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Carlucci American International School of Lisbon, Rua António dos Reis, Sintra, Portugal

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Carlucci American International School of Lisbon, Rua António dos Reis, Sintra, Portugal

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Carlucci American International School of Lisbon, Rua António dos Reis, Sintra, Portugal

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Teaching in Portugal was a great experience! Although the fast-paced lifestyle took some getting used to coming from the more laid-back culture in the Netherlands, after a few weeks we were up to speed!

Although Portugal is relatively affordable, Lisbon is just like any other major European city when it comes to housing. Hard to find and not cheap. Since this school was closer to Sintra than Lisbon, we stayed between the two cities in the city of Queluz. We found out shared apartment on Flatio.com which allows you to rent AirBnB style accommodation without needing a deposit. We highly recommend this service!

We also recommend renting a car if you are attending this school in particular since it’s quite far outside of Lisbon and public transport outside of the big cities it’s scarce and unreliable. We found our car on discovercars.com for around €300 per month.

All in all we had a great experience, just come with an open mind and be prepared for the hustle and bustle of the Portuguese culture!

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Colegio Internacional SEK-El Castillo, Calle Castillo de Manzanares, Villafranca del Castillo

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Colegio Internacional SEK-El Castillo, Calle Castillo de Manzanares, Villafranca del Castillo

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Colegio Internacional SEK-El Castillo, Calle Castillo de Manzanares, Villafranca del Castillo

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TP2: Stephanie, Niek and Rachel. English and Math.

School:
The school is located in a suburban area pretty far from the city center. The school building doesn't have walls, meaning they have glass windows everywhere and no doors. This means that it'll be quite noisy from time to time. This doesn't help the fact that the buildings are created in a way that generates a lot of echo. Another fact, there's one myp2 class that is situated in the same building as the primary grades and it's right below the stairs. So, you can barely hear the students sometimes, especially during presentations.

We were assigned to a mentor-teacher the day of arrival, but we got to shadow a bunch of other teachers to observe different teaching styles. Classes start at 9.30am and end the latest at 5.15pm. Each class takes 1h. However, most classes take about 10 minutes to start. Every teacher has a tutor: someone that takes over their class when they are sick and deals with parents and seating charts. The teachers mostly speak in Spanish and most documents are also in Spanish. Despite this being an International school, it feels more like a bilingual school. The students mostly speak in Spanish to each other and to the teacher.

During our TP2 period, the school had a bunch of holidays. This can lead to students missing multiple classes. If your mentor teacher happens to be in charge of a lot of events, you'll definitely miss a lot of classes. The teachers aren't always aware of what's happening. At times, random teachers will interrupt classes to notify the teachers about an event that's happening.

the communication with the school before the start of TP2 was really stressful, but it didn't improve when we got to the school. No one knew who and where we were when we got to the school. We had to wait for 30 min. in the reception just to get picked up by someone.

Some students can be really inquisitive. Others can be really badly behaved: walking around without permission, playing games on their laptops, speaking out of turn. The class can get really noisy.

An upside is that the school offers free food during lunchtime at 2.20pm. They offer warm meals and a salad bar.

The teachers were quite nice and helpful. They're always willing to help.

Accommodation:
The school supposedly offers accommodation, but since there were a lot of interns, we had to find another place to stay. The cheapest place we could find was an Airbnb near the Airport, which is roughly 1h 30m away from the school.

Transportation:
You can get around Madrid from places to places using the bus (EMT inner city bus or ALSA long distance bus), the metro and RENFE train. The main problem here is that you'll need a personal travel card, which you can use to get the 30-day travel subscription for all types of transportation methods. The downside is that it's super difficult to obtain one. You can either make an appointment at the management offices ,which btw are always super busy, or you can make one online and receive it via post 7-15 days later. Alternatively, you can also buy bus/train tickets and/ or general transport cards, which you'll have to refill frequently.

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My time at the Colegio El Roble in Mexico

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My name is Christina, I’m a third year English students and for my second TP I visitied the Colegio El Roble just slightly outside of Mexico City, in Interlomas.

