Profesora Fiona

In October 2020, I arrived in Spain after completing a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course, ready to jump into a full time teaching position having never actually taught a physical class before! Nonetheless, I’m grateful to my boss in La Rioja for taking a chance on me because I learned a lot. There were a lot of firsts:

• First time moving to a foreign country

• First time living on my own

• First time being a teacher

However, I made it through the school year, covid lock down and all and moved across to Valencia with another job in tow teaching conversational classes at an academy.

Where:

I have only ever taught in after school or work academies in Spain. I know there are other positions in auxiliar programs, online mentoring, in-home babysitter/teacher and proper school curriculum teaching but my experience is only in the academies and online.

Schedule:

Academies follow the school calendar, September to June and usually start around 3 or 4 in the afternoon and finish at 8 or 9 in the evening.

Who:

The academies try to cater to everyone, meaning teachers have classes of different ages and levels for each class and sometimes 1-1 lessons too. For example, in my first teaching job, I taught 4 lessons a day and it would go a little like this:

• 1st lesson: 2-3 year olds

• 2nd lesson: 14-15 year olds

• 3rd lesson: 8-9 year olds

• 4th lesson: young adults in their early 20s

In my first job I only had 4 or 5 students per class as I was in a very small town but in my second teaching job in Valencia I was teaching up to 15 students at a time.

If you’re thinking about it here’s my opinion from personal experience:

Cons

Prep, prep and more prep: For me, it was incredibly difficult to stay on top of prepping for all different classes and ages and the only way to help that was time and experience and a lot of hard work!

Lack of interest: Unfortunately, as I know many teachers can relate to, not everybody wants to learn, especially children and teenagers. I wasn’t even teaching in a school, my students were coming for after-school classes, so you can imagine the enthusiasm! It is something that comes in waves as there is always a way to engage the most disruptive student and once you find something that works, even if it’s for just one class, it’s incredibly satisfying.

Pros

The schedule is pretty good: You have the mornings to yourself which is great for prepping but also any appointments you may have. You can go out in the evenings without worrying about having to wake up and leave the house early, and the fact that academies work on a school timetable means there are a lot of holidays and days off throughout the year which gives you a lot of freedom.

Development: The feeling when a learning point clicks with a student and they start using it naturally is wonderful and rewarding. On top of that, meeting so many different people and personalities from a completely different background to yours is so interesting.

You: Not only are you teaching but you are learning a lot as you do so, almost at double the speed. For me, learning to teach English actually taught me things about my own language and, in turn, helped me to learn Spanish as well. It’s funny and fascinating learning how similar and different languages are.

So, at the end of the day, teaching English can be overwhelming but, as with everything, preparation is key. Whilst it may take time prepping everything necessary, I eventually settled into the fact that, in reality, conversation in English is the most successful formula because that’s where the students can learn fluency and I was able to see where they were lacking and specify their needs. So if you don’t know what to do with the class or an activity isn’t working, a back up sheet with lots of topic questions or have them ask each other or you questions can be really beneficial to both you and the students!

Teaching English is a great job to start with if you are thinking of moving to Spain or any other country. There are many positions available throughout most of the year and there is a constant demand for foreign English teachers, especially native English speakers. This is a bit controversial; just because your mother tongue is English doesn't mean you will be a good at teaching it, but it generally comes with a secure contract, a few colleagues that speak your language and you can make friends with and although the salary is the minimum it's enough to live on and keep you going as you build your new life!