Archive | March, 2012

By Erin Critchley
Guest blogger from i-to-i.com

10 essential suitcase items for TEFL teachers

By User:Mattes (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

So you’re going to teach English as a foreign language are you? Heard about the wonders of getting paid to teach and travel and want to be prepared? Maybe you’re about to board a plane to TEFL town and are squeezing and squashing the last of your prized possessions into your case…

Whatever stage of the journey you’re at it’s useful to bundle together a few items that are sure to come in handy when you’re in the classroom for real.

Hold the 20th pair of socks! Here are the top ten TEFL items every teacher should pack:

By Monika Salita
@monikasalita or About Monika

You’ve been living in a new, exciting, stimulating land for months or years. The sights, sounds, smells, people and adventures have all been new and invigorating. Then, it’s all over. Your contract is up, your visa has expired, and it’s time to head back home.

Arriving home and only seeing mono-lingual signage, hearing announcements in only one language at the baggage carousel while being subjected to having to listen to some garish regional accent at the neighboring baggage carousel; it’s all a part of reverse culture shock. Or at least it was for me. Sure it’s nice to be home in the town that I’m most familiar with, yet, it’s so unexciting. So uneventful. So not stimulating to the mind.

By Grace Chinn
Grace is an EFL Teacher with 2 years’ experience teaching in Peru, Australia and Scotland.
She is currently travelling and looking for teaching work in Latin America.

By Norma Gòmez [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

If you believe the hype about Colombia, it will either be top of your list of places to visit, or top of your list of places never to visit depending on what type of traveler you are. In the past few years, Colombia has become one of the most raved about destinations in Latin America. With crystal clear Caribbean waters, snow-capped Andean mountains and eclectic cosmopolitan and colonial cities, it’s not hard to see why. This boom in the tourist industry has seen a renewed interest in learning English so there are plenty of jobs to go around. Colombia might just have what you’re looking for in your next teaching destination.