have fixed views on teaching and learning styles that they have built off of prior learning experiences. Young learners, on the contrary, typically are open-minded to new learning experiences and teaching methods. Young learners are typically not as motivated to learn English because they may not realize the direct benefits of learning English due to their lack of life experience. To specify, young learners, are anyone between the age of 2 and 13. Young learners ages 9-13 are typically more...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences When one begins to study a new language, they can often find themselves to be a bit overwhelmed. Language acquisition is not an easy task, and it comes with many challenges and difficulties attached. Although, as ESL teachers, we are trained to look out for common errors and given the best teaching ideas and methodologies to use in the classroom, it can sometimes feel as though something is missing. Teachers who have studied a foreign language and have had experience using the language possess that missing piece, and their foreign language experience makes them better teachers. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gabrielle N. These ESL teachers were once in their students’ shoes; they, too, were foreign language students. Having...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences As a non-native English speaker, I was very scared of teaching English or even thinking about teaching English at the beginning of my teaching career. But some months later I realized that I have a huge advantage compared to the native speakers: I still remember the difficulties of learning English and I know what might cause problems to my students. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gabriella S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. So I can always emphasize and slow down when it is needed without being impatient. Learning English requires time, and learning to speak well requires even more time and patience from both the teacher and student. I also teach Hungarian to...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences The main reason for doing this TEFL course was to improve my teaching skills and to use them to teach business English. Even though I studied business and economics, I cannot know everything in this field or other fields like hotel management or IT. But I can help my students to improve their vocabulary and to speak more fluently at meetings. It is important in the beginning that we ask our students what they would like to improve and why they decided to take special business English classes. Based on their needs we can provide a high-level class, tailored to their needs. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gabriella S. Although I prefer to teach individual students, it is possible that in the future I will teach groups as well. In...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas When entering the realm of teaching, lesson planning is a very beneficial skill to have. Lesson planning is done in many different ways; many educators create their format over the years that cater to their teaching styles. However, the typical lesson planning methodologies include ESA (Engage, Study, Activate) and PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production). For this task, we will be diving into the ESA methodology. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gabrielle R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The first stage of the ESA format is ‘Engage’. In this stage of the lesson, the focus should be on getting your students as interested and engaged as possible. This ensures...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas When a student describes a class that they’ve enjoyed, they often attribute their positive experience to the interesting content of the class, friendly classmates, or an inspiring teacher. A well-organized class can contribute to building these healthy student-student and student-teacher relationships, as well as create an environment in which a student can comfortably listen and learn the content given. From this course, I’ve learned how an effectively managed classroom can have a significant impact on the student’s experience, and furthermore can help a student succeed in an EFL classroom. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gabriella P. Classroom management can be described as “the skill of organizing and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Using games in the classroom is beneficial for better student learning. Games are helpful when introducing new content, enhancing the learning process, or reviewing learned material. A low-stress atmosphere in the classroom is created easily by adding games. From Gap fill to Fizz Bizz to I Spy they can help the teacher maintain a positive attitude and establish rapport with students. Games create an environment where students want to participate and aren't afraid of correction or failure. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ellen P. Vince Goman RTC, CPCC, BBA, Somatic Counselor said in his book, Let The Fire Burn, "Play is the foundation for academic learning. While the left brain is more interested in outcomes or Product the...  [Read more]