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English Language Summer Camps Abroad

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  • 28-03-2014 11:44pm
    #1
    madmoe
    Registered Users Posts: 4,366 ✭✭✭


    Hey guys,
    I got my CELTA in December of last year and have been teaching English on a voluntary basis since then and I'm really enjoying it. I'm applying for a career break in April to take a year out starting in September but am not hopeful that I'll get it. For that reason my plan B would be to use my summer holidays to go and teach at a language summer camp in either France or Spain and I'm wondering if anyone here has any recommendations or has done something similar before!?

    All the best,
    Mark


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    #2
    curlyclaire
    Registered Users Posts: 13 ✭curlyclaire


    Hi Mark,

    Well done for getting your CELTA, the fact that you're enjoying your teaching so far means you will make a great TEFL teacher.

    I have only done summer camp work in the UK, so I can tell you a bit about that, and then I can tell you about my 6 months as a TEFL teacher in Spain as it still might be useful.
    Summer Camp work tends to be teaching kids who have been sent away by parents for intensive English language plus activities to reinforce it. For that reason they are pretty intense. You will usually do a few hours teaching in the morning, then there may be an afternoon activity, perhaps games, arts, music etc, or here in the UK some kind of sight seeing trip. You then might have evening activities as well, again so that the kids can practice speaking English in a fun/social way. If you are going to Spain or France, of course you will be staying on site with the kids, or nearby, so you might be expected to supervise them during meal times as well, and maybe do some dormitory duties on a rota basis. As I said, it's all very intense, but summer camp jobs can look great on your CV for future TELF jobs as they show you can interact with children in a fun way, and intensively. Goes without saying you need to love kids and have bags of energy, ideas & creativity.

    If you do end up in Spain, be prepared for very demanding kids, pretty noisy, and you will be expected to have a lot of tricks up your sleeve. Spanish kids are not especially naughty, just very gregarious and fairly vocal if you can't keep them entertained. A good place to look for summer camp posts, and TEFL jobs in general is TEFL.COM and they seem to be the leading recruitment site with loads of jobs.
    Hope this helps, happy to answer any more questions if you have them.
    Claire.


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    #3
    madmoe
    Registered Users Posts: 4,366 ✭✭✭madmoe


    curlyclaire wrote: »
    Hi Mark,

    Well done for getting your CELTA, the fact that you're enjoying your teaching so far means you will make a great TEFL teacher.

    I have only done summer camp work in the UK, so I can tell you a bit about that, and then I can tell you about my 6 months as a TEFL teacher in Spain as it still might be useful.
    Summer Camp work tends to be teaching kids who have been sent away by parents for intensive English language plus activities to reinforce it. For that reason they are pretty intense. You will usually do a few hours teaching in the morning, then there may be an afternoon activity, perhaps games, arts, music etc, or here in the UK some kind of sight seeing trip. You then might have evening activities as well, again so that the kids can practice speaking English in a fun/social way. If you are going to Spain or France, of course you will be staying on site with the kids, or nearby, so you might be expected to supervise them during meal times as well, and maybe do some dormitory duties on a rota basis. As I said, it's all very intense, but summer camp jobs can look great on your CV for future TELF jobs as they show you can interact with children in a fun way, and intensively. Goes without saying you need to love kids and have bags of energy, ideas & creativity.

    If you do end up in Spain, be prepared for very demanding kids, pretty noisy, and you will be expected to have a lot of tricks up your sleeve. Spanish kids are not especially naughty, just very gregarious and fairly vocal if you can't keep them entertained. A good place to look for summer camp posts, and TEFL jobs in general is TEFL.COM and they seem to be the leading recruitment site with loads of jobs.
    Hope this helps, happy to answer any more questions if you have them.
    Claire.

    Thanks a million Claire! It sounds both challenging and exciting! I would personally like to go to either France or Spain but France makes more sense as at least I have leaving cert. French and could brush up on that! In Spain I would be starting at the bottom!

    All the best,
    Mark


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