It all started with fulfilling a decade old dream of completing CELTA; adding this coveted feather to my hat. While surfing through the internet, looking for a good college that offered CELTA within London, I came across Teaching House website. The bespoke and informative content caught my interest and I found it quite transparent. Guidelines and detailed information about CELTA walked me through the services offered by the center and requirements to well equip myself to take the course were especially helpful. Without wasting time, I booked myself an interview and was super impressed with their prompt response.

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Preparing for the adventure ahead

I would not indulge in the details and procedure about the pre-course tasks but rather recommend you to visit the website for yourself and I am sure you would agree how self-explanatory the content is. Working the pre-interview task brushed up my knowledge of basic grammar, language and teaching techniques. The zoom interview boosted up my confidence and proved to be a great opportunity to interact with an experienced course trainer.

Once my position on the course was confirmed, I received an email that included:

1) An extensive but worth attempting pre-course task. I would highly recommend completing this task which serves as a platform to build your CELTA journey on. Along with providing a glimpse of the course content, it also highlights the essentials of understanding the roles of teacher and student and developing teaching skills and professionalism.

2) Book recommendations: best sellers in the field of ELT covering methodology and grammar. The books on methodology especially proved to be helpful in providing background reading to the methodology on the CELTA course. This reflected in sessions with our tutors, learnings from reading the books coming to my aid. These sessions are very well designed including practical implementation of various teaching methodologies. We were also encouraged to apply these methods in our lessons giving us an opportunity to first read, then practise and finally put what we have learned in to implementation with real students. The books on grammar worked as an anchor for our weary teaching aspirant souls while planning our lessons and completing assignments as well.

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An unforgettable journey

I am admitting this at the risk of sounding dramatic but taking this course, meeting people from all around the world under one roof has made it to the list of unforgettable journeys of my life. ‘intense’ is an adjective you would have heard from everyone who has done CELTA and I won’t deny it either. It is intense and can get exerting at times. There were back-to-back assignments and two lessons we were required to plan, prepare and teach in a week. However, the well-designed course and experienced tutors’ guidance made it all possible.

I got an opportunity to teach two different levels; teaching students from different parts of the world and cultures. It seemed daunting at first, but the guided lesson plan sessions with our tutors were very informative and facilitating. We would receive feedback for our lessons from three different perspectives: of the tutors, fellow trainees and our students. These feedback sessions proved very vital in helping me grow better and effective with my lesson plans and teaching.

My colleagues and I were able to establish a connection right from the beginning. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that TeachingHouse building had become our home for a month as we would spend the majority of our day there. The ambience in itself is very comforting as well as inspiring. It felt like becoming a student again after almost 15 years. I took my course at TH, London and they have a cosy rooftop café. We would hang out here during our breaks and the café owner was very welcoming. I recall having some of the best conversations about languages, cultures and life experiences over a hot cup of cappuccino with my colleagues here.

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Goodbye and hello!

Taking this course, changed me for better. All the preconceived notions I had about teaching EFL/ESL students were challenged andI found myself opening up to learn, unlearn and relearn. I bid goodbye to some obsolete teaching techniques, presumed notions of teacher-student relationship and now I am ready to say hello to new opportunities to explore as a CELTA certified teacher.