TEFL Certification Course

This past weekend Sophia and I headed up to Boston, MA to participate in a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Certifcation Course which was taking place at Eastern Nazerene College. The course was 20 hours packed into the one weekend, but it was worth the time, to only have a one weekend committment. Both Sophia and I agreed that the course was very helpful, thought-provoking and fun! We were two students of nine, and one instructor and to our surprise, were the only females in the class. Throughout the weekend we would participate in small activities to put in our "Bag of Tricks" (little games, activities to pull out when you have 5-10minutes left at the end of a lesson) that all can modified for all levels of learners, ages, and english proficiency. Each day we were given complete freedom to create our own 10-20 minute lesson plan. We could choose any topic, any age level, and any english proficiency level, as long as our lesson was coordinated with these choices.
Over the weekend Sophia and I stayed with her gracious Aunt and Uncle who lived about a half hour away from the college. We were both so grateful not to have to pay for much but lunch and gas, since we are saving every penny we can for our approaching trip! Everyone in the class was open and excited to learn from the instructor as well as eachother, let alone excited to get teaching! It was interesting to see the different types of teachers each person was obviously going to become.
We definetly gained many many good ideas about lessons, activities, and other resources that we wouldn't have thought of. It also pumped us up for our trip even more and motivated us to start planning our lessons!