(upbeat music)
- Good morning ITA friends, my name is Ally Chard.
And I am coming at you from Vigo, Spain,
which for those who don't know
is in the autonomous community of Galicia
right above Portugal.
As you can see, I am getting ready
for school currently in the English department.
I have a short day today, four classes,
I'm done at 12:10.
So I'm going to leave a question box
on the next slide, ask me anything,
and I'll be back in the afternoon-
Alright guys I am back from teaching day one,
a little bit longer than I anticipated.
Getting some questions about what program I'm teaching
here in Spain through,
and it's called the Fulbright program.
I have not seen another ITA alum take the page over
and mention it.
Fulbright is a bit different
than like the government program called Nelcap,
the Media's program, Fulbright is different.
It's a government grant-based program.
So I actually applied over a year ago
before I found out that I was selected.
Only 160 people are selected
in the United States to come here and teach in Spain.
Usually we come for a 10 month period,
however, with COVID it was reduced
down to a five month period.
The application process to be a Fulbright candidate
is three letters of recommendation,
you have to, for the country of Spain, prove
that you have an intermediate level of the language
or higher.
I had to write a personal statement
and a grant statement of purpose.
So, it was rigorous.
It was a little, it was very comprehensive,
but really happy that I did it,
and I'm absolutely loving the program experience.
So, if you have more questions for me regarding Fulbright,
go ahead and send me a message on my p-
Okay I promise I will answer more questions
but first I want to do an apartment tour,
cause those are so stinking fun,
and I also just wanted to share a little bit
about my schedule here,
because I know when I watched these,
I'm super curious about the apartment,
how much the person gets paid,
and what their schedule is like.
So here in Spain, something that's important to note is
that you are a teaching assistant.
You can't legally be the main classroom teacher,
with that being said,
depending on your relationship with the school
and a specific teacher that you're working with,
you might be able to be the leader of the class that day,
other times you might just be an aide in the classroom.
It really, truly depends
on the school and the specific structure
that they have set up for teaching assistants.
For me, I work Tuesday to Friday.
Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm done around 12:30,
and I start at 8:30.
And then Thursday and Friday are my "long days."
I start at 8:30,
actually one day I started at 9:30,
and I end at 2:10.
So across the board, no matter what,
school is over at 2:10 for me.
I teach at a secondary school,
so I work with students all the way from 11-
Alright guys, like I mentioned,
I am in a secondary school.
So I work with students from 11 years old,
all the way up to 18 year olds,
a wide range of not only ages
but also speaking levels, English speaking levels.
So at my school specifically, you can choose when,
you're 12 years old-
A second SO,
to either be in bilingual sections
or non bilingual sections.
I only work with bilingual sections, meaning
that the student has chosen not only to practice English
and English class.
They've also chosen to learn English
and technology, history,
and physical education.
So in general, I would say my students have a pretty
good grasp on the English language, but it kind
of just depends.
If they're 11 years old, they're going to know much less
than say if they're 18 years old, I love my students.
Love, love, love them.
My schedule, I'm in lots of English classes,
some technology classes, physical education, history,
and I think that's it.
But it is a challenge at times to create lessons
for technology and history.
However, I think it's a good, critical experience-
All right, guys, so I live in a shared apartment,
with two other people,
its actually three rooms
but one is vacant and has been since I got here in January,
the two other girls are fantastic.
They're both college grads and they're just,
they're young professionals like myself.
So I'm going to try to turn the camera around.
All right.
This is our kitchen.
We have a microwave,
a really big refrigerator, nice new stove.
This is a necessity.
Coffee is my love language,
so we have our kettle.
Although we have a toaster, we don't have an actual oven,
so we have to use the toaster oven.
I just try to avoid it at all costs.
And then here we have in-unit laundry
which is really, really nice.
This is the courtyard that it looks-
All right, here is our living room.
Nice, big and spacious,
love the natural light,
not the nicest TV, but it does the job.
And then this is probably my favorite part of the apartment.
We have a beautiful balcony that gets really nice sunlight
in the afternoon.
So I love coming out here
and just sipping a cup of coffee with the sun.
As you can see, we also dry our clothes out here
because it's very uncommon in Spain to have a dryer.
Usually, you get a washer in your flat
but the drying takes place either
on a clothesline, or in our case,
right here on the balcony where we get natural light.
If you look really closely, you can see the ocean.
Vigo is such a beautiful city.
I have slowly fallen just incredibly in love with it.
There is so much to do.
I'll talk more about it later, but yes,
this is the street that I live on,
about a 30 minute walk to school and some really nice views.
Okay.
And we head down this hallway,
we have our bathroom, nice and clean, does the job.
We actually have two bathrooms.
I'll show the second one.
This one is smaller.
So we have one shower for three people
but really don't run into problems.
And then this is my room so-
But, I pay 230 a month.
