The First Day Experience at Via Lingua
It’s 8:30 on the first day of the Via Lingua TEFL course and students from different parts of the world are sitting in their seats ready to embark on a four-week teaching course that is most likely unique to any class experience they’ve had yet. A few trainees might come from the local area, while most will have travelled from different places abroad. No matter where they’ve come from though, they’ve all come together now in this classroom. They don’t know it yet, but the other people in the room will become part of their community and support system as they face this exciting, challenging new venture.
The trainers, who are also brand new faces to the trainees, will soon become very familiar. The school will become both a place of work and a sort of refuge as it will be an anchor for the trainees and their time abroad - a place of familiarity with familiar faces and a consistent routine that will be of great comfort as they are most likely far from home, family, and friends.
The first day at Via Lingua does consist of your average “day 1” administrative tasks, but it’s also a day where trainees are already encouraged to start sharing a part of themselves and to start drawing connections from their past learning and life experiences to the present task of teaching a foreign language and working with others.
Yes, the trainers may have a curriculum in place, but that curriculum is a little different every month because of the people who have come to take the course. Every trainee is different from one another and every group of trainees creates its own unique dynamic. The trainers, like any good teachers, must adapt to each individual and group.
By the end of day 1, trainees will leave the classroom with an abundance of course-related information and a refreshing sense of anticipation for what connections and experiences these four weeks are about to bring. Trainees often don’t know this on day 1, but this four-week endeavor will impact them as individuals just as much as it will shape them as teachers.
How could it not?
Carly completed her TEFL certification in October 2016 and is expertly sharing her teaching skills with the local community in Florence as part of a well-established school. From young learners to university students to doctors and lawyers she is changing lives and language on a daily basis.