TEFL Teaching English as a Foreign Language

I completed the TEFL Certificate course at ITTO at the end of September 2018, graduating with distinction, a happy outcome I was delighted and grateful to receive. I worked very hard to earn it!

As should be expected of any intensive training, the program was quite demanding, but rewarding, as well. I am grateful to Mr. Marc Del Alto for his amazing instruction that exemplified the concepts and methodologies he taught to my class of 12. I achieved my goal of accepting a job offer before I graduated thanks to an amazing contact arranged by Mr. Luis Tamayo.

All along the way, I had the support of the administrative staff, starting with my advisor, Mr. Naveen Soni. His support before and during the course helped me make a successful plan to move to Mexico from the US to pursue a new career path teaching English in Mexico. In addition to Naveen, the daily support of Andrea, Karelly, and Victoria for the various needs presented by myself and my classmates ranging from photocopies to help finding an English-speaking doctor was invaluable. And let's not forget Alex, who keeps the facilities ready for us to use daily with smiles and cheer.

I recommend this course to people who are dedicated to their own success, willing to work hard to achieve it, who are open to working and collaborating with groups of talented and intelligent peers from around the world who come to ITTO for TEFL certification. This is no diploma mill. You will work very hard to earn this certification, but in the end, you will be prepared to begin your teaching career as a TEFL-certified EFL/ESL instructor.

As a new alumnus of ITTO, I look forward to advancing quickly in this new path of my career, and will remain in contact with the institution as my career and life in Mexico proceeds. Thank you to all for a wonderful experience these past four weeks! Great respect!

I loved the flow from classroom learning to observing and then teaching a few classes with feedback.
Yes I will try to answer any question that you may have. I studied at TEFL in 2007 and I stayed at a posada walking distance from the institute which was nice.
I chose to work in Xalapa, veracruz for a director by the name of Eugenio Ávalos and i had a good experience.
If nothing has changed since I left in 2007, here is how it works. The first week or two you will take teaching classes and whatever you put into it is what you will take out. So that is the time to ask questions to the instructor, because once you start working and learning the method at the school you will be teaching at you will have less time to learn to be the best teacher you can be.
By the 2nd or 3rd week, you will give a lesson or two at one of the language schools in Guadalajara and the classroom teacher will go over your strengths and areas that you need to improve on.
At the end of the 3rd week or by the 4th final week you will select which teaching job you would like to have anywhere in the world. I believe that it is anywhere but it is at least in North America, South America, or the Caribbean.
I didn’t choose to work in Guadalajara because it was too big of a city for me. I preferred xalapa because it was not a small city, but not a big city either. Plus, I already had friends there. If you want to work somewhere where it is beautiful, then choose Chiapas. The workers there will answer your questions about different states to work based on your interests. If you have any questions about that or anything else, i will be glad to help you out.
Feel free to contact me for anything else and to be honest the experience working in Mexico was one of the best years of my life!
Itto did a great job in finding my ideal job and to make sure that I was happy.

The classes were well directed and taught by Linda Byrd. She certainly knew the material and was supportive and encouraging. I liked very much learning from the sister language school across the street--this was a terrific way to put our teaching to immediate practice and to learn from the Mexican teaching staff there. As I am a more experienced teacher coming at ITTO training with a whole earlier writing career behind me, I had wished were there more people my age--the class was very large (I think that was unusual), and very young and I found most of the other students were just starting out, hardly out of their parents' homes, and pretty novice. But it was a lively group, very smart people from all over--this was terrific. (Sadly and tragically, we lost one of our class just months after graduation in October--Isabel from Nothingham died from a bike accident.) Perhaps ITTO could encourage more adult and older professionals changing careers to apply to this course and experience.
I did not really hang out with the other students much, as I lived far away and couldn't stay out at night late. I toured the city myself and walked a lot to museums and parks.
I lived with a rather prickly older lady in her house a long bus ride away from the school. I was paying her $100 a week, which i learned is an astronomical sum for most Mexicans and yet the lady only grudgingly fed me, and we had to negotiate the kind of meals i could eat. She was kind, but stingy. As well, she had two other boarders in her tiny house, and we all had tiny spaces and shared one bathroom, so it was awkward and not terrifically comfortable. But I wanted to live with Mexican people and I learned a lot of Spanish from her.
The location of the school in the heart of the historic district was excellent, accessible, and charming, and I loved taking the bus and learning about the city. The school facilities were fine, not beautiful, but functional, and there was plenty of room to do our work and so on. The language school across the street was wonderful to teach in, loved the students, however the forced buying of the language book for two weeks classes was high robbery--sorry!
Loved the staff, though perhaps only Naveen is still there?! Hola! and Luis, who has excellent connections and got me the CDMX job right away at Corporate English. I am very grateful.

The first couple of days are to get you prepared for the four weeks to come. I will admit it seemed intimidating at first glance. With the help of time management from the staff, you will realize that it is not as scary as it looked. There are excursions and spending time with your classmates on your free time. The school is in the downtown area so you can explore. I would recommend this course to anyone looking to teach English as a foreign language or for people who are curious to how a language works. Trust me, if I could take the class again, I would!