We have placements all over the world where you can teach a variety of subjects to children and adults,
usually in the poorer section of society.
You'll gain
valuable skills and experience in how to interact with children and yet
retain authority, a boost to your confidence, and the satisfaction of
knowing that you're making a huge difference to the children.
Volunteers are desperately
needed on many of our projects because the schools generally have a lack
of teachers, high illiteracy rates and poor funding. We work with schools, orphanages, social care
centres, adult learning centres and more, and always with the objective of
helping the local community. The children benefit enormously from your
efforts, both academically and because they become more confident.
Teaching the children is hugely satisfying, a high feel-good factor!
If you're a teacher taking a break, you may
like to know that
many
schools regard our teaching programmes as professional development,
and that this may be used in appraisals or performance management
interviews. How my Teaching Placement
in Sri Lanka helped me get my PGCE
Make a difference ... get involved!
You
don't need any qualifications to teach. You can teach in all our
destination countries (except Zimbabwe).To help you
choose what you can do and where, we've listed below all our countries and
what subjects you can teach in them. To get detailed information on any of
the Projects, please click on the relevant link.
List of Topics you can
Teach:
Conversational English
Academic subjects, such as Maths, Biology, Geography and
most others
Conversational English or IT
and combine with Music, Drama, French, Arts and Crafts. An extremely
rewarding project based in the fascinating town of Madurai in the South
of India!
Conversational English -
we have a multitude of locations that are very different to each other,
some with a tremendous cultural experience and others with a buzzing
social environment.
Conversational English
in the rural village of Muak Lek in this exotic country. You can also
teach some other subjects, if you wish.
ZAMBIA
Conversational English in a location very close to the awesome
Victoria Falls - a must-see attraction!
About Teaching...
Anyone can do these projects, from 17 to 70+, and from any country. You don't need any qualifications and we provide you with a Teaching Guide
which we have had written especially to help you plan lessons and give you
ideas of topics.
But your main resource will be the fact that you're a foreigner - the
children will bombard you with questions about your home town, your
family, your school (or ex school) and they'll want to know all about
famous places in your country, like Buckingham Palace, Loch Ness, the
Rocky Mountains, Sydney Harbour Bridge ... and more.
You will teach in classes and sometimes
informally outside the classroom. Teaching usually takes place in State
schools but we do have some private schools as well. We also sometimes
work in orphanages and creches, or in teaching centres.
Class sizes can
vary, depending on school
and country.
Your teaching hours can range from 5 to 20 hours per
week, usually over 5 days but occasionally over 6, depending on the
school. You will be expected to prepare lesson outlines, but the
Principal and teachers will help you with this.
How your
teaching benefits the children:
Your teaching will help the children in so many ways,
and they want to learn because they know that the end result will be
greater opportunities in life for them, whether career-wise or, for the
luckier ones, possibly getting into a better university.
Travellers also makes donations
to most of our poorer schools (and also some that we don't work directly
with). Sometimes we sponsor the children's education by paying their school
fees, or we provide money directly to the school. We also buy necessities,
such as food, books, uniforms, computers and other teaching aids for the
kids.
And this is only possible
because our volunteers have chosen to do a voluntary project with us!
And what do you gain? You will gain
valuable skills during your placement, or improve the skills you already
have. You'll get experience in how to interact with children and yet
retain authority, a boost to your confidence, and the satisfaction of
knowing that you are making a huge difference to the children and their
abilities.
As one of our volunteers
said, "I'm a teacher by profession and every year I go on a Travellers
project to teach children in disadvantaged countries. Why? Because they
want to learn! Do you know how good it is to teach children who want to
learn? It refreshes my spirit and reminds me why I joined the teaching
profession in the first place."
Nervous about
standing in front of a class and teaching for the first time?
If you have no
experience and you're nervous at the idea of teaching, don't worry, you're
not alone. You can enrol in an optional
1-day intensive open teacher training course which will provide you
with advice and mechanisms to give you more confidence.
We also provide you with a Teaching Suggestions Guide which we've put together for
our volunteers. It is packed with guidelines to help you plan lessons and
has many examples and ideas for topics and games to use in class to help
the children gain confidence in using English.
"So far so good.
I've just had the most incredible day. The warmth I was given by the children and staff was quite
something. Don't think the kids had seen anything like me before. They
either pointed and smiled or just came up and hugged me. A number of them
asked me if I was a pop star!" Adrian Tate, teaching in South
Africa
TEFL WEEKEND COURSES WITH
CERTIFICATION:
If you're thinking of doing a
teaching project, you may like to consider whether you'd benefit from doing
a TEFL course.
Travellers runs a professional certificate in TEFL through our sister
division, TEFL Time. If you would like to complete our UK-based 20
hour or 100 hour TEFL qualification to help you with your teaching
placement, please
contact us, or go to
www.tefltime.com for further details and an application form.
Travellers recommends! It's certificated and would stand you in good stead
in the future as well as being a useful addition to your CV.
If
you have skills or qualifications in any subject that is not listed above,
please let us know and we'll arrange a placement which will enable you to
contribute.
Whatever area your knowledge and skills falls into, they are always
welcome and appreciated.
"From the first day onwards we enjoyed every day of our stay.
The atmosphere at the school is very nice and we really feel part of the community." Augusta and Carlijn on their teaching placement in
Southern India
"It
was a very sad goodbye at the school ... the experience we had was amazing. We
still think back on it every day and we know that there are already lots of
letters waiting for us in Holland."
"The teaching was hard work
at times ... however, the whole experience was very rewarding and we both gained
so much from it. The school were very friendly and welcoming and all the staff
looked after us very well. We were made to feel wanted and they were very
appreciative of all our efforts."(Nicholas Harland talking about
the teaching project he and Tom Gilchrist did together in India.)
Suite 2A, Caravelle House, 17/19 Goring
Road, Worthing,
West Sussex, BN12 4AP, England
Tel: +44 (0)1903 502595 Fax: +44 (0)1903 708179
Email:
info@travellersworldwide.com