You finish your TEFL course at International TEFL Academy Barcelona TEFL, receive your official certificate, and then you’re faced with the difficult task of deciding where to teach. Should I go to Europe, Asia, Latin America? I decided to stay and teach English in Barcelona, Spain?
It’s exciting, yet nerve-wracking, to dive right into a full schedule of teaching after your TEFL class. It’s not hard to find private clients to teach in Barcelona. There are many tools to help you find students & tutor groups (websites/Facebook groups, primarily), and ITA will help you here.
As a new teacher, I really wanted to put together a teaching schedule that was realistic and manageable to avoid burn-out or stress. I had heard about teaching English online and I was very intrigued about the possibility of having more control over my schedule and not having to commute. A guest speaker came in to talk about her experience teaching online being based in Barcelona. Who doesn’t want to work from home? I talked to friends who had experience teaching English online, and from there I was sold, and started the process of interviewing and vetting out online teaching companies.
I was surprised by how official the interview process was for these online teaching jobs. It wasn’t easy by any means and the entire process was very professional from start to finish. It took me about one and a half weeks from when I first applied online to being offered a job.
Fast-forward six months later and I’m still living in Barcelona, teaching English online to Chinese students, and loving every second of it! Sometimes I still can’t believe that I’m living in Barcelona – the longer I’m here, the more I love this city. I truly think Barcelona is one of the best cities for teaching English abroad, especially if you’re teaching English online.
Schedule & Travel Time
I’m teaching in the Chinese time-zone, so my main working hours are from 10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. I can wake up even earlier and work, which means I’m done working every day by 3:30 p.m.! So I have a lot of time for exploring, traveling, and experiencing everything Barcelona has to offer. Barcelona has plenty of activities to keep you busy- beaches, parks, restaurants/bars, shopping, and more.
Another great thing about teaching English online is the flexibility to travel while still working. I can hop over to other European cities in a matter of hours for the weekend and be back on Monday for work. In fact, I even left Barcelona for three months, went to SE Asia, and travelled while continuing to teach online. I chose SE Asia because I would be almost in the same time zone as my students so I could teach from 8:00 a.m.- 8:00 p.m. As Asia was still on my «countries to visit» list, it was a great way to make money while traveling, and I worked every two weeks for one week, while still having a flexible schedule to explore. Best of all, I was able to pay for most of my trip while continuing to keep my regular students and teach.
When I returned to Barcelona, I started working a more regular schedule and picked up right where I left off! I definitely knew I wanted to return to Barcelona after traveling; the city is magical and with summer just around the corner, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be!