And this is a really nice, really nice size.
Everything came included,
so we have a really big closet here.
Very-
I think it's a queen size bed,
which is great,
desk, wonderful natural light.
That photo was indeed drawn for me by a student.
I love it.
And then we have-
Okay, this is a really good question.
I personally do have a bachelor's degree in human resources
and Spanish, but you don't need one to teach in Spain.
I know there are other options,
different programs that you can work
through that just go with an associates degree.
You can also teach online.
Okay. So I got certified
through ITA's online 11 week course, highly recommend.
I did it during my fifth and final final year of undergrad.
So I was taking about 15 credits and was able to
complete the course online and finished my practicum.
So this will depend completely
on what program you go through.
I'm going through the Fulbright program
and I get paid 955 euros every month.
Galicia is known to be the cheapest region here
in Spain or most economical.
So it's more than enough.
I have plenty of leftover money.
My contract right now goes from January 2021 until June.
So I'm almost up.
I have about three weeks left with my kiddos and I'm so sad,
but I'm actually planning to renew and come back
with the ministry NALCAP program for the following-
So the short answer is yes, I don't know specifics.
It'll depend largely on the program and their parameters
but I do know a lot
of people that are not native speakers that are here
in Spain,
either working in a traditional school setting
maybe with an after-school academy
doing private lessons or working online.
I love this question because I had exactly
zero teaching experience prior to coming here other
than my TEFL certification and practicum hours.
So it was probably one
of the biggest things that concerned me
about making the move and teaching abroad.
But my TEFL certification, 100% prepared me.
So this 100% depends where you live.
If you live in Madrid,
you're going to save less than someone living in Galicia,
which is a more economical region.
But aside from your main teaching duties myself
I make 900 a month
but I could also do private lessons and work
at an academy and bring in anywhere from a hundred to 400.
So similar to the last question,
it really just depends what you're looking for.
And you certainly have enough time, right?
You're only contractually obligated to work
in the school around 18 hours a week.
So you have time to work online, to pick up private classes,
you could do afterschool time at an academy.
So, while you definitely do not have to,
I don't believe it's a requirement in most programs,
It has helped me immeasurably,
especially if you're looking
to meet friends that are locals here.
Put that effort in and try to meet them
in their native language can go a long way.
Okay.
So the short answer is,
I am planning to return in October and teach
for another academic year until June 2022.
But after that, who knows,
I think that's kind of the beauty of being a TEFL teacher,
that you have this ability to be nomadic
and move or stay as-
There are just too many to choose.
I'm going to type that on the screen.
I will say the Cies islands were voted the best beaches
in the world in 2018, I think.
And they're literally right across from Vigo,
a 45 minute ferry ride.
So the vaccination process here at Spain
in general is slower than that of the U.S.
However,
we're making progress right now in Galicia,
restaurants, bars, cafes can be opened.
They don't have to close at a specific hour.
People wear masks inside of buildings
and on the streets, it's required.
So this is a really good question.
I think for me, it was coming in realizing
that I'm going to be teaching not only in English classes.
So technology and history,
where I am not subject matter experts,
and then teaching real content.
So it's challenged me to lean on the teacher
and really ask them what material they-
So in 2018,
I studied abroad for a semester in Salamanca, Spain
and as cliche as it sounds
the experience fundamentally changed the trajectory
of my life.
I just started to see what a world
outside of the one I had designed
for myself in a nine to five could look like.
Okay, guys.
So I am about to sign off for the night.
I have two pieces of advice.
One is for the person that is thinking about
getting their TEFL certification and has not taken the leap.
My advice to you is,
if you're watching this story right now,
if you follow ITA on Instagram or any social media platform.
I think it's a good indication
that you have this desire inside of you for maybe
something different or something more for your life,
and it's worth pursuing.
I have never once regretted taking the online 11
week TEFL certification-
So if that's you,
I encourage you to take the jump and apply as well.
Okay. The second piece of advice is
for the person that has taken their TEFL certification,
done the practicum,
they're certified,
and they're asking what's next.
I think sometimes that's the most daunting question to
ask yourself.
What worked really well for me is,
number one, getting informed.
So doing the research,
thinking about the countries that interest you,
engaging in these takeovers and asking questions,
for people that are already doing what you're thinking
about doing yourself,
and then once you're informed,
really seeing what feels right for you.
See, it's not for you,
or maybe that specific country is not
what you expected,
but no matter what you choose,
there's going to be some degree of fear
and that's completely okay,
it means that we're growing.
And so while you saw a day
in the life for me in Vigo, just know
that there are really hard days
and there are really great days.
There are wonderful lessons.
There are lessons that totally fall flat.
We're all just learning.
And so have grace with yourself.
But, this has been the best decision of my life.
It's fundamentally changed, not only the trajectory
of where I'm going, but also just who I am as a person.
(upbeat music)