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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.
"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 |
Travellers joins with the British Safety Council to give volunteers a
FREE Health & Safety Qualification.
The BSC Level 1 Certificated
Course
in Health and Safety at Work qualification is FREE
for all Travellers volunteers.
"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.)
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