5 Tips for Teaching Abroad During a World-Wide Pandemic

As I like to joke, I chose a hell of a year to go teach abroad in Spain. My experiences taught me a few valuable lessons which I am happy to share. If you are looking to go teach abroad during this pandemic here are some helpful tips to move you along.

As a student of Anthropology, it is easy for me to see the benefits in living in such tumultuous and fascinating times. I keep a journal with me to write down my experiences with Covid-19 so that I can always have a record of what was experienced. "May you live in interesting times", an English insult allegedly translated from a Chinese "curse", certainly holds true these days as the world takes on one of its worse modern pandemics.

Yet I am back home in the USA, safe and sound, after finishing a course of teaching abroad in Murcia, Spain. For better or worse, this is what I learned from my experience.

5 Tips to Teaching Abroad Now

1. First, let me tell you a little about the region of Spain I worked in. Murcia resides in the southeast of Spain and is most famous for its thick Spanish accent and decadent seafood. I worked in the proper city, not the pueblos (small towns) surrounding the city that make up its residency. It is known as the seventh largest city in all of Spain but in reality it is a rather open and easy-going space. It was literally the last area in Spain to be hit with Covid-19 cases. So my first tip is, know what area you are getting into.

It is not easy to research a place and get a feel for it before physically going to it. I had a completely idealized idea of a small, romantic coastal city in Spain before getting to Murcia and realizing it was actually at least an hour from the coast. Talk with people who have done your program before, get the pros and the cons of their journey, ask questions about how this area handled the Covid situation and how the companies you are looking to work for guided its employees in facing such an unprecedented event.

These are not rude or invasive things to ask. People want to share their experiences and companies should be prepared to answer these kinds of questions if they want to promote the safety and well-being of their employees.

2. As I stated before I am an American but, as you will come to find turns out to be the case with most of these Teaching Abroad opportunities, I was part of a group of teachers from many English-speaking countries. I had friends from Australia, England, South Africa, Canada, and we all had completely different experiences when it came to calling our respective Departments of State to figure out what we should be doing during this crisis.

It is not controversial to say that, in terms of helping citizens return home, the USA dropped the ball. There was no advice or help given when calling the Department of State or the US Embassy in Spain in terms of figuring out transport, what the system would be to control Covid in airports, or if and when we were allowed to go home. Frankly, we were left out of the loop. However, this was not the experience of many of my fellow non-American teachers. Some of their countries organized planes to get them home, had procedures put in place during the travel on how best to implement a safe trip, and even offered free hotel stay for those coming from highly affected countries (like Spain) so they could wait out their two-week isolation away from their families in case they were carriers of the virus.

So, the advice here is simple: prepare yourself with what your home country is willing to offer you in terms of guidance and aid when it comes to another outbreak. This is not a matter of one country being better than the other. Simply, this is a matter of understanding what kind of support you will receive in case another outbreak or a second wave hits while you are abroad. It is best to face these matters realistically. A tip I can give to staying aware of what steps the USA is taking for its citizens abroad during this particular crisis is to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to get updates on changes in the processes for these events.

3. Have a nest egg saved up in order for emergencies. This is a traveling tip in general but it certainly came in handy for me to have some money, supplies, and access to the news via internet during this crisis. It cost me an arm and a leg in plane tickets (most of them cancelled because of the uncertainty of the crisis and only some of them reimbursed) simply to get out of Spain at the end of my teaching program. Many of my friends either did not have internet access at home or had not been frugal during our pre-quarantine days to have enough for supplies in the crisis. We kept each other informed and shared what we had when we could but, as this was a lockdown situation, it is best to have all you need with you so you do not need to rely on others at a time when simply meeting with people could prove dangerous to do.

4. We went into lockdown around the end of March and our teaching year ended in May. So how did we teach during those months of quarantine? We became on-the-spot online teachers. Different programs like zoom and google meetings were used to continue the lessons online. For those that do not know, teaching online and teaching in person are completely different worlds. We had to adapt all our in-person lesson plans to online learning. My advice here is get yourself some experience teaching online.

My age range of students varied from age six to age twelve. Keeping twenty or so six-year olds attentive is difficult enough in a classroom setting so you can imagine what it takes on an online format. This is not an impossible task though! There are thousands of online schools and tutoring programs, especially in teaching English, where you can gain some experience in this format of teaching.

No one wants to imagine second waves could hit but the truth of the matter is in many places, including where I was teaching in Spain, it is likely they will continue in some aspect teaching online. Regardless of growing or shrinking cases this is the new reality until the situation is better controlled.

5. This was a scary situation to face while alone in a foreign country. I had days I could not speak to anyone, days that I spent crying because I could not see an avenue home to my family, days I had no clue what the state of the world was. This is a heavy event to lay on yourself but the truth is I was never alone. I had my built group of fellow teachers and friends who went through this experience with me. I forced myself to take time to assess what I was feeling whether it was despair, boredom, or loneliness.

My last and most important advice is build your community and check in on yourself. You are not always going to handle bad news gracefully so let yourself feel what you are going to feel. The last thing I wanted was to bring my fears or my anxiousness into my teaching. With my students I was always a source of light and positivity because that is what a teacher should be. Yet I was not always at my strongest. Luckily, I had made local friends to help me along my way on this bizarre journey we were all forced to take together. If journaling is not your thing then you can try meditation, playing music, taking on an online class or task, watching every movie Netflix has to offer...whatever self-care looks like to you, do it! Your mental and spiritual health could not be more important than during times when your freedom to move and do what you want is no longer in your hands.

Eat that chocolate or try that Bob Ross tutorial in painting you had your eye on, you deserve it.

Deep breaths! I know this may all seem a little jarring but there are ways to prepare for the world you are going to be facing. For now, it seems Europe has banned American citizens from traveling to its countries and further spreading Covid in recovering places. This will not be the case forever and though other parts of the world may be entitled to follow suit depending on if the USA begins taking extensive measures to stop this disease in its tracks or not teachers are going to travel. Pack your reusable face masks and your hand sanitizer because the world has changed and all we can do is adapt to it.