Great Teaching Experience

I worked for ABCi for a three-month placement from December through to the end of February, and really enjoyed my time with the company.

The general work day was approximately 6 hours at a school (taking 6 50 minute periods), which, when combined with travel time and training later in the day, often resulted in some pretty long days, particularly in the first month. Over the course of the placement, the post-school training sessions become less frequent and we had more leisure time in the afternoon.

The lesson plans/activites are all provided by ABCi and are clearly explained, and are a lot of fun to run with a class of Austrian school kids.

As a relatively inexperienced teacher, I found the placement very useful for several reasons. Firstly, you get a lot of teaching experience with kids from different schools, of varying ages (between 6 and 16). Because you run the same activity programs regularly, it allows you to focus on different aspects of teaching (such as behaviour or time management). The head teacher will often observe you teach and provide useful feedback both during the class and later in training sessions. Finally, you get experience running a large variety of activities, including songs, theatre and sport workshops.

I found the staff to be friendly and supportive, and the accomodation comfortable. Overall, if you are happy to work hard and looking to get some teaching experience, I thoroughly recommend ABCi.