Tag: first summer

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Testimonial: Fiona McCormack

Summer 2015 was my first time working at TECS Summer Camps as an assistant monitor. It was all one big adventure at Family Camp Gredos in the beautiful mountains outside of Madrid, Spain.

After meeting the staff and campers I knew it would be an amazing few weeks ahead. We got along like one big family, always looking out for each other and this made it very special. It was like no other camp I have been to or worked on. I loved the fun loving, energetic and friendly atmosphere at TECS. Everyone working there was there to have fun and to ensure that the campers have a brilliant summer.

Our jobs were quite challenging at times, but it was all worthwhile. As a monitor I got to coach sports and activities such as arts and crafts and evening games with the children. Seeing the happiness and smiles among the campers and staff is the greatest reward and feeling to experience. As a staff member we see the campers grow much more confident and outgoing throughout their time at camp. It was incredible to see how enthusiastic and energetic they were for the camp games as we had body paint, chants and banners to add to the excitement.

Without a doubt it’s the people that made my time at TECS so special. If I hadn’t gone to camp I would have never met these wonderful people. We are still in contact and we hope to meet in the near future. Both the staff and campers all shared such great memories and laughter during our time together and that, I will never forget.

– Fiona McCormack

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Testimonial: Claire Wenman

Before coming to TECS in 2015, I had never worked in a summer camp and I was a little scared about the prospect of working with a group of people who I had never met before. However it was one of the best experiences of my life. The people that you work with come from all over and bring lots of different qualities which help to make the experience even better. I can honestly say I have made some extremely good friends from my experience last year and I have some great memories with them.

I worked as a TEFL teacher last summer and it was a great opportunity to test my skills as a teacher because it is a totally different experience from that of a normal teacher working in an EFL academy or a school. In my case, my classroom was outdoors to start with so you have to adapt to that situation but along with the other teachers you work as part of a team and create the best lessons possible. This experience has helped me in my normal teaching job as I have become more creative with the material I am teaching and a lot more adaptable.

You may think that working all the time with kids company will get boring and annoying but you will not stop laughing with them and the other teachers and monitors. Although the days are long, they are thoroughly enjoyable because you can allow your childish side to come out and have a laugh with the kids. You think that you are just there to teach them but actually by the end you don’t want them to leave because they have made you enjoy your experience just as much as you help them to enjoy theirs.

Applying to work at TECS last summer was an excellent decision because I have made some excellent friends, some amazing memories and developed as a person and professionally. I would 100% recommend it!

– Claire Wenman

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Testimonial: Ross O’Brien

Where do I even begin?! I spent three of possibly the best summers of my life working in TECS summer camps! What makes camp amazing is the camaraderie you build with the other staff and thanks to my three summers in TECS I can genuinely say that I’ve made friends for life and will always have a couch to crash on in Spain!

But it’s not really about you – it’s about the campers! TECS provided me with my first proper work experience as a teacher. After an intense training week, I went into class feeling sufficiently nervous yet confident and the weekly observations act as a support to help towards making your classes even better. I can honestly say that I learned how to teach in TECS!

Returning to TECS year after year also enabled me to climb the ladder there. In my second summer I was involved with the online blog and in my third year I took a step into management and worked as a TEFL coordinator as well as a TECS College tutor. This involved training new teachers by observing their classes and giving them feedback as well as overseeing the running of the English programme on-site. Therefore TECS allowed and encouraged me to grow both personally and professionally. What more could you ask for from an employer?!

Camp life can be a rollercoaster of emotions – but rollercoasters are FUN so what are you waiting for? Apply to work in sunny Spain for a summer now! I promise…you’ll NEVER regret it!

– Ross O’Brien

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TESTIMONIAL: Danielle Hopkins

In 2007, I found myself in Family Camp Puerto tired and disorientated among a swarm of blue and white T-shirts. I wasn’t even sure I was actually going to turn up that day until something which to this day I can’t explain jolted me out of my hammock on a sunny rooftop in Cadiz. A voice in my head said “you really need to go and do this” job. And so I made the short train journey across the bay to start my adventure.

Half way through staff training week, I was wondering why I listened to that stupid little voice inside my head. Oh how very tired and overwhelmed I was.  This was my first real TEFL teaching job you see, I just kept thinking that these all singing, all dancing people around me were nuts. Guess what? They were and they still are. It’s just that now I’m one of them.

Summer camp is the craziest most intense experience that most people will go through in their entire life. For staff and campers.  It’s a rollercoaster ride that takes you through the most emotional highs and lows imaginable. You simply can’t avoid learning so much about yourself. Who you are and what you are capable of. That goes for the kids too.

For me, summer camp taught me primarily about compassion. No matter how tired or busy I was, I would never hesitate in helping a camper or another staff member. Putting someone else’s needs above your own comes naturally on camp after a while.  When you are surrounded by other staff members who do the same it turns into something magical.  TECS taught me that I could do anything I put my mind to. The impossible, the ridiculous, the unthinkable. I did them all, and over the summers I excelled as a person in every possible way.

As I moved through the ranks on summer camp, each year I learned more about myself and other people. Each year I felt more grateful for my experiences and the trust that was given to me to do a good job in these positions.  It felt good to impart experience and knowledge that I had gathered over the summers and watch more green members of staff grow and flourish as I had.

