Ramping Up

I finished my TESOL/TESL/TEFL certification from Oxford Seminars last weekend and the 3 weekends went by surprisingly fast.  I stressed over my final lesson plan and only got a few hours of sleep.  I even got to the class 40 minutes early and was going over what I was going to say and do during my lesson.  When it came time to actually do the lesson plan, I was following the note prompts, but did a gut check on time management.  At the end it worked out ok and I was able to compare my intended outcome vs. actual outcome and there was some unforeseen learning lessons.  This was a good thing.  At the end, when I read over my review, it turned out that I was the top of my class, but even this didn't calm my nerves.

I have been working on my resume, cover letter, teacher's philosophy, and getting my documents together in order to apply for the working visa.  Such a pain!!  I submitted a couple of the documents into the job placement and waiting to hear back from them.  Once the final drafts are vetted out, they are supposed to submit my application to the schools and I might just start applying to other places I discovered during my research.  I also looked into apartments / rooms for rent to get a feel for the rental market.  All this preparation and I am half glad that it is still 3 months out before I can start that job.  I am a bit worried that I have seen a decline in the number of job postings for Vietnam so I hope the timing will be right for me to get hired with New Years around the corner once I set foot in Vietnam.  My backup plan will be to apply to Korea so if that happens, I will be doing my research all over again.  Ugh.  Once I get a confirmed school offer, I will start re-reading my books/manuals and start to keep reading notes.  I am still wondering if I should be taking the specialization modules to take advantage of the $100 discount.  Grammar vs. TOEFL.  That is the question.  I believe Grammar will give me more lesson plan ideas, but TOEFL is something all the students are looking to pass.

Next stop is to wait on the job placement feedback and see if I should be taking the specialization module.