We surveyed over 200 recent CELTA graduates, and these are their top tips on what to pack for your CELTA course.
1st Books: Top of the list is the right books.
2nd Laptop: Essential these days
3rd Clothes: Some smart clothes for teaching practice, the rest comfy.
4th Shoes: Comfy shoes definitely!
5th Pens & Paper & Organisation: You’ll be taking lots of notes
6th Lesson Resources: Blutak, scissors, sellotape, coloured pencils etc (although you can buy locally)
7th Your smile: Pack your smile – you’ll be using it lots!
8th Positivity: It goes without saying really, but starting the CELTA on a positive note will help you no end.
9th Leave these behind: fancy clothes, anything you can buy there, any non-essentials, out-dated ideas about teaching, and any hint of negativity or self-doubt.
Books
Reference books will be essential on your course. You will need to refer to them regularly – both for general background reading, assignments and to help with lesson planning. But if you are travelling away from home, there is no need to unduly weigh down your suitcase with too many. Most people suggest a good all round reference book but do remember your school will have a well stocked library (it’s a requirement from Cambridge to be able to deliver the course) so there should be everything you need there. However there may be a whole course of people wanting to borrow them, so if you want to guarantee you have a copy for that assignment deadline, get your own!
Rather than blowing your baggage allowance, or your bank balance, try e-readers or downloads. There are lots of resources available online for free.
(And remember, when you start teaching your school should have a teachers room full of reference books, so you don’t need to build up your own library for use later in your career.)
Laptop
Having your own laptop will be really helpful on the course. From preparing lesson plans to completing assignments, you will find everything easier if you give yourself the flexibility of having your own laptop.
Schools will have PCs available for you to use, but few will have enough for each person on your course to use without any queuing.
So your own laptop will just make your life a lot easier. There will be printers and photocopiers at the school – but be aware that photocopying lots of sheets of paper can get expensive and is not all that good for the environment. Some schools have policies to reduce paper in class so be aware of this. (Teachers all around the world, from private schools to state schools, dread the moment when somebody from admin counts up all the photocopies they’ve made. It’s an occupational hazard!)
Clothes
Be practical here. You are student, so you need something comfy and practical. There can be quite a lot of activities on a CELTA course, you won’t just be sitting behind a desk in a lecture theatre all day. You’ll be moving around the class, working in groups and doing various tasks. You need to be able to move and feel relaxed. But during your teaching practice sessions you are a teacher to real student. At these times you need to dress appropriately – like a teacher. You may want a set of clothes specifically for this – like a uniform to help you get in the right mindset.
It is important to look the part, not like a student, but like a teacher. Andrena Teed, IH Palma
Some schools have a dress code for their teachers so check this out and make sure you follow it. If the school hasn’t told you in advance, either ask them or, look around at other teachers in their classes and try to make sure you fit in. If you are not sure, think smart casual.
Shoes
For some reason, having comfy shoes was high on the list of top tips from the CELTA graduates we asked. It’s probably best summed up by Greicy:
Don't worry too much about fancy clothes and shoes, you won't have time to wear them. Greicy Ferreira de Souza, IH Dublin
Pens & Paper & Organisation
You’ll be writing a lot of notes, so pens and paper are essential – if a little obvious.
These days don’t forget that you can use your smartphone to take photos of the white boards - it saves a lot of writing and gives you more time to listen and think. (Richard Toy (CELTA with IH London) suggests this.)
You will have lots of notes, handouts, ideas and feedback. Organisation will really help you succeed on this course, so you might like to take (or buy there) a folder with dividers.
I personally found a large ring binder with internal classifiers to be very useful, as it allowed me to quickly organize my material. I would say that the best advice I could give would be to bring what helps you be organized the most. Be it a ring binder, a folder with internal subdivisions or another method entirely, organization is key for this course. Francesco Greggio, IH Milan
Lesson Resources
Much of the CELTA will involve you coming up with creative ideas on how to illustrate interesting language points, reinforce meaning, and keep your learners engaged. You’re not in a kindergarten setting, but many teachers find that some posters, and cutting and sticking come in handy in lots of situations. If you travel prepared with some scissors, blu-tak, etc, you’ll never be hunting around the resources room for the last set that is still lurking at the bottom of your colleague’s bag.
Your Smile and Positivity
Seventh and eighth on our list of essentials luckily won’t take up any airline baggage allowance. Your smile and positivity will get through a lot.
Other things we like
There are some practical tips as well. With an eye on re-use and reducing consumption, Jessica Jones (IH Barcelona) recommends:
I also found it useful to have a hard lunchbox as I didn't want to be buying lunch every day - so I could make salads, bring sandwiches etc. Also very handy to have a reusable cup to buy coffee and not have to use throwaway cups every day! :)
Leave some things behind
Finally, as important as it is to bring useful things, it’s important to leave some things behind as well.
As Alla from Minsk says:
Leave behind your worries and - if you can - your previous work experience. Just be there, immerse yourself into the course, and put into immediate practice what you will be taught.