Cactus TEFL Tasters - London & elsewhere.
Our Cactus TEFL Tasters will resume in 2009. They will be run every few months in Victoria, Central London. They provide you with 3 or more hours of information, presentations, demonstrations, and time to chat and discuss your personal projects and predicaments.
A Cactus TEFL Open Evening is your chance to find out whether TEFL is for you, speak to us and industry experts, and attend informative talks and presentations as well as demo lessons. There are also prizes to be won! This is the perfect opportunity to find out all you ever needed to know about the world of TEFL! See you there!
Cactus TEFL Open Evening 2009 dates
Past TEFL Evening: Victoria April 2009
The TEFL open evening held on 17th April 09 marked a new era in these events for us. For the first time in many years, it did not take place at its usual venue - the Guardian’s newsrooms in Farringdon. The reason for this was the recent relocation of the newspaper’s operations to a new premises, and despite offering us a lovely venue for many years the replacement that we found was equally as nice and more than suitable for our needs.
This event was held at Eurocentres’ Language school in Victoria, which is extremely convenient for anyone travelling in or into London. We were very well looked after there and intend to use this venue in future as the new home of the London Cactus TEFL evenings.
As usual, the evening was fully booked. Scores of people came along to learn more about TEFL and TEFL courses and to get advice on how to put their plans into action. In a change to the normal itinerary, the evening kicked off with a useful and interesting overview of how best to go about finding a TEFL job, by Saxoncourt Recruitment’s Ben Robinson.
Following on from this, Jenny Johnson and Laura Harrison of Cactus TEFL went through the various types of courses available, and how to choose the best one for you.
Included in the run-down of course types was Cactus TEFL’s very own English Language Awareness course, now recommended by many training organisations as an essential part of the preparation for a TEFL course. Some pesky grammar questions for the audience to ponder left a few people scratching their heads in confusion, and surprised to learn that an ‘infinitive’ does not mean ‘something that lasts a long time‘!
Next up were Trinity College London’s Head of TESOL, Jenny Pugsley, and Conrad Heynes, one of Cambridge ESOL's most experienced teacher trainers and assessors. Both gave insightful information on the benefits of doing one of these four week courses, along with other important factors to take into consideration when you sign up. Also included were interesting statistics on who takes these courses, and where they end up.
Last to speak was Garth Cadden, head of teacher training at St Giles’ Russell Square school. His excellent teaching and training skills were demonstrated by a mini lesson in pronunciation, which was perfect for showing just how much there is to learn about teaching EFL, and why it’s so important to get some proper training before you set foot in the classroom.
At the end of the evening three lucky winners were picked from the prize draw. The fantastic first prize was a free CELTA course donated by the evening’s sponsors, St Giles Highgate, second prize was the new and exciting Cactus Online TEFL course and third prize was a free English Language Awareness course. Congratulations again to all the winners, and best of luck with your courses!
Past TEFL Open Evening: Farringdon June 2008
Another of our famous Open Evenings was held at the Guardian newsrooms in Farringdon on the 13th June and was, by all accounts, a resounding success.
Over 75 people came along to find out more about how to realise their TEFL projects, and were treated to presentations by Trinity College's Head of TESOL, Jenny Pugsley, one of Cambridge ESOL's most experienced teacher trainers and assessors, Conrad Heynes, and Director of Human Resources at Saxoncourt Recruitment, Ian Holden.
Attendees were educated about the benefits of taking either a Trinity Cert TESOL or Cambridge CELTA course, along with what to expect on the course, and what they will be able to achieve through gaining a qualification such as this. Work-wise, Ian was able to give expert advice on what to consider before looking for (or accepting) work, and where prospective EFL teachers are most likely to find a job.
Flying the flag for Cactus TEFL were Sarah Wilson, who shared her expert knowledge on who takes TEFL courses, why they take them and the different types of courses available and Richard Bradford, who highlighted expertly to everyone why the ELA course can be so benefical..and why initiating conversations on the difference between the present simple and present perfect at a dinner party will not get you a repeat invite.
At the end of proceedings Laura Harrison also took the opportunity provided by 75 fresh faces to talk (at length) about her experiences during an amazing trip to visit a quality, friendly and rapidly-expanding EFL employer, ILA Vietnam earlier this year. Photos were included, but fortunately for everyone, a detailed slide show had been vetoed...
Giving the evening a more interactive element, Hussein Saygineren (a teacher from one the evening's main sponsors, ISIS school of English) got everyone involved in a highly-enjoyable Turkish lesson. This gave everyone a real taste of what it's like to learn a language from scratch using the 'communicative' method, and reminded everyone of how rusty the grey cells can become if we don't exercise them enough!
