It's been quite a while since I put anything on here and looking back at the last few weeks, I'm not very surprised. Making the leap from working in a primary school as a TA and finishing at 3.30 everyday had made me soft, soft, soft. Even climbing seemingly none-stop in between and weekends away had made me forget how hard life can be.... Ah.Really though, the CELTA has a fierce reputation as being a very intensive course when compared with other TEFL courses. If I compare it with other periods of stress that I've encountered in my life, it is surely up there alongside the most trying but I think it has been different from, for example my University finals or A-levels. For one thing, no one fails the CELTA, they drop out. Therefore, as long as you keep turning up and standing up in front of students and keep handing in assignments, you will get through it.
What I have found hard, has been the fact that for weeks 1, 2 and 3 you are constantly learning something and then immediately putting it into practice, weather that be using it in the classroom during TP in the afternoon, or writing about it in one of the 4 assignments. There isn't much time to sit back. It quickly becomes obvious though, that the standard of the work itself isn't too high and to begin with at least, trainees are spoon fed.
With just one lesson to go and all assignments handed in, the experience seems to have been extremely useful; I have learnt so many new skills and an enormous amount of information and would feel comfortable beginning work in a school, teaching English as a foreign language. In that sense, the TEFL is a wonderful course to do, especially for the short time it takes to complete. At the same time, I am conscious that I have a lot to learn. It is a similar feeling to one I got when I passed my driving test: I knew I could drive a car, but I knew also that I needed a lot of practice before I would be able to do it without a lot of conscious effort.
