Dear Future EOI Auxiliar de Conversación,
Before I tell you about my experience, I would like to start by congratulating you! You have made an excellent choice in choosing this special school. From the bottom of my heart, I can honestly say that the eight months I spent working here were the best eight months of my life. I have made memories and lifelong friendships that I will cherish forever.
There’s no better place to start than at the beginning. I too had made my choice partially based on the letters of experience from previous auxes! Before selecting the school, I had emailed with lots of questions regarding accommodation etc and, that same day, the lovely Ana Flores replied to me with the loveliest email and lots of information, answering every question I had. As a UK citizen, the visa process can be a little difficult, but whenever I had any doubts or worries, no matter how big or small, my co-ordinator Ana helped me with everything. I am so grateful for her and everything that she has done for me. She became
like family to me, which I didn’t know I would need. She will be retiring in September 2025, but you will meet her without a doubt! I received the warmest welcome from each and every staff member and they made me feel so at ease in the school. They all made great efforts to make me feel included as a part of the team, the team I am absolutely gutted to be leaving. I
really couldn’t have asked for better colleagues, and friends too.
In terms of my role in the school, I had the opportunity to do a bit of everything! I was able to plan and lead my own presentations, lessons and games. As well as this, I assisted the teachers in their lessons, helping students with pronunciation, confidence and conversation practice. I’ve found that in terms of learning languages, pair work is a great way to encourage students to talk and feel more comfortable and confident in doing so. This is always encouraged by all of the teaching staff. As someone who would like to go on and become a teacher, working alongside and learning from different teachers with different
styles was invaluable experience; my time in the school has confirmed to me that I am making the correct career choice.It goes without saying that the best part of my role in the school was the students. It’s extremely rewarding to see the students make progress and feel comfortable speaking and making mistakes without fear. I have built an amazing relationship with all students in each class; the fact that they’re teens and adults allows you to forge friendships with them. Try your best not to worry about making friends, you’ll find friends in lots of students and teachers as I have! I was given a lot of freedom with regards
to my lessons. Teachers would inform me each week what we would be studying in class and I could then use any ideas they had suggested or create my own.
This experience has really developed strengthened my confidence as a teacher, especially because I had such skilled professionals as colleagues. Their passion for their subject really shows, and my time at the EOI has shown me the kind of teacher I want to be.
Finally, I think it’s important to discuss the language aspect. I chose to do this because I am a student studying Spanish and I would like to become a teacher of modern languages. I chose Estepona for my placement to learn and gain experience as a teacher, immerse myself into Spanish culture and improve my knowledge of the Spanish language, my fluency and confidence. All staff members were incredibly patient with me. If I made mistakes, they would correct me in a very kind, subtle way so that I could learn and understand the correct way to say something, without ever feeling any kind of judgment.
When I started in the school, I could speak Spanishbut I was afraid of making mistakes or saying the wrong thing. I realised very quickly that this should not have been the case. Each staff member was patient with me and helped me with any little question or query I had.
There was no such thing as a ‘silly’ question or mistake. They made me feel so comfortable and shortly after I started, I was no longer afraid of making mistakes or seeming silly because I knew there was never any judgement. They were all eager to help me learn and teach me their culture which I am extremely grateful for. It’s important that you also develop this attitude when working with your students. You want to make them feel as at ease as possible; it can be daunting speaking aloud to others in a language that isn’t your mother-tongue, especially to a native speaker.
So, I hope you this has helped you come to a decision. There aren’t enough words to describe how truly lucky I feel to have had the most amazing experience with the most wonderful people. Estepona, thank you- you were better to me than I ever could have imagined, and I have every confidence that you will be just as fantastic to the next lucky individual who gets to live there and work as an ELA in EOI Estepona. I promise you; you will have the best year of your life! If you have any doubts, questions or worries, please get in touch! I’d love to help you out if I can.
¡Te deseo mucha suerte!
Olivia
06/2025