My final year as a camp director was the cherry on my TECS cake.  On camp I made friends for life and found a confidence in myself that allows me to be the person I am today.  If you get the chance to work on summer camp, open your mind and your heart and get ready for the ride.

 – Danielle Hopkins

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Testimonial: Katrina “Flo” Bunn

I first came to TECS in 2013 as a TEFL teacher and have worked in the TEFL side ever since. I’d worked in a summer camp before but not in sunny Spain, which is a great added bonus of working at a TECS summer camp. I’ve always been lucky enough to work with a fantastic bunch of kids and a great team of staff who I’m still in contact with now – I really have had the best summers ever, which is what brings me back!

Most recently I worked in Magic Village as the TEFL Coordinator. It was a great experience – as well as doing what I enjoy (teach!), I got to train a team of TEFL teachers and help them develop professionally, ensuring that our campers had a great quality language programme learning English while having fun. In fact, I loved working as a TEFL Coordinator so much that I came back to work in the English Academy full-time as a director of studies!

Working at TECS to this level definitely gave me an insight into education management and the skills and experience to step into a career path I never dreamed that I would be able to pursue – I am 100% certain that I wouldn’t be where I am now if I hadn’t come to TECS back in my first summer. Who knows where you could be in a few years if you come to work in TECS this summer?

– Katrina “Flo” Bunn

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Testimonial: Benjamin Crompton

I still remember applying to work on TECS summer camps for the first time. I’d already worked a couple of British Summer schools, and had literally no idea what a summer camp would be like. Turned out I loved it, although it was probably only when the email for returnee staff came around in January or March the year after that I finally realised it.

That was 2009, and TECS remains a very special company to work for. This year I’ll be returning for my third year to work as a Camp Director (my seventh in total at TECS). The Camp Director job is at once challenging and rewarding at the same time. Over my six summers I’ve grown passionate about the experience we offer children and young people; I wish there had been a summer camp like ours for me when I was a kid. As Director you have so many ideas to juggle. I’m often asked in the summer: ‘what do you actually do?’ It’s difficult to summarise it in few words, but perhaps the best way would be to say that I take a scrambled up jigsaw and organise it neatly on the table ready for the coordinators and monitors and TEFL teachers and crew members to put it together. When it comes together, you get a unique summer camp programme that gives kids of all ages a very special summer experience that they do remember for years to come. That’s worth the hours and dedication.

Over my six years, TECS has taught me numerous things: how to be a good EFL teacher, a strong manager, an innovator. But more than that, it’s taught me that the quiet reserved guy who hid in the corner six years ago has something to offer. Thanks to TECS, I am a driven, outgoing man with a passion for education and personal development. That’s something.

– Benjamin Crompton

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Why I work on summer camp

Hey, for anyone who doesn’t know me my name is Patrick Alvarez and I’m the Assistant Director of TECS Summer Camps (Programme, Staffing, and Structure) – I know right? What a mouthful! I like to just say I’m the Assistant Director of Summer Camps Pss….. What that means is that I’m the one who works all year round planning our summer camps, the activity programmes, etc. I am also the one who is responsible for the recruitment of up 200 summer camp staff.

Obviously this blog isn’t about me, but I thought as a first blog post I’d introduce myself, what I do, and why I got into summer camp work!

When I was a kid I went to a few summer camps (Not TECS ones, other ones). I think I went to Camp Rockwell, some tennis camp, and a random camp in Riaza to “name” a few. I was always one of those kids who wanted to go away from home, and I think my parents must have been happy to ship me off to camps/family/exchanges/anything-that-would-get-me-out of the house.

However, I’d never really thought about working on a summer camp but when I was a student in my final year in school and looking for something to do in the summer one of the Spanish students there (thanks Peps Moreno!) told me about TECS. He’d actually been a camper, crew member, and camp monitor on the summer camps. He sold it to me by saying that I’d have an awesome summer in the sunny south of Spain, you’ll meet loads of great people and have a really fun job. So work in a shop in rainy Ireland or get a job on a summer camp in Spain? Easy decision.

That summer I worked as an assistant monitor for one month in July and I honestly had THE BEST SUMMER EVER!! Not only did I meet a whole pile of new people, great kids, had loads of craic (fun for you non-Irish people), some of the most randomly hiliarious moments, but I also got so much out of it personally and professionally. At the time I was an 17/18 year old teenage boy about to go to university to study engineering and whose sole focus was himself. Something magical happened that summer which I can’t quite explain….. Working on TECS Summer Camps that first summer in 2008 changed something inside me, and sparked some sort of desire within me to not be such a selfish self-centered teenager, but it drove me to want to be a better person. I know a bit weird sounding but you have to experience it!

Anyway long story short I was hooked! Working on summer camp has become some sort of drug! I returned to work on camp every summer while at university, each year moving up: monitor, assistant coordinator, activity coordinator and then camp director. TECS obviously saw something special in me and wanted to keep promoting me, and then eventually asked me to join their year round team when I finished my degree to do what I do now. I’m the luckiest person in the world to be able to work on summer camp all of the time.

If you’ve never worked on a summer camp you MUST do it at least once! Put on it on your bucket list! It’s the experience of a lifetime, it’s so much fun, and it might just make you a better person.