“I have been teaching English abroad for a few years now and I cannot say that i learned anything that better prepares me to help my students in the classroom. I did think that the grammar sections were broken down in simple and easy to learn way, but nowadays there are plenty of similar resources free online through grammar help websites and peer-to-peer sharing. Much of the content seemed outdated, for example, the unit on research and how to use the web. Sporadically throughout my units I was given the impression that it has been quite some time since the curriculum has been updated. And finally, the system of testing after each units needs to be changed if the students are going to take the curriculum seriously. The tests themselves went against the recommendations given in the curriculum- they provide no way for the test makers to actually evaluate how much a student got out of the lessons and whether or not they were ready to move on- the tests simply require a reference to the unit or memorization lines of section....no critical thinking was involved.
I will say that the ITTT staff was lovely. I chose this certificate program over others in part because the online assistance was quick and helpful. A few times throughout the course I sent emails with questions and always received a speedy response. As for the final lesson plan, I feel that the curriculum is still too vague and I had the impression that lesson plans are seldom accepted on the first attempt as I received rather general stock feedback after my first submission. Nonetheless, every email I received from my grader and technical staff thereafter was promptly sent and helpful in some way”
