9
My Experience as an Erasmus Intern in an English school
My Name is Patricia, I am a 22 year old Spanish student from Valencia.I qualified as a teacher in Spain, I wanted to do an internship in the UK in order to improve my English language skills and improve my job prospects in Spain. I was also enthusiastic to observe different pedagogical methodologies and approaches first hand and through this develop my own teaching skills.
I initially approached the international department at my University in Valencia who put me in touch with the Erasmus interns web site. There were a number of interesting offers available but I was interested in the advert placed by the Academy at Shotton Hall.
During the internship, I worked as a teaching assistant at Browney Academy outside Durham City. Here I worked with junior school children and I helped them with activities such as painting, drawing and dance as well as offering general curriculum help . Browney is part of the North East Learning trust which is led by the Academy at Shotton Hall
So in addition to helping in the junior school, I also worked with the Erasmus coordinator and assisted in managing the school’s Erasmus projects.
This included collating receipts for mobilities, helping organise conferences and assisting with mobilities.
An internship means you become good at learning to say goodbye, but also you learn to say hello, you make new friends, you learn to trust yourself.
I also worked as a Spanish Language Assistant, helping teach Spanish to small groups of students.
The strangest part of the internship was to support the school’s Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, this involved taking students fell walking around Hadrians Wall and camping.
How did it feel at the time? Adrenaline rushes became my normal body situation. It was strange working in a second language all the time but my English did improve, even if “Geordie” is not always the same language that I studied.
.
but also you learn to say hello, you make new friends, you learn to trust yourself.
You acquire a strange homesickness, you love the excitement of a new place , new people, new adventures, you become almost a permanent tourist, you have visits from family and friends, but you do get nostalgic for the funniest things.
My internship came to an end when I was offered a job at Juan de Comenius school in Valencia. The internship was great, I have kept in touch with my former placement, I would recommend an Erasmus internship to anyone.