Video transcript - Why You’ll Panic in Week 2 of CELTA (And Why That’s Normal)
So, you’ve signed up for CELTA.
You’ve read the blogs.
You’ve joined the Facebook groups.
You’ve convinced yourself: It’ll be intense… but I’ll manage.
Well, buckle up because let’s be real - CELTA is a bit of a beast. A great course but a bit of a beast.
In Week One, most trainees start off quite excited. Your tutors are nice, you meet your peers and the learners you’re going to teach. The first couple of teaching practices you have very structured points to work from and it’s not nearly as bad as you were expecting.
And then… week two hits. Assignments start rearing their ugly heads and you’ve got to produce much more detailed lesson plans with language analysis that means you’re confronting grammar terms you haven’t heard since you were at school… if ever.
Someone will mention present perfect continuous and you’ll nod like you know what it is…but under the table you’re Googling: What IS present perfect continuous and can I teach it without crying?
Then comes the spiral. You’ll watch your peers some of whom have taught before and imposter syndrome hits:
Everyone else knows what they’re doing.
My tutor secretly regrets accepting me.
I shouldn’t be here.
Sound familiar? Is that how you’re feeling now? Try not to panic. Week two spiralling is not a sign that you're failing….
It’s said that there are four stages of learning. We go from
Unconsciously incompetent- where you can’t do something but you don’t understand enough about it to know – blissful ignorance.
Then we move to
Consciously incompetent- this is the uncomfortable part and often describes that week 2 feeling. You start to see what you need to do but you can’t do it yet.
Then we hit
Consciously competent- you can do it as long as you concentrate.
And finally
Unconsciously competent- where you’ve got all of those classroom routines on autopilot.
So how you might be feeling in week 2? It’s a sign that you’re learning. You’re building new cognitive muscles: grammar muscles, teaching muscles, feedback-taking muscles. And it’s uncomfortable, for sure, but it’s really common and normal. And it doesn’t mean you’re not cut out for this.
So remind yourself that Week two panic is temporary and it’s just the discomfort of growth.
And if you’re watching this BEFORE you do your CELTA, you can avoid this feeling by getting prepared beforehand. My CELTA preparation materials have helped thousands of trainees to gain a solid foundation of grammar terminology and lesson planning, take some of the stress out of the course and allow you to achieve your best result.
Check them out in the link above.
