We talked to Italian-born (and Tuscany resident) Laura Degl’Innocenti, who recently completed our fully-online part-time CELTA course.
Laura is a young Linguistic Mediation (languages for translation and interpreting) graduate. She loves travelling around the world and has a passion for languages – she speaks Italian, English, Spanish, and a bit of Russian and French too. Laura has worked as nursery school teacher and Italian language teacher for foreign students in Florence. We asked her about her experience taking the CELTA through our centre in Florence…
Why did you choose to take the CELTA instead of any other TEFL courses available?
When I started looking for some information about valid TEFL courses on the internet I found on reliable sources that CELTA was the most complete and valid one, as well as the most recognized and known worldwide. That’s why, after asking my trustworthy university professor for advice, I decided to undertake this specific course.
Why did you choose to take the CELTA fully online instead of face-to-face?
At first, I thought that a face-to-face CELTA course would have been more complete, but then, after talking to my tutor during my first interview, I felt that a fully online course would have been the best choice for me as it would have allowed me to work and do the course at the same time. Moreover, with the grow online teaching worldwide, the online CELTA helped me acquire new skills which are highly requested nowadays.
N.B. with the CELTA course via Florence,
you also get the ELTcampus online Grammar refresher and Language Awareness course and an online “Teach ready for training” mini video course
completely free!
What made you choose Florence?
I live near Florence, and as originally my first choice was to do the course face-to-face, I looked for schools offering the CELTA in the area.
Did the online CELTA course experience match your expectations?
It exceeded them. The workload for this course was more than expected too, but it was worth it. I attended lots of courses in the past, but most of them disappointed me somehow. That’s why I was a bit sceptical at the very beginning, but since the first week I understood that this time things were taken seriously. It was the first time that I had a chance to put my learning into practice (since the very first week), and even if it was stressful from time to time, it made me improve a lot; even the anxiety I had before my first lessons pushed me to do my best every time.
What was the relationship between the different trainees like? What were the CELTA tutors like?
My tutor for the first half of the course was Cansu, who was great to start off on the right foot; she is very experienced, always available, and extremely clear in her feedback and explanations. On the second half we had Jean: a very experienced CELTA tutor always ready to give us good advice as well as new ideas and inspiration for our lessons; sometimes she had different methods as Cansu, which was useful to learn new tips and approaches on the same method.
Which part of the course did you enjoy the most?
The practical approach of the CELTA course and the support from the tutors and my teaching group. Feedback after every lesson was extremely useful too.
What will you do now that you are CELTA qualified?
At the moment I’m working as a kindergarten teacher until the end of June; my plan is to find a summer job abroad as an English teacher and to continue teaching English online or in a school of my town while finishing my studies. My plan for the future is to get a higher degree to be able to teach English and Italian in public schools too.
What would you say to someone thinking of taking the CELTA course?
Be prepared to put all your effort and free time in it while taking the course, but if your dream is to become a qualified English teacher (and most of all, to LEARN how to be a good one!), CELTA is definitely the perfect course for you.