TEFL Prague and Abroad

    If you've been teaching in one country for a while and want to make the move to another country, especially a country where the competition between TEFL teachers is high, I recommend making a demo video of one of your lessons. This is great way for you to showcase your skills in the classroom, and it will even out the negative of you not being able to interview in person.    Most high paying schools want to see you teach. Simply conducting a phone interview can't really achieve this. What usually happens is that the school will hire, if they can, a local teacher instead. If you can make a quick 5-10 minute video of you teaching, you can get around this. To get this done, you'll need one of your current classes that doesn't mind being videoed, a camera man, and a great lesson to show off what you know. Camera work, technology and editing software/options are cheap and accessible today. Most smart phones can even shoot in HD and can be used if you don't have a...

  Great article on Expats.cz that mentions me and one of my previous posts regarding customer service in Prague. I have to say, I'm flattered. Check it out. Service with a frown? You must be in Prague. Why is it that customer service here is so often substandard and what – if anything – can be done about it? Every expat has their favorite customer service horror story, whether the staff they encountered were sour-faced, unwilling to be the least bit proactive, or just downright rude. The venue could have been  a shop , restaurant or government office. The perpetrator might be young or old, male or female. In the Czech Republic, a basic lack of understanding of the minimum level of courtesy required when dealing with the public seems all too widespread – and it’s costing companies dearly. A  survey by telecommunications firm Genesys estimates  that Czech businesses lose 1.08 billion US dollars annually because of substandard customer service.  In an article o...

 Take a look at a video that I just shot for the gradable/ungradable adjective lesson that was posted a few weeks ago. The actual lesson was about 35 minutes long and it was done to intermediate-upper intermediate students. It was my first time meeting them, so I start of the lesson with a bit of an icebreaker. The video is just shy of 10 minutes and it's been edited with labels to show you what part of the lesson we are in. Let me know your thoughts, and if you want your own lesson created, give me a grammar point or topic, and I will be happy to make one for you. Here's the video   Cheers, Chris The Language House TEFL

  Here's a lesson for intermediate students and up that involves the students making a mock movie and pitching it to a movie studio.   Introduction: just a few minutes.  Come in pretending to be a director and mime filming the class. Elicit the concept of movies or film.  Lead in: around 7 minutes. Demo these questions out and put students in groups to answer them. 1. Do you like watching movies? What is your favorite movie? 2. What good movies have you seen this last year? 3. Who is your favorite actor and director? Why? 4. What well known movies have been made in your country? Lexis: around 10 minutes. Elicit and CCQ the following an actor, a star, a lead role, a supporting role a director a producer a plot a cast a setting a genre a thriller a horror movie a comedy, a black comedy, a romantic comedy a drama a documentary to pitch (a movie) a twist Study 1: around 5 minutes. Matching with strips. Students match the definition with...