:: Open Evening 19th March 08
:: Open Evening 21st Nov 07
:: Open Evening 13th June 07
:: Open Evening 14th March 07
:: Open Evening April 06
:: Open Evening Dec 05
:: Open Evening June 05
:: Open Evening Feb 05

TEFL evening March 19th

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.

Cactus TEFL/Guardian Open Evening, November 21st 07

The third Cactus TEFL Open evening of 2007 was a resounding success. 85 delegates were signed up to learn as much about TEFL as they could in 3 hours, and they were not disappointed.

Industry experts gave information about weekend TEFL courses, online TEFL courses, short TEFL courses and longer 4 week CELTA and TESOL courses. We were particularly lucky to have Monica Poulter from Cambridge ESOL to talk about CELTA: this was a first for the Cactus TEFL evenings!

Anyone with an eye to becoming an EFL teacher learned enough to make a decision which steps to take next after this event. A demonstration Greek class kept everyone open-mouthed (“if every lesson was like that you’d learn a language in no time”).

In addition, the Suzanne Furstner scholarship prize winner was announced. Anna Prime won the prize, a CELTA course and two weeks Spanish classes in Spain, with her poem ‘Six weeks in Spain’ around the themes of the scholarship: TEFL and language learning.

There was also a prize draw, with a lucky winner of a CELTA course in Central London at Oxford House College, another won a weekend TEFL course and a third won a Cactus online English Language Awareness course.

With the use of the smart Guardian Newsrooms and the break out into the Exhibition area, everyone enjoyed the refreshments afterwards and another opportunity to chat about TEFL!

Look out for the next London TEFL evening in March 2008!

Update from Open Evening: June 13th 2007

Held in conjunction with the Guardian Education at their Farringdon newsrooms, our second TEFL Open Evening of 2007 was another great success. Thank you very much to all who attended and to our sponsors: Skola, Saxoncourt, i-to-i and Language Link.

The programme provided invaluable information on a wide range of TEFL-related issues. Cactus TEFL’s own Jenny Johnson and Sarah Wilson gave information which included why take a TEFL course, the different types of TEFL courses available, questions to ask and factors to take into consideration when choosing a course and pre-TEFL language awareness preparation.

We had our best line-up yet of guest speakers. These included Lee Knapp from Cambridge ESOL and Huan Japes from Trinity College London who gave information on the leading TEFL industry qualifications the Cambridge CELTA and the Trinity CertTESOL. Joe Hallwood from i-to-i gave information on weekend and online TEFL courses, and Stuart Pollard from Skola told us about qualifications for teaching younger learners.

We heard from Ian Holden of Saxoncourt about all the things to consider when finding a job in TEFL and eight brave volunteer students from the audience experienced a Polish language lesson with Franek Strzeszewski, one of our Cactus foreign language teachers, which helped them to imagine what their future students will be feeling and also to pick up some hints and tips about teaching a first lesson.

Cactus TEFL were also very proud to officially launch the Suzanne Furstner Foundation and Cactus TEFL’s Laura Harrison awarded prizes of a Cambridge CELTA course donated by one of our sponsors, Language Link, and our English Language Awareness course to two lucky audience members. The next event will be held in the autumn.

Cactus TEFL/Guardian Open Evening, March 14th 07

This was Cactus TEFL’s fourth TEFL Open Evening, and we were delighted to welcome nearly 100 people in the Guardian newsrooms. For the first time ever, a representative of Cambridge ESOL, Heather Saunders, attended, to talk about the CELTA qualification. Jenny Pugsley of Trinity College London gave information on the Cert TESOL qualification, and Laura Harrison and Sarah Wilson of the Cactus team presented the most salient information about types of TEFL courses and reasons for doing them.

The evening saw the launch of Cactus TEFL’s own English Language Awareness Course, ELA, written by TEFL/TESOL expert John Hughes which is an invaluable tool for those about to embark on a TEFL course who are worried about their grammar!

We ran our first powerpoint presentation which gave useful visual support to all the information on offer. Garth Cadden of St Giles International gave a demonstration teaching practice session, to give participants an idea of the kind of teaching they would be doing in the teaching practice on a course. Then Ian Holden of Saxoncourt Recruitment gave lots of useful information on finding work in TEFL, and this was followed by time for questions to all the speakers.

We ended with the opportunity for more questions and chat with others with the same interests and with the speakers and the Cactus team, accompanied by drinks and nibbles courtesy of Trinity College London.

Cactus TEFL/St Giles Open Evening, April 06

Cactus TEFL would like to thank everyone who attended our popular TEFL taster evening on April 19th at St Giles International school. Lots of interest was generated with a high proportion of interested parties signing up for TEFL courses. Thanks go to Suzanne Furstner, Laura Harrison and Sarah Wilson for all their hard work and preparation. The practical hints and tips on TEFL teaching were both useful and informative and the sample lessons exemplary. Cactus TEFL thoroughly enjoyed themselves and can’t wait for their next taster day!

Feedback from the April Open Evening >>

Cactus TEFL/Guardian Open Evening, Dec 05

We saw great attendance at our third Cactus TEFL Open Evening in conjunction with the Guardian on 1st Dec. Once again we had some fantastic guest speakers giving useful overviews of the various course types, real-life accounts of working abroad, a sample language lesson in Russian and of course some lovely wine and nibbles to enjoy whilst mingling in the Guardian Newsroom afterwards. For info on our next TEFL taster event please email us. In the meantime we hope you enjoy reading our feedback below...

Feedback from the December Open Evening >>

Cactus TEFL/Guardian Open Evening, June '05

Our second Cactus TEFL Open Evening, that took place on 2nd June in the Guardian Newsroom in Farringdon, London, was a wonderful success. It provided a complete insight into TEFL, with guest speakers from leading organisations, a comparison of weekend, online courses and face-to-face intensive courses, and a look at job opportunities around the world. It proved to be one of the most popular TEFL events this year, and was sponsored by The Guardian and EducationGuardian.co.uk.

Feedback & pictures from the June Open Evening >>

Cactus TEFL/St Giles Open Evening, Feb '05

Our first Cactus TEFL Open Evening, organised in conjunction with The Guardian and St Giles Colleges was a big success. We used the constructive (but overwhelmingly positive) comments you gave us to schedule a slightly different event the following time (2nd June in Farringdon), to include an even longer question and answer session, and also more information about the different existing TEFL courses to give a much more complete overview of the TEFL industry and help you to decide what your TEFL route will entail. Have a look below at what people said about the event.

Feedback & pictures from the Febuary Open Evening >>

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