I lived in Mexico City and drove to the school every morning, which took around 40 minutes. At the time, I really wanted to live close to the Center, experience some action, and whilst that was nice, in hindsight I should’ve picked a location close to the school. Since lessons started at 7.30am I had to not only get up waaayyy to early in the morning to get to school, but also paid a lot each day. I mostly used Uber or In-Driver for my commutes and paid around 8€ a day - way cheaper than it’d be in Europe, but still a lot when added up over the course of two months. Despite the location being a bit too far, the apartment I lived in was very nice - I found it on AirBnB.

Regarding the school I worked at I have mixed feelings. The staff was extremely friendly and accommodating (the head of school even lent me his car sometimes for weekend get aways, or let me stay in his beach house in Acapulco when he wasn’t there), and the students were very sweet and curious as well. I enjoyed teaching them and loved every class that I taught. Towards the end of my TP I taught 5 different classes of students aged 14-17years. At the beginning, I also taught some younger students but quickly moved on to experience all age groups. The reason why I say that I have mixed feelings about my placement school is that despite everyone’s friendliness, I wasn’t too happy whilst being there. I think my main issue, next to homesickness, was that I fundamentally disagreed with the way most of the teachers were teaching. I followed three different mentor teachers and whilst slightly different, all of them disappointed me in some way or another. In my eyes, there was way too little student engagement. The teacher held small, rigid lectures of 5-10min before the students had to spend the rest of the lesson working on exercises in the book on their own. It wasn’t interesting at all - neither observing it, nor participating in it. Also, they followed this thing called “conscious discipline” but it didn’t work at all, and most teachers barely implemented it, which led to students acting up and being rowdy. Of course, I tried to change that up once I started teaching. I think my biggest achievement was when everyone’s least favourite grade to teach (due to their rowdiness and unwillingness to listen to the teacher - trust me, I’ve observed some truly awful lessons) became my favourite grade. When properly engaged and trusted, they suddenly paid so much more attention and tried their best to fulfil your expectations of them. Essentially, it was clear that the teachers in the school lacked some form of didactical competence. Therefore, observing lessons was a pain for me and I mostly took away things that I never want to do as a teacher myself. Still, once I got to teaching I was a lot happier - like I said, the students were great and this was what I came there to do.

My tips:
- ask the school to teach asap! They’re very accommodating and will gladly let you take over any lessons that you want. It’s a great learning opportunity (and way better than observing)
- go get a hobby (I took up salsa classes and started going to the gym)
- show the teachers, but especially the students that you want to engage with their culture as much as possible. Ask them to teach you some words, or tell you some places to visit. They’ll really appreciate it
- visit not just Mexico City, but have a look at the entire country - it’s beautiful!! (Acapulco is a lovely beach spot)
- drink lots of Mexican Tequila and eat lots of Mexican food, they’re both the best!!
- go visit markets and, in my opinion, though others might say otherwise, eat the market food! It’s really delicious and the small chance of diarrhea is worth it

There is so much I could still say about my experience, but this will be all from me for now. In conclusion, Mexico is a beautiful country, with delicious food, a rich culture and friendly people - be sure to engage to enjoy that to the fullest! And if you start teaching early on and conquer school life with your own teaching style (which is hopefully an engaging one that supports student autonomy, group work etc.), I’m sure you’ll have a good time. Best of luck from me!
Byeee :)

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International School of Como, Via Adda, Fino Mornasco, Como, Italië

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International School of Como, Via Adda, Fino Mornasco, Como, Italië

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International School of Como, Via Adda, Fino Mornasco, Como, Italië

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Tobias- 3rd year science students

IsComo is an amazing school for your teaching practise. It is a relatively small school but rapidly growing. The teachers work very closely together and my experience in the science team has been amazing with some very good science teachers to guide me through my first ever teaching experience in front of real students. The school has an extremely capable management so you will not feel lost on what to do in your first weeks there. Delicious Italian lunches are included and for the weekends you can stay in the beautiful Como for a hike or take the train down to the buzzling city of Milan for a fun time. All in all I would highly recommend this school for the freedom it gives you within its very well organized system.

