Great experience in a wonderful country!

I spent three wonderful months with ABCi and, honestly, it was one of the best experiences I've had. I learned so much as a teacher and, although I found the initial training pretty overwhelming, it was totally worth it.

The first month or so, I admit that I was not the best teacher. With the support and help of the senior teachers as well as the reading booklets, my progress over the course of my time with ABCi got better and better. I was even awarded a "most improved teacher" certificate which I was, and still am, thrilled about. I can't thank the senior teachers enough for being so patient, calming and always approachable.

The children I taught were just incredible. Obviously, like every school, there were some menaces. Looking back, though, I say thanks to those little menaces because I learned how to improve my behaviour management - a wonderful tool you learn with ABCi. Each week (excuse me if I get this wrong - I don't remember correctly) I was instructed to think of a new game or a new song which could be played or sung in the classrooms with the children. I often found this tricky but applying the game or song to the kids was great fun. The funny thing was finding out if it worked or not. At one point, one of the games I tried out kind of completely failed - the kids were BORED. But when it works, the feeling is almost as good as victory.
My favourite part of the week in school was the performance on the Friday of the project week. Everyone is super excited, there are lots of songs to be sung and danced to, and some of the kids' dramas which they make up are fantastic. All staff at each school was sociable, kind and always made sure everything was going good. It was very emotional leaving the children and teachers behind after each week, or sometimes each day if it's a project day.

Throughout my three months in Austria, I stayed with other volunteers. I became very close to my group and they are truly some of the greatest people I've ever met. I can safely say that you definitely make friends whilst volunteering with ABCi. You almost always have weekends off to do whatever. I think out of all weekends, there were two Saturdays or so when I had to do something work-related such as a First Aid course and teacher training. Also, after school there is often scheduled time to go over games and songs to make sure you understand what to do/what to sing. The time spent doing this can be exhausting and all you can think about is bed but it's the best time to ask questions if you're unsure of anything or to really pay attention if you have no clue how a game goes. You always have some free time though.
Most mornings are early - some as early as 5am if your accommodation is located far from the school. This was tough at the start of the course but it got easier and I rather enjoyed some fresh super early morning air.

Austria is such a beautiful country and being able to teach here was just brilliant. I got to see SO many parts of Austria: Gmunden (beautiful little town where the headquarters are based), Windischgarsten, Leonding, Linz, Vienna, Liebenau, Spittal, Salzburg (standing right where Maria Van Der Trapp sang was an incredible feeling), Zell am Moos, Sankt Pantaleon, Tulln, Krems, Grunberg, Attnang Puccheim, Hallein - where we WALKED to Germany - and so many more. Before volunteering with ABCi, I never thought Austria would be a country I would love as much as I do. So much that I now live in Vienna!

To sum up, I strongly recommend volunteering with ABCi. The senior teachers are awesome, the children are so precious, you meet fabulous people and the memories are definitely worth making. If you're prepared for early mornings, working hard, ups and downs, but also so much fun, laughter and enjoyment then I definitely suggest signing up to volunteer with ABCi.

Massive thank you to ABCi! :)