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Do you think teaching ESL overseas will help me to determine if I should become a kindergarten teacher? Do you think this experience would have (or did) help you to solidify you're in the right career?
I would like to get some real on the job experience before starting school to be sure that I'm cut out for teaching. I've been trying to volunteer locally in the elementary schools but I haven't had any luck. A friend recommended since I am a native English teacher to teach ESL overseas for one year to be able to experience what teaching is like. Do you think teaching English overseas for a year would be a worthwhile experience to reinforce my decision to be an early childhood school teacher for a living?
Thanks very much for your insights,
Sincerely,
Emily
I think it would be a wonderful experience for you and it's a great idea. Do you already have a Bachelor's degree? Many countries require that (in addition to the TESOL certificate). My daughter is currently teaching in South Korea, and I know it has solidified her decision on whether or not to become a teacher....
It should, because you will actually find out if you enjoy working with kids. The learning environment in another country is obviously different but working with kids is either going to give you the satisfaction or not.
The difficulty of preparing & teaching might be the only stumbling block for you since you don't have the training. In another country teaching a class is different since the systems are run differently. So don't base the experience on that.
Sunshine has it right, get some type of ESL cert. It'll make you more marketable. Some countries require at least a bachelors in anything. The 'best' (most $) place to work so far is South Korea and United Arab Emeriates.
THANK YOU for your replies. Yes SunshineL, I do have a bachelors degree. What grade level is your daughter teaching in south korea? How does she like it? Did she have any prior teaching experience?Does she want to teach young children as well though? I'm wondering what are the chances I could be placed with the age group I want to work with which is about kindergarten age.
RockyMtn, I love kids so that is one huge reason I want to teach the lower grade levels. I would def. get ESL cert.
There has been discussion on teaching ESL to get some teaching experience but I don't have any knowledge on if teaching ESL will be a good experience for me since I want to work with young kids. What I'm trying to say is I think teaching ESL will definitely help me to determine if I want to teach, but will it help me to determine if I should be a kindergarten teacher? I love kids, I'm great with kids, and kids are drawn to me as well. The only way I would be a teacher is if I would teach the kindergarten age.
Am I thinking too much into this??? I'm not sure how to better express myself so I hope you guys understand.
From the research I've seen with it, if you go to Korea and Japan you would be dealing with mostly children.
In Latin America, you'd mostly be dealing with the business people.
A good place to ask this question to get more specific responses about actually doing the teaching out there is in the World section. There are a few people who have done it and are currently teaching. I refuse to go there, simply because of the stupidity of most of the people who frequent that thread, but they can get you some decent information if you have something specific.
Another thing about Latin America, is that they do not pay well. You'll probably be scraping by and on top of that the visa process is a lot more difficult.
My daughter taught for a year in China. She was the only one in her program that was certified to teach. The rest were recent grads looking to do something for a year or two before grad school or maybe had not been able to find a job or simply wanted to be abroad and work. It was a good experience for my daughter but I'm not sure she would have stayed in teaching from that. The classes were huge and the kids did not speak any English. Basically the schools just wanted to say that they had a native English speaker but didn't expect the kids to learn much. She had friends that taught in S. Korea and Thailand that had more enjoyable teaching experiences.
Yes, there are opportunities available for EFL teaching in elementary schools (and even kindergartens) abroad. Spending a few minutes Googling around I don't see anything recent for Bolivia, but you might have better luck. There are opportunities elsewhere in Latin America, though. One website says it might be easier / better to look for jobs while you are in-country: http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,6091.0.html Your boyfriend might be able to let you know about availability where he's living, or if any schools are hiring. As others have said, you'll find more opportunities in South Korea and China, among other Asian countries. In South Korea you can find work in public elementary schools, private after-school cramschools teaching elementary school kids, and even classes with kindergarten students (although these are often illegal jobs because the government doesn't want to give children of the wealthy even more advantages).
You'll get some good experience teaching kids, but there will be some differences, of course, between teaching overseas and in your home country. You probably won't have anything to do with the administrative side in Bolivia: no calling parents, no paperwork, no event-planning. Likewise, depending on the country you choose you may find more lax standards, so you won't go through the numerous background checks required of teachers and volunteers in the US.
But there are plenty of resources available online for teaching EFL to kindergarten and elementary school students, and you'll be able to adapt some lessons you'd use in your home country to what would be appropriate there.
Best of luck.
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