){kind=logo}
){kind=logo}
)
Anna’s Spanish Internship Experience at an International School
CATEGORY: Internship Abroad – Teaching
COUNTRY: Spain
READING TIME: 3 minutes
Anna wanted to use the time between her bachelor’s and master’s degree to gain practical experience abroad, and found an internship at an international school in Spain through StudentsGoAbroad. During her time there, she gained valuable insights into everyday school life, observed different teaching methods, and further developed her own role as a future teacher. In her experience report, Anna shares how her internship abroad opened up new perspectives, both professionally and personally.
My planning started relatively late, about one and a half months before the beginning of my stay abroad. To be honest, it was quite chaotic: I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, where I wanted to go, or what I needed to keep in mind when organizing everything, even though I had been looking into options for stays abroad on and off for more than a year.
My main goal was clear: I wanted to use the time between my bachelor’s and master’s degree for a stay abroad where I could learn something practical. While searching for opportunities, I eventually came across StudentsGoAbroad. At first, I had seen an offer for an internship in cancer research in Spain and contacted the organization because of that. I study Biology and German to become a teacher, and I liked the idea of getting a first glimpse into practical biological research.
Unfortunately, that particular internship did not work out. I was told that the placement would not be available during the period I was aiming for. Instead, I was offered a placement at a school. After a conversation with the deputy headteacher — in English, I should add! — I decided to take this internship. The following weeks were filled with preparations, mainly decisions about my living situation — shared apartment or host family — and the Erasmus funding process, which meant forms, forms, and more forms. It definitely cost me a few nerves. Looking back, however, I am very grateful for the support of all the coordinators who made this very last-minute stay abroad possible for me, and for the decisions I made, which turned out to be the right ones once I was there.
Accommodation with an International Flair & Life in Spain
I lived in a shared apartment with seven people, with flatmates from all over Europe and South America coming and going. It was more of a practical shared-living arrangement, but I did get to know a student from France, whom I became friends with and went on trips with.
I met other people at the language school of the partner organization that was responsible for me on site. The arrangements regarding the right level and timing of the language course were admittedly not very easy, but the language course itself and the other events offered were inspiring. During a city tour, for example, I met a woman from Japan. We became friends, met several times, and even took a trip to Madrid together one weekend. Looking back, that was probably one of the most beautiful experiences of my two-month stay in Spain.
)
)
My Daily Life as a Teacher in Valencia
But of course, trips like that are only the experiences that stand out from everyday life — and everyday life itself already brought so many experiences. Most of them happened during the week at school, with all the challenging, surprising, funny, and beautiful moments that come with working with children and an international team.
First of all, there was the normal school routine, which in itself was demanding and, for a future teacher, very educational. I was able to observe many different teachers at work, get to know their methods and little tricks, and either learn from them — or decide not to use them myself. ;) I was able to further develop and sharpen my own role as a teacher and felt challenged in both supervision and classroom situations.
The school relies heavily on the many interns who are there. As an intern, this can feel overwhelming at times. In the end, however, it is exactly what makes an internship valuable and helps you grow: having to take on a lot of responsibility.
In addition to the normal everyday life of a full-time school internship, this was also an international school in Spain. All the children, their parents, and the staff came from many different countries around the world. People communicated in English, German, sometimes Spanish — simply in whatever language fit the situation or came to mind.
It was incredibly interesting and inspiring to see how people from so many different cultures work together and try to bring the best of “their culture” into the bigger picture. Because of that, the internship did not only teach me a lot of practical skills and support my professional and personal development, which had been my original goal. It also gave me food for thought about the different cultures that exist, what kind of culture Germany has, and what the best, most positive qualities of Germans are that they can contribute to an intercultural group.
That is also something I learned about Germany while being abroad: Germans often view Germany and themselves much more negatively and critically than people from other countries do.
Report by Anna, intern in Spain with StudentsGoAbroad
Explore our SGA travel blog
)
)
)
)
)