One more exciting and especially pertinent component to the evening was the announcement of the Suzanne Furstner Foundation's annual scholarship, set up in memory of our former head of TEFL, Suzanne, who was tragically killed two years ago this spring. This year's fantastic scholarship prize is a 4-week TEFL Course with a 2-week Spanish language course in Latin America, including accommodation and return travel to the UK (or equivalent), an amazing prize I'm sure anyone will agree, so get those entries in quick!
Past TEFL Open Evening: Brighton
Date: Thursday 15th May 2008
Location: Jubilee Library, Jubilee Street, Brighton
Due to the increasing popularity of our TEFL Open Evenings we thought, why not hold this event in our home town, and what better time to do this than during the Festival? Admittedly we were a little nervous- weren't sure how this event would be received, and the sheer number of weird and wonderful events in the Festival programmes gave us stiff competition. We were thrilled to see that this event sold out and we even had a queue of eager TEFLers at the door who were desperate to get in!
The Evening kicked off with Cactus' Germaine Broadbent, Head of Sales, saying a few words about the 2008 Suzanne Furstner Scholarship. This will be officially launched on 11th June at our next TEFL Open Evening at the Guardian Newsrooms in London, and is truly a great opportunity for anyone who may not be able to fund a course to get their first TEFL qualification. Head of Cactus TEFL, Jenny Johnson introduced the audience to the world of TEFL and one of the most daunting aspects of EFL teaching for new teachers, grammar. Sarah Wilson, Cactus TEFL Training Consultant, gave some helpful information about the various types of TEFL courses and useful advice on how to choose a TEFL course.
Representing Trinity College London and Cambridge ESOL, the two leading examining boards, were Huan Japes and Mike Williams. Both Huan and Mike highlighted how well-regarded the Trinity CertTESOL and the Cambridge CELTA course are worldwide. Huan focussed on some of the unique features of the Trinity CertTESOL course, and Mike had some useful information on who takes the CELTA course and where it can lead.
Emily Milner from St Giles International Brighton gave an outstanding Turkish language demonstration lesson to our brave audience, who learnt how to say hello and introduce themselves. (If any attendees happen to read this please write to us at info@cactustefl.com to let us know how you say hello, what your name is and how you ask someone their name in Turkish, and Cactus TEFL will give you a £5.00 discount off the ELA course!) The post-lesson group feedback and analysis session gave attendees and invaluable insight into what happens on a TEFL course and how the teacher manages the learning process in the classroom.
Laura Harrison, Cactus TEFL Consultant, shared her knowledge on that all-important issue of TEFL jobs, where you can go and how much you'll earn. Continuing on this theme Robin Fry, Recruitment Manager of ISIS Education and Travel, spoke about the highs and lows of ELT in UK summer schools and stressed the value of this experience for newly-qualified EFL teachers.
Following the Q & A session three lucky audience members won in our prize draw. Congratulations to Faye Bennett on winning the ELA course and Heather Ball for winning a place on the Brighton Weekend TEFL course. A huge congratulations goes to Kate Bouchier on winning a place on the newest TEFL course in town, a Trinity CertTESOL course kindly donated by our main sponsor for the evening ISIS Brighton Study Centre.
Past TEFL Open Evening: March 19th '08
March 19th saw a recurrence of one of the TEFL world’s most noteworthy events. 2008’s first Cactus TEFL Open evening in collaboration with the Guardian Education was hosted in the Scott Room at the Guardian Newsrooms in central London, The room was packed with people wanting to know as much as they could learn about TEFL in the 3 hours available. Information backed by a detailed powerpoint presentation took the attendees through the pre-TEFL grammar course, short, online, weekend and 4 week and part time 4 week equivalent courses in 10 or 15 minute information slots presented by the Cactus TEFL team, representatives of Trinity College London, Cambridge ESOL, and other course providers. Conrad Heynes, a very experienced CELTA trainer and assessor shared his knowledge of CELTA with us, and Jenny Pugsley, Head of TESOL at Trinity College London enlightened us as to the similarities and main differences in approach of the Trinity Cert compared to the CELTA. We were treated to a highly amusing Thai language lesson given by Steve Jackson of Saint George International introducing us both to communicative teaching methods and a few starter words of Thai. Laura Harrison of Cactus TEFL developed the south-east Asian theme with an introduction to the delights of working for the ILA school chain in Vietnam . At the end of the evening, before the drinks and nibbles, the prize draw was held. Three lucky winners left the evening with a Trinity Cert TESOL course at Saint George International worth £750, an i-to-I 100 hour weekend and online course and job placement worth £495, and a Cactus TEFL English Language Awareness course worth £50. Don’t miss the next Cactus TEFL evening in June, when we will be announcing the 2008 Suzanne Furstner Scholarship to win a place on a 4 week training course and 2 weeks of Spanish lessons somewhere in South America for a lucky winner. Check out our site for more info.
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