Incredibly Stressful and Rewarding

I completed the winter (Jan- March 2016) program this year and it was incredibly stressful and exhausting as well as really enriching and rewarding... I loved it. And I learned a lot. But also, as a new and rapidly expanding program, the logistics of it were pretty chaotic. I think we logged over 225 teaching hours, which is outrageous for a beginner course, in towns all over Austria. That amount of teaching practice really forces you to build confidence and improve as a teacher.. especially in observed lessons, where I mostly got really thoughtful feedback. But it also is overwhelming when you have assignments due, lessons to plan and activities to memorize.

I haven't had the chance to search for a job with the cert TESOL I received through ABCi, but the certificate is accredited through London Trinity College and many of my friends from the program have been able to get jobs teaching all over the world... have a friends in the Galapagos, Germany, and Barcelona. The fact that I now have the opportunity to travel anywhere to teach makes it pretty worth it. You also receive the Tefl-yl certificate which is not internationally recognized but given through ABCi.

Austria's beautiful and an amazing country to travel.. though there was little time to do so during my course. Also as a US citizen I had some visa restrictions... US citizens can only be the Schengen are, most of Europe, for 90 days max in a 180 day period.

You learn a lot about active learning and classroom management through teaching games, drama, and songs. Its fun and pretty rewarding to have your class perform dramas in English at the end of each week. I feel really confident about lesson planning and running an activities. Though by evenings in the second month when we started studying for CertTESL, we were exhausted when the actual input sessions about English language, phonology, grammar etc. came up. It's possible and everyone in my course passed.. it just took a lot of will power and patience.

The support form my senior teachers was great when it came to actually teaching in schools.. but you spend a lot of time driving to and from schools. The printers and wifi and housing was always a bit sketchy.

Hard to give the program a positive or negative review. I learned a lot. Made some really good friends and got to see some incredible places. I'm really happy I did it. Just have to approach it with expectations of hard work, uncomfortable challenges and inevitable logistical nightmares.