Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Beichen Qu? Are you interested in teaching English in Tianjin? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language.
online tefl courses vs onsite TEFL coursesIn Ecuador only the public school teachers are required to have a TEFL certificate. After being thrown to the wolves in my first ever ESL class last year, I decided, I needed to learn my own grammar better. When researching for TEFL courses I noticed a huge Difference in price, the onsite course ran up to $3,000 and some were only 10 days long while the online course offered me a lower price with flexible time to study and research the grammar I need to know. I have not taken an onsite TEFL course however I imagine it has the same advantageous and disadvantageous as when I teach onsite classes compared to teaching online classes. Onsite can really throw more hands on options into the class room, I can throw an apple to a student or read the text message they are sending to their boyfriend where as an online course we cannot always see what the students are doing and throwing an apple through the computer is not a great idea, we need to use technology to show a video of a father throwing a baseball to his son. An onsite course gives us an opportunity to build rapport with the teacher and students better through these hands on experiences where the online can some times feel like we are learning from a youtube video or a course book. Another great reason I preferred the online course over the onsite was the distance of the onsite class. When I applied for this course I was living close to the University of Michigan, they offered an onsite class for $3,000 for an oxford tesol certificate, the class was 10 days long and they only offered 2 classes last year. This made me worry for a few reasons, I had no job and needed to budget my money, I told myself what if the class is too hard I researched ESL teaching jobs and found out many places requires and onsite certificate along with a university degree, I was not about to pay for a four year degree or wait this long to start work. The countries that didn't require a degree also didn't seem to care if your TEFL certificate is from an online course or an onsite course, this is great I told myself, the online site cost less and are more my speed. Now I mention the cost being a big factor along with the distance to some classes, online is in your home where onsite you have to travel, there is also the fact that some people have a very busy life, whether it is with children, work or both. It can become impossible to meet a 10 day course under some conditions and the online tefl flexibility is great for the busy person that cannot comet to a full time class. From a teaching perspective sometimes I become bored when I give an online class, today was a good example, I was awake most of the night and by my third hour I was very tired and lacked energy, the mood of the teacher reflects on the students. When I teach onsite and become tired I can revive myself quickly by playing games with the students or allow a student to lead a game of hangman while I get some caffeine.
