Expect the unexpected and embrace the discomfort.
Just two weeks of learning to be flexible outside of your comfort zone
will seriously change your outlook on life--for the better.
No pencils. No paper. No copy machine. No markers. A whiteboard that won’t erase. That’s what a classroom with need looks like in Mexico. Oh, and it might not be a classroom. It might be a covered patio with mismatched chairs, a cramped playroom with broken toys and tattered books, or the funky smelling cafeteria.
And that’s just the beginning. Teaching English as a volunteer is nothing like teaching English programs in a foreign country in a paid setting. Your students most likely will not have an English curriculum, will not be at grade level in their regular subjects, let alone English, and won’t have the family/moral support necessary for a healthy learning environment. At Casa HOY we prepare volunteers for these very likely situations. Even when volunteers are armed with all of this knowledge, it is still can be a shock to enter your English teaching placement here in Cuernavaca or neighboring cities in the state of Morelos.
At our new project, a “casa hogar,” or foster-care home, in a nice neighborhood in the municipality of Temixco, our volunteers are fortunate enough to have a more academic setting. Desks with seats, a large whiteboard, and some kids with notebooks. What a relief. Although the ages range from 5 to 10, boys and girls, most kids have only a few words of English. And even though they’ve been taught English in the past, as obvious from a few random child-made posters of prepositions on the walls, there is no lesson plan to follow.
As recommended, our first day we went prepared to review colors and teach body parts. A veteran volunteer taught us the color song, which reviews colors in English and Spanish. After 10 weeks of volunteering with Casa HOY, she has quite a list of activities up her sleeve. The kids actually knew their colors pretty well, so we moved on to body parts. Head, shoulders, knees and toes is always a favorite, singing it slowly then picking up pace in each round. The children drew a body, working off of another volunteer’s drawing on the board.
The second day we focused on shapes. In order to review, we had kids do a scavenger hunt going out to find examples of each shape. Most kids really got into it, and for their partner presentation we were shown balls, parts of doors, toys and other random objects found around the playground. Although volunteers are only expected to give an hour of English, we ended up entertaining them (through teaching, of course) for an hour and a half. Afterward they had us running around playing hide-and-seek, hangman and yoga.
Hiccups we’ve encountered thus far are the fact that some other volunteers who teach the kids arts and crafts have come while we’re supposed to be teaching. That interrupts us and distracts the children. Or maybe children haven't had lunch yet when we get there. That gives you time to review your lesson plan, or to sit down with the kids and bond over dinner table conversation. Or, for example, although we’ve created an English only classroom, it is still complicated when children start babbling about something and you have no idea what they’re saying. Many volunteers find it very difficult to communicate if they have no Spanish. This is an opportunity for you to get creative and a chance to take you out of your comfort zone. Talk to Casa HOY staff and other volunteers for tips on communicating. It also helps to write down a list of words that you think you will need during your day, such as basic greetings or vocabulary that you plan on teaching.
No pencils. No paper. No copy machine. No markers. A whiteboard that won’t erase. That’s what a classroom with need looks like in Mexico. Oh, and it might not be a classroom. It might be a covered patio with mismatched chairs, a cramped playroom with broken toys and tattered books, or the funky smelling cafeteria.
And that’s just the beginning. Teaching English as a volunteer is nothing like teaching English programs in a foreign country in a paid setting. Your students most likely will not have an English curriculum, will not be at grade level in their regular subjects, let alone English, and won’t have the family/moral support necessary for a healthy learning environment. At Casa HOY we prepare volunteers for these very likely situations. Even when volunteers are armed with all of this knowledge, it is still can be a shock to enter your English teaching placement here in Cuernavaca or neighboring cities in the state of Morelos.
At our new project, a “casa hogar,” or foster-care home, in a nice neighborhood in the municipality of Temixco, our volunteers are fortunate enough to have a more academic setting. Desks with seats, a large whiteboard, and some kids with notebooks. What a relief. Although the ages range from 5 to 10, boys and girls, most kids have only a few words of English. And even though they’ve been taught English in the past, as obvious from a few random child-made posters of prepositions on the walls, there is no lesson plan to follow.
As recommended, our first day we went prepared to review colors and teach body parts. A veteran volunteer taught us the color song, which reviews colors in English and Spanish. After 10 weeks of volunteering with Casa HOY, she has quite a list of activities up her sleeve. The kids actually knew their colors pretty well, so we moved on to body parts. Head, shoulders, knees and toes is always a favorite, singing it slowly then picking up pace in each round. The children drew a body, working off of another volunteer’s drawing on the board.
The second day we focused on shapes. In order to review, we had kids do a scavenger hunt going out to find examples of each shape. Most kids really got into it, and for their partner presentation we were shown balls, parts of doors, toys and other random objects found around the playground. Although volunteers are only expected to give an hour of English, we ended up entertaining them (through teaching, of course) for an hour and a half. Afterward they had us running around playing hide-and-seek, hangman and yoga.
Hiccups we’ve encountered thus far are the fact that some other volunteers who teach the kids arts and crafts have come while we’re supposed to be teaching. That interrupts us and distracts the children. Or maybe children haven't had lunch yet when we get there. That gives you time to review your lesson plan, or to sit down with the kids and bond over dinner table conversation. Or, for example, although we’ve created an English only classroom, it is still complicated when children start babbling about something and you have no idea what they’re saying. Many volunteers find it very difficult to communicate if they have no Spanish. This is an opportunity for you to get creative and a chance to take you out of your comfort zone. Talk to Casa HOY staff and other volunteers for tips on communicating. It also helps to write down a list of words that you think you will need during your day, such as basic greetings or vocabulary that you plan on teaching.
