Hi I am moving to Poznan at the end of November,I am taking a TEFL course and I am wondering if anyone knows of any schools or jobs.I have no degree only the certificate.Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.I am a Native speaker of English also.
Hello frida33, And welcome to the Polish Forum. There are lots of threads about teaching on this forum, just type a key word like "teaching" into the search box at the top right hand corner of this page.
I did the TEFL course years ago and I used to teach here in Poland.
I gave up the teaching game years ago. I came here 6 years ago and had a job before I came, things were a lot different back then, i think. What made you choose Poland?
I really should have taken the time to look around the site.So many topics.Thankyou for both being tolerant of my badly placed post.I am moving as my partner is Polish,we met in England,he is back in Poznan and I am to follow.England has really lost its appeal.So hopefully I can make a new start in Poznan.Any advice you can give me is truly appreciated.
frida333, you could join up as a member (it's free :) and you'd have access to all the site and the advice you needed. Most of what you want to know is already here. :)
Plus you could also be in contact with other members. :)
I have never been to Essex. It gets cold in winter but it is like a different country and really very beautiful, plus there's the bonus of snowboarding!
I'm working at a school in Gliwice.Having a CELTA is very useful but most language schools in Poland require a degree.However,there is a shortage of native teachers and so many schools will be glad to take you on.Also,there are always people wanting private English lessons.
well, good luck....
And...Poland is a wonderful place to teach.I've been teaching for 3 years now and I was here in 2006 and decided to return because the money is good,students are fun and the vodka keeps me warm
Hi. I live in poznan and the main english schools are here: Berlitz, Profillingua, etc Here is a website to one. I have not had any interaction with them so dont know if they are any good but you might be able to hook in with them for a bit of info.
program-bell.edu.pl/english/index.htm
I am not a TEFL teacher but there are 3 main areas i think you can work in: - School - Private teaching - In house - This can be in companies, colleges etc. There seems to be a bit of this type of business about.
Probably best if you can find a school for a few months while you get settled and then you can suss out what is available.
By the way, check out tefl.com. You can search for jobs by country i.e. poland. If anything, it will give you the names of a few schools here in poland.
Anyway, hello! I'm in Poznan, and I'm on an industrial year from Writtle College, near Chelmsford..but I'm Scottish. Don't ask, long story ;) But anyway, it shouldn't be too difficult for you to find a job.
If you want, I can help you with the locations of schools - Google is pretty useless, and it's highly annoying having to walk around Poznań to find schools. I know what it's like, having had to have done this at the start of September. Some schools you should also avoid like the plague - Profi-Lingua is the big one, but some of them in Poznan should be avoided too. I won't say which ones publicly - but there's at least one where the director will happily hire you after two minutes conversation with her, only for her to then expect you to be a natural at teaching Callan after 10 minutes.
What else...basically, if you need any help at all in Poznan, feel free to give me a shout - I'm contracted for 15 hours and rarely work more than 20 in a week, so I've got more than enough free time to be able to help :) Having a Polish boyfriend will really help too - my girlfriend is Polish, and without her help in certain respects, I would've been banging my head off the wall.
And yes, I would definitely say that it's worth just trying to find any job for a few months until you know what the score is. I'll ask around for you as well if you want - people know people who know people and all that ;)
Good luck Frida. I wish you all the best in trying to teach esl in Poznan. I sent an application in to ESCS and as of yet never heard back from them. Pity that you have a British accent. But that is what makes the world go around since I am trying to get in with a neutral Canadian accent.
For me it would be nice since my mother & grandfather were born in Poland.
Gjene, are you in Poznań at the moment? It's much, much easier if you're actually here - not only because you can collar the directors to their faces, but also because you can judge where is worth putting CV's into in the first place.
Having said this, it seems to be a very Poznań trait to completely ignore your CV, then call up several weeks later enquiring as to your availability. Infuriating.
Delphiandomine, i am in poznan and have been for a few years. i currently have a day contract job but would be interested in doing a bit of teaching. i would be very interested in hearing your advice and which schools to avoid. I did a telf course a number of years ago for what its worth.
No I am not in Poznan, unfortunately. I am still in Canada. I cannot afford to be there with no job or money to support myself. Much rather try and line up a job before coming. I have tried a school called ESCS and as of yet heard nothing from them. Frustrating.
vndunne - Akces is the big one to avoid. Unprofessional, cramped schools, with absolutely no interest in actually teaching the students properly. They adhere strictly to the rules of the Callan/direct method - which, as anyone properly trained knows, are absolute nonsense. They also have quite fixed ideas of how English works - which is hilarious, given that the whole point of English is that every rule can be broken in every way.
I'm also told by my fellow teachers that the chain schools should be avoided - Empik, Berlitz, etc, as they're just teaching factories with fixed ideas of how teaching should work and thus aren't enjoyable places to work. Omnibus is also apparently dreadful - but they were friendly enough to me when I was dropping in CV's everywhere, so I'm really not sure.
It should be said that Callan isn't all bad, so don't discount a school based on that - but rather base it on how they teach it. If you get a good school, they won't pressure you to teach exactly how it's 'supposed' to be taught, but rather will allow you to put your own character into the lesson. There's schools out there who will let you decide what's best on that day - if they need an hour of traditional teaching for example, then a good school should allow this without any problems. But bad schools will insist upon 'THE METHOD' every lesson, for 50 minutes, every time. Avoid those like the plague - they won't be creatively satisfying, nor will they do anything for your improvement.
If you don't need to worry about the money, it'll make life much easier as you can pick up experience in a 'good' school without needing to hold out for more money.
Gjene - unfortunately, it's much, much easier to get a job once you're on the ground. I haven't met anyone who got a job here without being here first - although it is possible, it seems most schools in Poznan want to see you first. The only thing I can suggest is sending (physical) CV's to absolutely everywhere on Google, put adverts all over the internet and wait and see.
However, do consider that it's nearly December and the teaching year will end in May/June - it might be best to try and line up something for next year, rather than trying for something now. I wish you the best of luck :)
