SeltAcademy has been very busy these past few months preparing for our first 'Certificate in Teaching Skills' course for English language teachers in Baku, Azerbaijan. CTS-English is our flagship course for primary and high school teachers. We aim to add more versions later - one for Young Learners and another for Very Young Learners. Perhaps later some others will come... like a Diploma level one for teachers who have CTS, CELTA or ICELT.
The course is given in two parts (A and B), each one lasting two weeks or a four-week version. Generally speaking, splitting the course into two parts works better because teachers have more time to digest the material and try to incorporate it into their classes before we start the next half. Conditions permitting, we also visit teachers to observe their classes between the two parts to help them with their lesson planning and lesson execution. In Baku the plan is to go back in the spring break to do the second part.
The CTS-English course is similar to CELTA in that there is micro-teaching, but it is done with the other teachers in the group as the language learners. Participants use an adult course book close to their own level of English so that there is some language development for teachers as well.
The course is driven by the micro-teaching. Trainers are asked to respond to what the participants need so although there is a program and we provide PowerPoint presentations, Trainers Notes, Handouts and articles with homework tasks for the participants, we are happy for trainers to interpret the session titles and aims according to their group's needs. This provides a flexibility within a consistent structure. Teachers who attend this course anywhere in the world will have received input on roughly speaking the same topics but with local variations.
On this blog we will be sharing some insights into the course, the way teachers develop and the way the trainers work with the teachers.
No comments:
Post a Comment