CELTA course tutors

A favourite task instructors like to set at teacher training workshops is to get their audience to discuss what are they as teachers - you know, like a nurse or policeman or a babysitter. As your tutor (in fact you'll have at least two tutors) on your CELTA course will be a big part of the course, we thought it might be interesting to find out how they see themselves, and so we popped into the staff room to find out...

"Well, you're a facilitator, guide, counsellor and resource," Francesca Pelli suggested for starters. The tutor - like any teacher, for that matter - is doing a whole lot of things at once, she elaborated, evaluating the trainees, providing constructive feedback, spotting and pointing out what their strengths and weaknesses are, getting them to work on the latter.

Providing support

Francesca also suggested that "providing as much support as we possibly can" was maybe the vital role the tutor plays. Again, that's also arguably true of any teaching job and, yes, Francesca agreed, what the tutor is also doing is "demonstrating the qualities you want the trainees to develop as teachers". Your tutor is a role model, if you like, and there is a tremendous amount to be learnt from simply observing how they teach - one reason why at IH you have more than one tutor.

Right, so facilitator, role model... Anything else? "God?", suggested Gerard, looking up from his chicken-and-salad lunch. No, I mean seriously! "A football coach?" Ellie said, perhaps rather hesitantly. "Yes, developing teamwork, keep them working together - that's important," Francesca thought.

And certainly, to judge from what the trainees have to say about the course, how working together with fellow trainees helps, it certainly sounds as if it is.

And, given that it's quite an intense course, do the tutors have a role to play there? "Paper, time and stress management", definitely another important part of their job, Francesca confirmed.

Doing umpteen tasks simultaneously

Ah yes, and then there's obviously continuous assessment, making sure the trainees reach the standards set by Cambridge. Being a teacher trainer requires the ability to be able to do umpteen tasks simultaneously - and again that's something any teacher needs to be able to do.

"My job? I'm Bob the Builder," David Clark said, when he'd finished his bocadillo de tortilla. "Get the door working properly, the cement mixer set up round the back, get the lads up there on the roof..." (the lads being the trainees, of course, the roof the classroom). "After 4 weeks, hopefully, you can stand back and say 'Yeah, good strong house, that!'"