Why do an Internship?

The Overview: 

You might have seen the intriguing internship opportunity as part of the IES Abroad Nantes Program’s webpage. You may have even remarked that there is an accompanying class that goes along with it, IN 395. But what is it exactly?

These internship opportunities are about teaching English, in English, to French students in Nantes. Placements range from Ecole Maternelle, which are five to six year-olds, to Terminale, which is our senior year of high school. IES Abroad places students in schools throughout Nantes that request an American English teaching assistant.

You stay with that school for the whole semester, and go for four hours a week to work with students in English classes – all in English! You’re paired with a supervising teacher or group of several teachers that you work with in their classes to get experience teaching English in a real classroom, as a native English speaker.

From here, the experiences had by students is varied, but overwhelmingly positive. IES Abroad students are placed in different schools in different places across the city (but easy enough to get to), so they end up meeting different teachers and teaching completely different groups of students.

For the age range you teach, it’s based off of what opportunities are available and which age you want to teach, but everything mostly works out so that IES Abroad students get the age range they prefer. Even if you don’t, you might end up finding out that you like teaching older/younger kids more than you thought!

My Personal Experience:

I was placed in a lycée, or high school, equidistant between the IES Abroad Center and my house. I met the teacher in a preliminary meeting and we discussed what role I would take in the classroom. My supervising teacher was welcoming and, having already had IES Abroad interns before, gave me a rundown of how she imagined the internship working. As she spoke, I got more and more excited to start. She gave me examples of activities that the past intern did with the students and encouraged me to make my own about any subject I wished. I couldn’t wait to create my very own lessons and work with a professor to implement them in the classroom.

Starting out, I made an introductory presentation about myself and where I came from and what I was studying in college. In the Internship class, we prepared these presentations and practiced presenting them so that we would be ready to get off on the right foot. The introductory presentation went great, though the kids were shy and didn’t ask many questions at first. They warmed up after a while, but it’s tough asking questions to a stranger in a different language!

It is absolutely fascinating to be fully immersed in a learning environment that is so different from everything you've ever known in the US. High school in France works a lot differently, and the school system is really interesting. Simply being in a French high school gives you a lot of cultural experience that you don't get otherwise, and you see how the average French student lives their life. 

Throughout the semester, I have been actively involved in every course I have attended, not just an observer in the back of the classroom. It has been absolutely wonderful. I never expected to get this much hands-on experience teaching, let alone the freedom that my supervising professor gave me with whole lessons. With this freedom comes ups and downs, however.

Some lessons I taught didn’t work very well, as they weren’t engaging enough to the students. These lessons were learning experiences. Afterwards, I would talk with my supervising teacher to get her advice on how to make these lessons better. She was extremely supportive and constructive in how to make English education engaging for the age groups we were working with.

Not only this, I was able to get her wisdom about teaching in general. It has been an absolute pleasure working with someone that has such passion for teaching and is willing to take time to help me get better at it. She has been an absolute pleasure to work with and one of the highlights of my time in Nantes has been learning about teaching from her and just chatting in between classes.

Overall, the internship program in Nantes has been fantastic. I never gave teaching much thought before, but getting my feet wet teaching English has opened my eyes to the possibility of a career in education. It feels odd to say that one semester working with French high schoolers on their English has had such a big impact on my ideas for what I want to do with my life, but it’s true. Teaching is hard, it takes a lot of work, but it is so rewarding to work with students and watch them succeed in learning English. The feeling when students are engaged with what you’re teaching and they’re working to understand and implement a new term, phrase or construction is unbeatable.

I recommend IES Abroad Nantes’ internship program to anyone who is considering it. If you think you might like it, you almost definitely will. Even if you’ve never taught a day in your life, it is completely fine. The class part of the internship will give you the basic skills and advice to start out. On top of that, you have a supervising teacher that will help you along. There is no reason to be afraid, and no reason not to take advantage of this potentially life-changing opportunity.