Video timeline
00:00 Introduction
00:15 Organisation is key
00:38 Experiment and Be lazy in the classroom
01:25 Don't worry if it doesn't all go to plan
01:47 Use whatever saves time and Rehearse
02:29 Don't underestimate the workload
03:05 Ask your tutors!
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Video transcript
I've been here at the CETA Symposium this weekend and I thought I would just ask a random group of some of my CELTA trainer friends what they thought would be good advice for trainees before they started the course - so here it is.
Daryna Luhovska-Semeniuk
I feel the most important thing is organizing your workload and finding ways and times when you're going to do certain bits of your course and to me personally if I were the trainee I would definitely write up 'to do' lists for myself and tick off the things in the order of importance.
Andriy Ruzhynskiy
Can I have two? Oh please- of course you can! The first one -don't be afraid to experiment don't think that CELTA is very prescriptive. CELTA teaches you the basics but don't be afraid to play with it and your tutors are there to help you to play, to to use your critical thinking and so on. And the other one uh is kind of funny. That's what I keep telling to my trainees - 'be lazy in the classroom' which means make your students do as much as they can do in the classroom. So if they can explain something to each other let them do it, if they write something let them do it and you're just like orchestra conductor. You just tell them -you- you- you- you...
That's it!
That's a fantastic piece of advice! I love that one!
Jane Delaney
Remember that things might go wrong in the lesson and you might change what you do but as my colleague said it's not about being prescriptive. Remember you're teaching the students, not a page on the course book so if you change something during the lesson or if you see that something's not working don't be afraid to change it. As long as you can justify later in your self-reflection (which is very important) that's fine.
Viacheslav Kushnir
Again, I've got two quick ones So the first one would be use whatever can help you save time. Use AI but use it judiciously. And the second one is try to rehearse your lessons. Make sure that you do everything you are going to do in the lesson beforehand, especially if you teach online. All the technology should work. All the materials should be available. If you do that, you'll be fine. Rehearse Rehearse and Rehearse.
Julie Lehner
So my top tip for CELTA is never to underestimate the amount of work that you have to do. It's very easy to say 'I can take get this done in an hour' or whatnot but what I think you should do is find a CELTA non-negotiable time, like this is the time that you will spend working just on CELTA work and barring an emergency this is just you and your CELTA coursework. It could be up to like two hours on a specific day that are non-negotiable and that you will focus on your CELTA tasks.
Diana Vaselenko
Well, whenever in doubts or when struggling ask your tutors not Google. So talk to the tutors more -they are there to help!
So that's it! Some advice from some CELTA trainers. I hope it was helpful and good luck with your CELTA.
