TIPS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH

It's almost summer, which means an influx of volunteers from around the globe will be coming to Casa HOY to help out with our many different projects. One of the themes we offer is Teaching English. Placement options include schools and foster care centers, with children or with teenagers. You might be in a structured setting with another teacher or with a little more freedom on your own/with other volunteers.

Whatever your situation may be, we've compiled a list of tips that we at Casa HOY think is important for your Teaching volunteer experience. It's a long list, so take what you need and add your own ideas.
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PLAN! Plan more activities than what you have time for. With a two-second lull you can lose their attention and interest.

Activities should be planned in 20-minute blocks; their attention span won’t go much beyond that.

Encourage every student to participate. If they’re shy, call on them. Or, have students work with partners or in groups.

Try your best to learn all of their names. It will make it easier for you to manage the class and get students to participate. If you’re there for an extended period of time, have them write down their name and a few interesting facts about themselves (what they like to do/eat/play, but NOT where they live or about family).

Make a lesson plan for each day, and for each week. Tie everything together with a theme for the week.
What is your objective for the activity? The day? The week?

Try scaffolding: Build on each activity, don’t just choose random topics. Example: Theme: Food. Day 1, Vocabulary; Day 2, Restaurant; Day 3, Ordering Food, Questions/Answers etc.

Think of topics they can relate to: find out their musical interests, favorite soccer players, favorite food, technology, Facebook, movies, places to visit in Morelos (or wherever you're teaching), fashion, culture, family.

Typical format for a one-hour class: Review from the previous day (10 minutes), A warm-up (5 minutes), The information (20 minutes), Practice activity in a group (a game or worksheet) (15 minutes), Individual practice (a game, worksheet, partner practice, skits) (10 minutes)

NEVER leave materials with students- only worksheets. Do not let students keep pencils, markers, scissors, NOTHING. If you wish to make a donation to the school, give it to the teacher you are helping, the school director or the Casa HOY staff member you are with.

Slow down. Take it easy. Don’t use many phrasal verbs or vocabulary that is super unique to your country. No "bad" words or offensive language.

Have more than enough copies and materials for everyone.

Learn about your placement. How many students? Boys/girls? What is their English level? What is their general family background? Ages?

Learn the curriculum. Talk with your teacher or Casa HOY staff for guidance and to know what the teacher expects.

Be prepared for a lack of discipline. Discipline is the school’s job. Defer to a teacher or Casa HOY staff member. However, be strict. You don’t want to undermine the teacher. Learn the class rules.

Ask teacher/staff if you can give out rewards for participation and games. Good rewards are pencils, stickers and erasers. Try to steer away from candy.

Games include: competitions, fly-swatters (hitting the correct word on the board), charades, hang-man, I Spy, categories, running up to the board to write the correct word, etc. Talk to other volunteers for more ideas, and spend some time at an Internet cafe looking up activities.

Don't talk to students about drinking, partying, or your personal relationships.

No cell phones or pictures during class.

IDEALISM: UPS AND DOWNS, HIGHS AND LOWS

Check out some thoughts on the volunteer experience, shared by Cindy, longtime HOY volunteer...

For international participants it can sometimes be a shock to enter the educational/childcare system in Mexico. We advise Casa HOY participants not to take things too seriously and to be prepared for a lack of, well, everything. Little or no discipline, lack of school supplies or technology, an overworked and perhaps undertrained staff, as well as limited, dirty and/or cramped facilities. Children and teenagers’ belongings and preparedness will also differ, some having a high level of English and/or nice, clean clothes, and others with only a broken pencil to their name (and of course, no eraser).

Even though Casa HOY coaches participants in preparation for these cultural differences, volunteers inevitably come with idealistic expectations for their community experience. You may think: I’m one more person, I can help with discipline. Or, I have some extra money, I can buy supplies that they will use and value. Or, I have time, I can give them the individual care and attention they need. And hopefully, most of the time, that will be the case.

Let's be realistic, though. Throughout your volunteer experience you will have up days and down days. That's part of the experience.

I had an “idealistic” day like that today at an organization where I’ve been helping off and on for the past five years. Now that I speak Spanish fluently, I feel a responsibility to help out with discipline, especially knowing that the staff there is overworked and, as we say in Spanish, probably “hasta la madre” (they’ve had it “up to here”). The boys were picking on a fellow compañero with some physical and mental disabilities, and I, for the life of me, could not get them to leave him alone. The staff didn’t discipline, and of course the boys didn’t pay any attention to me. So much for my idealistic expectations.