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Being in Qatar for my second Teaching Practice was a great experience. I went to the Middle East International School (MIS) which is a school that follows the American curriculum but has students from all over the world. The school focusses on teaching students to work with technology and give them an international view on the world. Both teachers and students were really kind and welcoming.

The most important aspect of this destination is the cultural experience. The people you meet, the cultures you come across or the values you learn are all so different from what you are used to in Europe or in the US. If you go there with an open mind, you will learn much more than you can imagine about various cultures, and ways of living.

Although you can expect to pay a considerable amount of money, there are always possibilities to save some. Firstly, the best possibility for accommodation is Airbnb, for which you will have to look for a nice, accessible and affordable place. Secondly, the flight will also cost you a decent amount, but depending on which airline you want to fly with, it can be cheaper or more expensive. And lastly, food, groceries or public transport are generally cheaper than in "Western" countries so that makes up for the price of the Airbnb and the flight.

To conclude, I believe the experience you can get out of a Teaching Practice in Qatar definitely makes up for the price.

J. Weiss

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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SEK International School Catalunya (2022)

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Even though this is a trilingual school with English, Spanish, and Catalan being taught most of the students are Spanish or have lived in Spain their whole lives. It is very useful to know at least some Spanish as many students will ask translating questions or when they speak Spanish to one another in class. The classes all have glass walls and doors so anyone can see in and out of the class at all times. Sometimes classrooms were being used by someone else, so be ready to move to a different classroom or teach in the open area. They also had many power outages so don’t rely too much on technology.

I worked with 4 different teachers while being there, and I was able to work both in the English department and in drama classes. I had classes with MYP 2, 3, 5, and diploma 1 for English, plus MYP 4 and 5 for drama. All the teachers I worked with were very helpful and open to me teaching full lessons and letting me teach on my own when they were out of school or were busy for any reason. I had many opportunities to teach and even taught an entire unit including making and grading the assessment for it. Don’t be scared to ask to teach more or to share your ideas.

Something to keep in mind is the fact that even though the lessons are 50 minutes long, they usually start around 10 minutes late, and when the class is before the lunch period some students have to leave 15 minutes early for extracurriculars. This means that it's best to plan a 50-minute lesson but with always one activity that could be left out of the class. Additionally, the school is very exam-focused, this is especially true for the time period of the second TP (February-April), and students are very grade-focused already from MYP 2, putting more pressure on themselves which I personally don’t agree with.

Overall, my experience was great even though I might not agree with all the values of the school. It is a very open and accommodating school to work in, so you can easily change your schedule around a bit and ask teachers when and what you would like to teach.

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Berufliches Gymnasium im HPC Heidelberger Privatschulcentrum der F+U, Kurfürsten-Anlage, Heidelberg, Germany

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Berufliches Gymnasium im HPC Heidelberger Privatschulcentrum der F+U, Kurfürsten-Anlage, Heidelberg, Germany

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Berufliches Gymnasium im HPC Heidelberger Privatschulcentrum der F+U, Kurfürsten-Anlage, Heidelberg, Germany

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TP1 English: Heidelberger Privatschule Centrum - Stephanie

School:
For my first year at ITESS, I did my TP at HPC. The classes are pretty small. The school was just one big building starting from the 6th grade going up to university. During my time there, I primarily taught English classes to MYP 4 & 5. Although, the school head was kind enough to let me observe other classes like the DP and 6th grade classes.
Classes can start pretty early in the morning (8am), but it can also vary.
The teachers there were all pretty nice and chill. The school likes getting new and creative ideas from new teachers, however all the English lessons were textbook lead meaning you don't really get to come up with your own lessons as they are already written out in the textbook how you are expected to teach the lesson. Warm-up wise you get more freedom. My mentor teacher was nice to go through the lessons with me before the class and give immediate feedback after.

