9am - Be at Teaching House. Begin morning lessons.
12pm - Lunch break for one hour.
5pm - End observations and teaching demonstrations.
12am - Finish preparing/homework.
A month might not seem like a long time, it is when you have a daily schedule that lasts this long. You get crammed full of experience and you're genuinely prepared for your first classroom when you step into your first job abroad.
Because you will get a job abroad. And pack your bags as soon as your done with this course because you'll get a job quickly. And barring any novice mistakes when you're job searching, you'll get a good job. CELTAs are world-renowned for producing quality teachers and that's what you'll be when you step outside this course. Some countries/jobs even hold CELTAs almost as high as teaching certificates in your home country (which means you could be working at a high-paying public/private school job, like me). You can also work at an international school, which would be otherwise closed to you with just a regular TEFL certificate.
You'll do a lot of paperwork for each teaching demonstration you do, not because you'll have to do that on your job, but because it is all good things you should be thinking about before you step into the classroom.
And you're working with genuine ESL/EFL students which is great because you get to know them, but not as well as you'll get to know your fellow classmates. I'm still friends with many of them and almost all of them are teaching abroad somewhere.
The staff, towards the end of the course, will have a day that you choose where in the world you want to teach and you'll have a sit down with a staff member who has been to that part of the world and you'll talk to them specifically about what kind of work you want to do and where you can begin looking for jobs. The staff is also there to bounce ideas off of when you're planning your lessons, which is a lot like the real world (teachers are kind of like blobs that roll around and stick to other things from other teachers and then the things become a part of them).
It's expensive. Yup. But if you look at it like you'll be getting paid higher with this certification than friends that don't have it, then it evens out. Ya know, like what a college education used to be.
Take the course. Study hard. Drink lots of coffee. And get a job abroad.
I haven't been in school for 10+ years so it was hard to get back into that school work mode but it was ever so worth it. Great instructors - learned so much from them. Daily schedule is structured great - plenty of balance between input sessions, breaks and being able to actually teach in the afternoon was immensely important. Classmates were very helpful and everyone works together to complete tasks - there is no "i want a better grade than you so I'm not going to help" everyone was in it together. Do not expect this course to be easy but as long as you put the effort into it you will be able to pass. Glad I took this course and have the CELTA certificate that will allow me to begin the next chapter of my life.
Highly recommend this course if you want to get into teaching english.
At some point during the curriculum I realized, perhaps because hitherto I'd had no previous teaching experience, knowledge of grammar was far from being the main focus. That's not to say that I believe if one were deficient they wouldn't encounter a mighty struggle, no; only that there were many more details relating to other aspects of teaching. In fact, one thing that intrigued me most about this course was how it went about demonstrating the process of acquiring knowledge, and all that that might entail. It really is hard for me to go into detail, though I'd like to, because I wouldn't want to spoil anything! (and, in all honesty, because I am still looking through my notes and other literature in an attempt to apprehend more...). Paula Ellis and Lise Bell taught the curriculum and I believe were more than equal to the task of guiding us neophytes; especially when thinking, now, about what was being taught.