When we left our volunteer work for the day, I exploded, distraught with the negative treatment the boy was receiving and “hasta la madre” with the lack of discipline, interest/care and resources. But yet again, as other Casa HOY staff consoled me later in the evening, I was reminded that we are “on the road to change the world.” And sometimes we have to accept the road that we are on-- we can’t change the road and the world.

Remember, Mexico is NOT your home country (even if I now consider it as such). If you compare it to your home country and apply the same expectations you have there for your time here in Mexico, you’re going to come up short. The same standards in the US or Australia, for example, for childcare are totally different in other countries. That's not to say that it’s okay for these problems to exist but rather that they are part of your everyday volunteer experience and you can either harp on them or focus on the positive moments of the convivir part of your participatory travel.

Don’t give up on changing the world just because the world isn’t always ready to change. You might not be able to change the world of an organization, but you might be able to be the change in one person’s world.

Felices Dias y Nuevo Año 2012!

Happy Holidays!

CASA HOY PROUDLY ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH IVHQ!

This fall Casa HOY welcomes its first IVHQ-Mexico volunteers since beginning its partnership with the international volunteer agency IVHQ, which operates in 18 different countries, helping thousands of volunteers connect with local organizations and programs.

For more info, please read on….

Casa HOY—based in sunny, quiet Cuernavaca—has teamed up with IVHQ, an international volunteer agency, expanding on HOY's 10-year journey of offering give-and-get travel to individuals and groups.

Casa HOY is IVHQ’s exclusive partner in Mexico and will continue to organize and carry out community service trips for people who are looking for a different type of travel experience.

Through IVHQ, participants will have the opportunity to work with the great network of NGOs and activists that Casa HOY has built up in Cuernavaca and Morelos State. Volunteers can focus on one of four categories:

* Teaching: primarily focused on teaching English, although volunteers can also expect to help with other school subjects. Having the ability to speak English provides Mexicans with an advantage in finding work and building a future career.

* Environment: an opportunity to jump into the thick of Cuernavaca’s diverse environmental scene. Volunteers have direct contact with local projects to raise public awareness and get practical results

* Computer Training: a Cuernavaca-based computer lab on wheels. Every weekday afternoon the lab sets up in selected disadvantaged neighborhoods to provide via an easy-to-follow lesson plan computer related opportunities that otherwise do not exist.

* Childcare: individual and group interaction with children from low-income homes and communities. Volunteers aid local staff in improving the educational, emotional and sanitary conditions in which the children live.

Please come join us in Cuernavaca and spread the word to family and friends.

CUERNAVACA: HEADQUARTERS FOR CITIZEN ACTION

Bad news may come pouring out of Mexico, but Casa HOY is here to tell you the inspirational part—the part that is not covered in much of the foreign or even domestic press.

This past Wednesday, April 6, transforming their grief and frustration, ordinary Mexican citizens used their voice to protest the violence across the country provoked by a “war” imposed on the people by its own government. “Ya basta” and “No mas sangre” were the demands of the day.

Inspired by personal loss, Mexican poet and journalist Javier Sicilia called on his compatriots to demonstrate publicly their inconformity with Mexico’s and the U.S.’s “war” on drugs as the two countries overlook the causes of the problem and the devastating effects on the citizenry of an erroneous policy that caters to high-level interests. Too many innocents have perished, trapped between the crossfire of political criminals and organized criminals.

20,000 marched in Cuernavaca alone. In other cities across the country, including the nation’s capital, thousands more joined the coordinated protest.

Mexicans are taking the route of pacific protest to pressure the powers that be to represent their people and hear their demands.

In the words of the anthropologist Margaret Mead, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

PARTICIPATORY EXPERIENCES 2011 (UPDATED!)

Abril 15-17: Construccion de casa (Guanajuato)

Unete a un grupo de viajeros-voluntarios de Casa HOY, y pasa un dia y medio de actividades culturales en la ciudad de Guanajuato, y el fin de semana, participa en la construccion de una casa para una familia de bajos recursos, dirigida por una organizacion internacional, en la ciudad de Leon. Perfecta combinacion de turismo alternativo y accion social!

