What’s next?

I finished my TEFL course! 4 weeks from what-the-hell-lets-try-this to oh-jeez-i-cant-do-this to oh-ok-maybe-i-can. I guess I’ll bounce between those states a dozen or so more times as I find a job and actually start teaching.

Self-doubt aside, I’m really impressed with this course. I did almost no research at all before choosing SEE TEFL here. If I remember correctly, it went something like “Maybe I’ll move to Thailand. I wonder if I can get certified to teach English there.” Quick Google search brings up a few local courses, confirming that I can. I think I clicked one, just to get a sense of timing and price, that one was SEE TEFL and it seemed good, so I signed up. There were other options, but I know nothing about them…

Now that I type that out, I’m thinking maybe my mental state wasn’t as not-unstable as I thought it was while I was making these decisions. There was a lot going on at the time, but I don’t know why I thought it was ok to choose that way. I mean, it was, but still.

Anyways, my point is, it worked out way better than I had any right to expect. It really is amazing how far they took all of us in 20 days. After two weeks of classes on English grammar and classroom management, some lesson prep guidance, and then 6 observed teaching practices with real students and lots of feedback, I think we can actually do this. We’re English teachers!

Actually, we’re unemployed English teachers. Next up is finding a job.

The school provides assistance with this, but a lot of that comes down to timing and luck. They hear about openings and depending on who’s around or who’s asking, you could end up with a job very quickly. Otherwise, there are a few websites that list openings (though I’m not planning to use them, so I can’t say much about their reliability or the process). And you can always just walk into a school and ask.

Right now I have two potential opportunities being coordinated through SEE TEFL, so I’ll see how those play out in the next couple weeks. Otherwise my plan is to just start walking into schools.

All of this is, obviously, very important. It’s good to have a job and make money and (most most most importantly) get my visa situation worked out. But Topi gets here on Sunday and literally all my attention and energy and sanity is going into passing the last 4 days of this long-distance relationship.