Bringing the World Closer

First Assignment

Hello everyone!

Congratulations on completing your first task: successfully logging in to the MyTeachingHouse.com site!

We are presently developing Generation 2 of the MyTeachingHouse site. It’s a great resource both on the course and after the course (in finding work and keeping up with friends you’ve made during the course). As this site is under development, we’d appreciate any feedback or suggestions that you have.

I have a few more tasks for you to complete—it may take about an hour or two. Please read the instructions below and complete it before next Monday.

Directions: All written answers must be posted on this thread (First Assignment) within the discussion forum in your course group. Since there are many of you, it's important to post only on this thread (click "Reply to This" at the bottom) so that we can keep the forum from getting full and messy-looking. However, if you have any other comments or questions you are welcome to start a new thread.

1. If you haven’t already, edit your profile with your current location, status and photo

2. Browse through our international directory of English language schools (hover over "RESOURCES" in the toolbar at the top of the page and click "SCHOOL DIRECTORY" ). Post the name of a school that you think you might be interested in applying to after the course, and (briefly) why you liked that school.

3. Go to Course Forms and find a word from one of the glossaries that you do not know.

4. Post one idea or recommendation for MyTeachingHouse.com.

5. Post a personal goal related to taking our Teaching House CELTA course.

6. Post a comment about someone else’s comments, for example, “Lizzy, I agree with your comment about the job listings section…” or “Abby, I saw that you wanted to work in Paris. I was thinking about that myself—is it hard to find work in France?” If you're one of the first people to post, come back later with a comment after your peers have caught up.

Good luck and keep coming back to our site! You can email me at info@teachinghouse.com with any questions.

All the best,

Christen

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Courtney Feldman on March 10, 2011 at 10:33pm

I might be interested in applying to either Kaplan or Berlitz locations in Chicago and Los Angeles. I like the fact that both schools have many locations and moving between them may be possible. While I am interested in traveling outside the United States, right now I would prefer to relocate to one of these places. But of course I am open to suggestions!

Permalink Reply by Auburn Scallon on March 10, 2011 at 11:16pm

Hi all! I'm looking forward to meeting everyone in person. After completing the course, I'm open to applying to a number of places.

1. Somewhere I know a little of the language and would be comfortable living like:
American Center in Marsailles, France
Lambraki in Crete, Greece

2. A position with great benefits and salary in a region experiencing major changes, (although I would like to talk to someone experienced about the safety and lifestyle of being a single woman):
Turkey
Saudi Arabia
Abu Dhabi

3. A country I've never seen but have always wanted to visit:
Bali
Brazil
Czech Republic

4. I'm assuming it would be next to impossible to compete with locals, but I have always wanted to find a way to live in Sydney, Australia, England or South Africa.

Glossary word I didn't know:
Realia: The actual object used to illustrate meaning. For example, if you are teaching different types of fruit, you could bring in realia: bananas, oranges, apples etc.

It would be helpful to be able to sort the job listings on MyTeachingHouse.com by region, country, salary, length of contract, etc.

One thing I'm looking forward to is refreshing my English skills through the CELTA course, which will not only prepare me for a teaching position, but will also help in many freelance writing and editing projects that I take on.

Permalink Reply by Courtney Feldman on March 11, 2011 at 3:08pm

Hi Auburn! I have a friend who did the CELTA course in Sydney and then has had jobs teaching there, and he is not Australian at all. So it's possible!

Permalink Reply by Courtney Feldman on March 11, 2011 at 2:42pm

I will combine these ones :)

One new term that I learned from the glossary of ESL terms is metalanguage, which is the language used to talk about language (like the world 'verb'). I also learned that WC does not mean water closet.

A recommendation that I have for the Teaching House website is an update of several of the school links in the school directory section. I had problems mainly with the ones that are a part of a university.

One personal goal that I have with regard to this CELTA course is to get more comfortable being in front of and leading a group.

Permalink Reply by Kate Storks on March 12, 2011 at 2:58pm

~ I liked the idea of teaching in Russia or in Georgia because I think that region is incredibly intersting. I also liked the idea of working through the Greenheart Traveler organization, in Thailand, because of its correlation with environmental education and it's ties to ecotourism. However, right now I am more interested in working with adult immigrants in the United States and I found one organization in Los Angelos that offers classes to adults.

~One word from the glossaries that I didn't know is-
Functional exponent, this is a phrase which expresses a function. For example, “I’m
sorry” is an exponent of the function of apologizing.

~ For myteachinghouse.com, I'd recomend that the job directory be updated more often- there were a couple of job offers up whose starting dates had already passed by. It can be disappointing to really like you're reading about a job and then realize that the application needed to be in December of last year.

~ I'm looking forward to being able to properly explain english grammar, as opposed to saying that something incorrect simply doesn't 'sound right' when put in that way.

~ I also agree with Auburn that jobs in the directory be grouped by region. It will enable people to go directly to where they are interested in working to search for available jobs.