Food:
The school doesn't provide food for you, so you'd have to bring your own lunch. If that's not your thing, then you can also go to a bakery in the train station right across from the school.

Housing:
Housing isn't provided by the school, so me and a few of my classmates stayed at an Airbnb.

Transport:
You can travel in Heidelberg using the public transport like the bus and the tram. You just have to buy a day ticket for 7 euros. You can also opt for a 5-day ticket for 28 euros.

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St. John's International School, Drève Richelle, Waterloo, Belgium

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The front of St. Johns International School, Drève Richelle, Waterloo, Belgium

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St. John's International School, Drève Richelle, Waterloo, Belgium

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St. John's International School, Drève Richelle, Waterloo, Belgium

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TP2 - Benjamin Vestering - English

St. Johns International school. St. Johns has students from over 50 countries. It is an incredibly open-minded and culturally diverse school offering personal education in small groups. The school will help you settle in and accommodate you in every way.

+ Very big and beautiful campus.
+ Helpful staff and teachers all around.
+ Small classes in the English department
+ Visiting other subjects in allowed (after asking your mentor and the subject teacher)

Housing is tricky inside Waterloo, but there are a few Airbnb's available and the school can help you find a place as well.

To conclude, St. Johns is an incredible placement school with a lot of room to develop yourself. Housing is an obstacle.

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SEK Internationalschool El Castillo Madrid.
The school was right next to a university which offered free dorm room housing. Food was also provided. However, the school does not guarantee this to every intern, depending on how many they have.
There were many interns at the school, so one always has contact to peers.
The school itself was very big and parted into 4 parts (infantry, Primary, MYP and DP) This was very helpful to not get lost, once one got used to it. The layout of the school is very open (almost no doors + glass walls) which creates a very open and light atmosphere. This, however, can also be challenging, as noise travel quite far and the student may get distracted by seeing or hearing their peers next door.
My mentor teacher was amazing. She gave me a lot of opportunities to jump in and I taught quite a lot from the third week onwards. Once I got used to the students and their at times disruptive behaviour, I got very comfortable and confident.
The school day starts rather late (9:30) and end quite late (17:15) however, there were a lot of breaks for me to work on my my logbook and lessons and always a seat free in the teachers lounge. (with free coffee and cookies!)
My schedule was quite a variety of lessons and grade, as my mentor teacher taught every grade throughout MYP and DP. I also got the chance to observe and help out in art classes. This was very nice, as from the beginning, the school asked if I was interested in other subject fields and put me into art. I also was free to go around and have a look at other english teachers, as they were all very nice and cooperative.
To conclude, the stay at this school taught me a lot and enabled me to learn and teach a lot. (+ Madrid is a great city)

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I'm Mitchell Dokter, 2nd years student in ITESS with my major in English. For my TP2 I went to Eerde International Boarding School. Starting on day one the school already had a very welcoming atmosphere and the staff members were very friendly. The school is very diverse with many students and teachers from all over the world. As an intern the staff will look after you even if they are not your mentor teacher, they will help you if needed and welcome you to any class. The teachers also give you a lot of possibilities at different experiences, both inside and outside the classroom. The school is rather small, some classes having three to six students, with the exception of some classes. This can be both a positive and a negative depending, but that can also depend on your personal preference.
All in all it is a great school with a very nice community.

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It is a very modern school with a small student body and small classes
( sometimes not more that 10),  which makes it perfect for learning how to be a teacher. The students are mainly Italian or Swiss-italian, but also internationals from different countries, mainly European. The location is a bit outside of the city Lugano, in the Italian speaking canton of Ticino, Switzerland. cheap accommodation can be hard to find, but the school is willing to help and organise something for you. There is a train station close to the school, which connects the village with Lugano. The area is ideal for day trips to waterfalls, mountains, beautiful villages and cities,  like Milan. The only downside of the location is, that Switzerland is expensive. You will have to be prepared to pay more for food and accommodation as you are used to, but overall it is a great place for your teaching practice!

