Comments on: ITTO

By: Lauren Wicker

Lauren Wicker — Mon, 02 Jan 2023 17:05:16 +0000

The TEFL course taken at ITTO was an intense and stressful but doable. The instructor, Marc Del Alto, was very helpful and professional making the experience much more feasible. The course content covered a wide range of variety of subjects but was not extensive which is to be expected of such a short program. The teaching practices were by far my favorite part and, in my opinion, the most useful as well. These practices give real feedback to you as a student from the most important source- students themselves. The feedback given from observing instructors was beneficial but at some times quite vague. I chose to look for online jobs and not use the placement in Mexico offered. The school basically emails you contacts for online job search platforms and sites. You will need to be prepared to do your own job hunting. The course was enjoyable considering the circumstances and expectations.

However, I give the overall rating of the program three stars due to the complications of housing and communication. There were several blunders on the school’s end which caused uncomfortable and awkward situations where I was in the middle. The school offers housing placement programs but the true accommodations of the homestay were not accurately portrayed. This added stress to an already stress-filled educational experience.

In short, my advice is to take the course but not to rely on the housing services offered. Find your own accommodations. Have every agreement and communication in writing for communication purposes should misunderstandings arise.

Tips:

– ask about promotions such as free events or tours offered

– choose your own housing (air b&b or local hostels)

– bring your own computer

– be prepared with professional attire (no sneakers, jeans, etc.)

By: Veronica Irvin

Veronica Irvin — Thu, 16 Jun 2022 02:48:13 +0000

Thé guaranteed- employment is miraculous! I taught for Hewlett-Packard while waiting for my American literature position. Then, I taught writing while awaiting my position at Universidad del Valle de Atemajac. It is an outstanding investment.

By: Vincent Farese

Vincent Farese — Sat, 24 Apr 2021 20:26:07 +0000

As former coach executive and educator who was already TESOL certified, I took the TBE

course and became. My tutor was tremendous, knowledgeable, with a great sense of humor.

I would recommend this course to anyone with or without experience. The tutor’s course

task analysis, constructive critiques, and suggestions for improvement convinced to take TESOL program as a refresher.

Vincent Farese

By: Jason

Jason — Sat, 16 Nov 2019 07:31:38 +0000

I took this course jut to learn more about teaching and education and I ended up learning far more than I expected. The course was designed well and the online platform was set up to work at your own pace so I was quite happy to know I can study when I have time. After taking the TESOL course, I also took the teaching business english course and learned even more. After getting certified, I was also still interested in learning more and ITTO offered more courses so I could keep learning. Overall, I have been completely satisfied with ITTO and I still keep going back to learn more.

By: BEVERLY A WEBSTER

BEVERLY A WEBSTER — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 19:39:24 +0000

I am so thankful for my training at ITTO in Guadalajara. After successfully completing the course, I received several job offers to teach English and obtained my current job. I feel strongly that the face to face course was instrumental in preparing me for my current position and my employer has commented on my level of confidence and competence. I have recommended ITTO to several colleagues who asked me about my experience. They completed their TEFL course online and are interested in taking a face to face course in the future.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to the administration at ITTO. Thank you for all you have done to make my transition to teaching English in Mexico so successful.

Sincerely,

Beverly

By: Amy Jones

Amy Jones — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 17:56:17 +0000

I am extremely disappointed in the quality, responsiveness and reliability of the online job resources provided by ITTO. Many of the companies’ websites were down and some had application technology that was unusable/unavailable. I am also disappointed in the opportunities actually available versus those promised on ITTO’s site. I put a great deal of time and effort into the 140-hour certification course. I’m fairly certain my time and money have been wasted.

By: Jane McCann

Jane McCann — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 20:07:20 +0000

Wow! What an experience.

Rest assured the ITTO team will equip you to become an individual, competent, confident, thoughtful and professional TEFL teacher. You will experience tremendous personal growth while observing your colleagues doing the same. It’s amazingly empowering.

From the moment I arrived at ITTO I felt welcome. It was immediately apparent that we were going to be challenged, our thinking stretched and our minds expanded. Our teacher, Mr Del Alto is simply an amazing educator. The standard of education exceeded my expectations and the relationships I formed with the wonderfully supportive staff and fellow students is something that I will always remember.

The 22 hours of classroom time, made up of teaching classes, one to one experiences and observation of experienced professionals, coupled with daily microteaching to our peer group, has equiped me to start my career with confidence while the unique commitment by ITTO to finding graduates a paid position, has been invaluable.

By: Claire Evens

Claire Evens — Wed, 19 Sep 2018 00:28:59 +0000

For me the highlight of the course and the area which prepared me for teaching the most was the practical experience I gained whilst teaching in the classroom. I also benefited from having excellent teacher support on assignments and preparing for lessons. The area which could be improved upon is during the class instruction before lunchtime. I feel the lessons would have benefited more from being more interactive, also more ideas and tools for teaching grammar. A substitute teacher covered one morning to oversea us teaching our colleagues grammar. He was very informative and gave consgructive criticism and ideas on how to teach this effectively. I would have benefited greatly from having more instruction on how to teach grammar effectively. I felt when we gave our grammar lessons to our colleagues, we weren’t critically assessed sufficiently. It was a great course for a first time teacher like myself, however for those with more prior teaching experience, it lacked ideas and tips on actual teaching techniques and how to improve etc.

By: Brady Bakay

Brady Bakay — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 20:29:29 +0000

Overall I thought the course was well structured and very beneficial to me, though it was far from perfect. I benefited from a small class size (5) during my month and have a hard time imagining what it would be like when it’s full, though we can assume a bit less personal attention. Pros: Feedback on practice teaching, which was the highlight of the course for me, was very constructive and helped me greatly improve my teaching chops. I came out the other side as a much, much better teacher. The people who run ITTO are also very nice people and there for you if you need something. Cons: some of the material was a bit outdated or unhelpful, especially the job search booklet and the time we spent simulating a job search. A couple classes seemed forced and unnecessary, and in my current job search experience it’s really just “here are some companies we know about in the country you want to work in, good luck!”

I really enjoyed my time in the program and learned a lot in a fairly work-intense month, but I think the course could be tweaked a little to accommodate more modern methods and material.

By: Brendan Rosen

Brendan Rosen — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 22:11:04 +0000

The practice teaching was incredible. The feedback from the teachers at IMAC helped me to improve my teaching abilities. The students at IMAC were wonderful.

I did not enjoy the teaching style of the original instructor of the TEFL course instructor. She talked too much and was defensive when the class asked her questions. She also frequently let the student out late for breaks. However, the second professor was great. I enjoyed his teaching style and I knowledge of the English language.

The TEFL book I did not find helpful. It was wordy and boring.

The job placement program was out of date and felt forced on me. I had interviews set up before I was consulted. The websites given to us to look for jobs were not helpful. I had lots of success on indeed.com and craigslist.org, neither of which were mentioned in job training.

Overall I think the course material was not very helpful. However, the teaching training, the second and instructor, and the administration were terrific.