Dia 1: Miercoles: Salida DF-Guanajuato
Dia 2: Jueves: dia completo en Guanajuato
Dia 3: Viernes: construccion de casa
Dia 4: Sabado: construccion de casa
Dia 5: Domingo construccion / fin de actividades

Acompañante-guia de Casa HOY con grupo durante toda la experiencia
Logistica de trabajo voluntario
Actividades culturales guiadas

Gran experiencia individual, con amigos o colegas de la misma empresa!

Interesados comunicarse a la brevedad!!! a:
casahoymexico@gmail.com

May 28 - June 4: Women and gender issues (Morelos)

Stay at Casa HOY and get to know the work of Mexican women activists and their everyday struggles in society, visiting local NGOs, urban community projects, and other groups fighting in different fields. We'll also meet with a group of indigenous women and their families in a rural setting.

A great week of social activism, responsible tourism, and cultural immersion!

For fees, and more details please write to hoycommunity@gmail.com
Casa HOY team.

June 25 -July 2: Urban planning (Mexico City)

Come observe and experience the efforts of Mexico City's local government in transforming the most populated metropolis in the world into an environmentally-friendly and sustainable city of 20+ million!

-Stay at an eco-friendly hostel
...-Specific talks with experts
-Visits to public parks, green buildings, urban street art, community gardens, and more.
-We will ride the Metro, Metrobus, light rail, electric buses, taxi bikes, and city rental bicycles!

Sample itinerary:
Day 1: Arrival-welcome dinner
Day 2: Orientation / Bike ride Condesa and Roma neighborhoods
Day 3: Subway system / visit to Plaza de las Tres Culturas
Day 4: Green projects / visit to Latin America's tallest green building and Parque Bicentenario (ex-Refineria) / visit to project of urban green roofs
Day 5: Urban culture & sustainability / inner freeway system, street art, and Museum of Anthropology
Day 6: Metro bus system / Visit to UNAM campus
Day 7: City infrastructure: water, energy, air
Day 8: Recap / departure

A great experience for students, professionals, activists, and urban adventurers!

For costs and to fill out a registration form, please
write an e-mail to hoycommunity@gmail.com

Julio 15 Aniversario HOY 10 años! (DF-Cuernavaca)

July 20 to 5 August: Summer camp (Cuernavaca)

Come to Cuernavaca (the City of Eternal Spring) this coming July, and spend one, two or three weeks at a summer camp for low-income children and youth, teaching English, arts and crafts, playing sports, and more!

Dates: July 20 to August 5, 2011
Hours of volunteering: Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Requirements: basic Spanish or a willingness to learn, be outgoing, some experience teaching, able to handle groups, creative, self-motivated, like interaction with children and youth

Casa HOY provides lodging and volunteer arrangements for a summer-special fee!

The fee includes:
> Pick up and drop-off at Cuernavaca’s Casino de la Selva bus station
> Orientation on volunteering, Mexican culture and safety tips
> Hostel-type shared lodging and bathroom
> Breakfast and snacks
> Local transportation related to volunteer work
> Access to a Casa HOY staff person during working hours
> 1 guided cultural/recreational activity per week
> Goodbye lunch with Casa HOY family!

NOT included:
> Airfare to and from Mexico City

> Bus fare Mexico City-Cuernavaca

> Other meals than those specified

> Other local transportation not related to volunteer work

> Personal expenses

For fees and to receive a registration form, please contact

Casa HOY at hoycommunity@gmail.com

Agosto 7-13: Experiencia Participativa en Nueva York

VIAJE PARTICIPATIVO A NUEVA YORK!!
Una semana de cooperacion internacional, inmersion cultural, accion social, turismo y mas!
Detalles y costos pronto.
Apuntate al evento!
o manda un e-mail con tus datos a: casahoymexico@gmail.com

September 10-November 12: Afterschool program (Cuernavaca)

Details TBA

September 23-25: House building (Queretaro)

Details TBA

November: Ravine cleanup in San Anton (Cuernavaca)

Details TBA

November: Project at eco-village (Tepoztlan)

Details TBA

November 22-27: Thanksgiving week of service (Morelos or Oaxaca)

Details TBA

December: Alternative medicine (Morelos)

Details TBA

December: Sea turtles project (Pacific coast)

Details TBA

* For exact dates, places, and fees per person please write to hoycommunity@gmail.com

Travel and Change the World!