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AICS New Main Campus, A.J. Ernststraat, Amsterdam

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AICS New Main Campus, A.J. Ernststraat, Amsterdam

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AICS New Main Campus, A.J. Ernststraat, Amsterdam

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TP2 English - Sean Rice
I had a positive experience here.
+ Close to Amsterdam Zuid station (15 mins walking)
+ Motivated and diverse student body
+ Mentor teacher provides strong support for independent teaching
+ Beautiful school building with modern facilities
For this teaching practice, I stayed in Groningen and travelled to Amsterdam each day to teach. If you are lucky, you might be able to get travel reimbursement from the school as an intern. This is important if you are not a Dutch student because travelling can cost a lot.
The school culture is open minded and there is a small power distance between students and teachers.
The school teaches IB from MYP to DP, so students and staff at the school are familiar to the nature of this programme.
Great teaching experience, my only complaint is that the school classrooms have very few sockets to charge laptops, causing students to crowd around the corners of the room.

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ISR International School on the Rhine, Konrad-Adenauer-Ring, Neuss, Deutschland

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International School on the Rhein, Düsseldorf, Deutschland

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International School on the Rhein, Düsseldorf, Deutschland

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TP2, Math/Music - International School on the Rhein - Leonard

The school:
Exclusively English is used to teach, but many students will use German to socialize or talk to eachother. It would be useful to learn a few words and phrases. The math program follows the SABIS curriculum, which means lessons are preplanned. The music program follows the IGCSE curriculum, which focuses mainly on theory and history. Additionally, the music classroom has many keyboards, two pianos, a dozen xylophones, a bass drum, two bass guitars, two acoustic guitars, a dozen ukuleles, and a dozen violins. Most students cannot read sheet music, but there will likely be a few skilled pianists in every class. Each classroom at ISR has an internet-connected smartboard, and only a few students (mostly upper high school) use technology to take notes and such.

TP experience:
Classes taught: Math 6, 7, 7, 8, 9, 10, AA Standard Level; Music 7, 8, 9
The other teachers at ISR really encouraged me to do as many lessons as I could, which was exactly what I needed. They were very flexible to things I wanted to do. You can definitely talk to Bianca, the head of Middle School, if you want more/less/different classes on your schedule. This allows you to tailor your experience. Also, they allow you to join classes outside your specialty, so take advantage of that if you have interest in a 2nd subject. I didn't ask/try, but I wouldn't be surprised if they let you try out primary education as well.
Due to the pandemic, there weren't many opportunities to hang out with other teachers outside of school, but your experience will hopefully be different. Any teacher in the break room is always very open to a conversation about anything, which is an easy way to make friends.

Housing:
Accomodation was tough for me since I was only placed at ISR 2 weeks before TP started, so it will probably be easier for you. I ended up at a shared AirBnB 20 minutes by bike away from the school, paying €900/month. Not great, but the best that was available on short notice. Düsseldorf has a lot of public transport, so you could easily live further away and have a longer, more expensive commute.

Tips:
I've never had my ticket checked on the local U75 train, which runs at street level through Neuss and continues on to Düsseldorf. Just saying... (Fare evasion is a crime)
I brought my bike from Groningen, which is possible by taking the train through Zwolle. I used my bike for shopping, exploring, and commuting, so the hassle was certainly worth it for me. Cycling infrastructure in Düsseldorf isn't nearly to the Dutch standard, so you'll need a helmet, but it's still by far the best way to make trips from 1-15km.
If you plan on spending more than €100 during your stay on trains, get a BahnCard. I have a yearly subscription, but there's a Probe BahnCard 25 product for €17.9 which gets you a 25% discount on all DB services. I'm a little upset I didn't get this earlier, as I'm often taking trains from Groningen to German airports.

Your closest airport geographically is DÜS, but you'll find much cheaper flights from CGN or DTM, which also have a direct rail connection (there's a frequent shuttle from Holzwickede to DTM, or you can just walk).
Spending a few weeks on Duolingo will make your experience a lot better, as not many Germans speak English like the Dutch do. It's easy to learn for fluent Dutch speakers, due to similar sentence structure and vocabulary.

