A Day in the Life of a Professional English Teacher

It’s hard to sum up a day in the life of someone in the Spain Professional English Teacher program.  Each day is different and with schedule changes you will have a lot of free time one day and will be very busy the next.  Some days I have one class, others I have three.  I try to plan things out, so that on my less busy days I can catch up on chores and lesson planning. 

Most companies have classes at three times during the day: first thing in the morning (8-9 am), lunch time (which is Spain is around 2-4 pm), and evenings (5-6 pm).  In general, I have two to three classes a day with travel time in between.  Usually, you can count on not having classes Friday afternoons since most students would rather leave early for the weekend.  Sometimes, you may get called in to substitute a class, but hours in advance so you have time to prepare.

For the classes, the size varies.  Some are one on ones, others can be as big as 10.  The bigger classes are typically held in conference rooms with either a white board or projector.  For one on ones, they are usually held in smaller rooms.  I have had some one to ones ask to go to a coffee shop instead, which can be fun.  We use an online platform to assign homework to classes, but it grades automatically, so you only need to lesson plan outside of class.  Lesson planning doesn't have to take very long.  I usually like to find an extra activity or worksheet online to supplement the platform material.  For my intermediate and advanced students, I like to find news articles or videos (TED talks are great!).  As we go through them, I ask questions about vocabulary and common English phrases.

For my first class in the morning, I usually need to leave my apartment by 7 am to catch the metro.  I usually can afford to leave later, but I prefer to leave early, in case of a delay.  When I get to class early, I usually either write for my blog or lesson plan.  One of the most important skills I have learned so far has been managing my free time, whether it is 5 minutes or an hour.  I do usually have a lot of time between classes and being productive really makes a difference later.

                After my first class, I usually head home for lunch.  My apartment is in a good central location, so I have time for this.  Other people who live further south don’t and generally prefer to find a coffee shop to camp out in between classes.  Since my next class is not until the afternoon, I like to take care of chores, lesson plan, although I admit, sometimes I like to take a short siesta after my morning class! 

                After spending time at home, I head to my afternoon class.  This class tends to be livelier than my morning class, probably because they aren’t just waking up, so I try to drink a coffee before teaching.  After my afternoon class I usually choose to head straight to my evening class.  I could have time to go home, but it would likely only be for about 20 minutes so it’s not worth it.  I try to bring a small snack with me so that I am not starving by the end of class.

                I am usually done by 6 pm.  At this point I head home, go for a run, and then have dinner.  I like to meal prep on Sundays, so I don’t have to spend a lot of time cooking during the week.  Sometimes I will head out for tapas or intercambios after dinner, other times I am so tired I’ll just stay home and watch some Netflix in Spanish!

                One thing to clarify: I do not have the same classes every day.  Most classes I only see once or twice a week, so my evening class one day is not the same evening class I will have the next day.  This means that sometimes I will use the same lesson if my classes are at a similar level.  If I find an article or video that is very popular in one intermediate class I may use it in my next one.

A day in my life may sound long, but what makes such a difference is the free time between classes.  For example, my morning class had to cancel today, so I got to sleep in, do some yoga, and write this article.  Our schedules are flexible, so it is possible plan to travel many weekends.  Even though I do get very tired at the end of a typical day, I love my life in Spain.