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Freie Schule Anne-Sophie, Clayallee, Berlijn, Duitsland

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Freie Schule Anne-Sophie, Clayallee, Berlijn, Duitsland

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Freie Schule Anne-Sophie, Clayallee, Berlijn, Duitsland

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TP2, English - Freie Schule Anne-Sophie Berlin - Justine

The school:
FSAS is a bilingual school, following the German curriculum. Because not all subjects are taught in English the school only offers a TP placement for English students. However, some of the teachers are native English speakers and so also teach their subject, like science or history, in English.

TP experience:
Classes taught: grade 7.1 (novel study, Silverwing), grade 9.1 and 9.2 (poetry) and ESL class (Grammar - 7 students, grade 7 and 8)
During TP2 my mentor teacher trusted me to teach independently very quickly and in some cases also alone without supervision.  He told me the school specifically prefers student teachers from ITESS or ITEPS because they know what to expect and know we can work independently and take responsibility. We are not just on TP to observe. The feedback and help I received was great and useful. In most cases I was able to implement feedback into my next lessons. My mentor teacher also gave me advice on what to look for and work on for my next TP. In addition, the school is very open for input and stimulates teachers to take initiative and try new things. When I was working with another English teacher he asked me what I wanted to do. I was given complete freedom to create my own lesson module, with great support, and again feedback, to help me out.
NB:
The school takes only one student teacher. So be aware you are going to be alone. The support at school is great, however hanging out with colleagues after school was not a thing and I did not make any connections outside of school. So unless you have friends or family in or around Berlin ask yourself if you are okay with this and how you will deal with this. This wasn't my first time going abroad (alone) and I did not mind at all to rely on myself completely.

Housing:
Housing was tough. Same in the Netherlands there is a high demand for housing in Berlin and it's expansive. Because during TP2 you're staying for 2 months, so you can't just crash in a hotel/hostel, because it's too long. In addition, most places are looking for somebody that will stay at least 3-6 months. And once I thought I found something they ask for a deposit of 2 times rent! Which I doubt you'll ever see back once you move out. Finally be aware for scammers! I joined Facebook groups and created profiles on websites like https://en.wg-suche.de/ and immediately I received messages from scammers offering a place to stay.
In the end I went for Airbnb and found a nice little apartment for just me in Wannsee: https://www.airbnb.nl/rooms/29093185?source_impression_id=p3_1651089773_b3VoZZcMWT1KqJwB . Rent for 2 months: €1.984,97 (ouch)

Tips:
Go explore the city. There is so much to see and to do, it would be a shame to miss out.
Download the BVG  and BVG ticket app for public transport in Berlin. A monthly ticket costs €89 and you can travel unlimited.
Berlin is close to Groningen so you can travel by car (which I did), train, bus or plain.

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ISC International School Carinthia, Rosentaler Straße, Velden am Wörthersee, Austria

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ISC International School Carinthia, Rosentaler Straße, Velden am Wörthersee, Austria

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ISC International School Carinthia, Rosentaler Straße, Velden am Wörthersee, Austria

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I'm Matt, a 2nd year English student who recently completed TP2 together with Julia who is also and English student. We had a great experience at the International School Carinthia which is located just near the Italy and Slovenia border.The teachers and admin were very kind and always there to help us throughout the entire TP. At one point the faculty thought we were also teachers and not just interns because we had integrated into the school community so well. As far as housing goes, Luke and Manuela from ISC who are also teachers at the school fortunately rented out one of their spare apartments to us for about €375 each, per month including all utilities and internet. Housing is very difficult to find in Velden and in surrounding areas like Villach and Klagenfurt so if you get placed here, be sure to reach out to them. To get to Velden you can either take a connecting flight to Vienna & Klagenfurt then a train to Velden, however Julia and I found it was easier to take the train through Germany from Groningen to Velden and staying only one night in Munich before finishing the journey the next day. All in all, teaching at ISC was definitely worth it and we hope you add this school to your next list!