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When you go abroad as a volunteer teacher, usually you meet up with kids with some sort of learning difficulty, which needs a more personalized and individual focus. This is an important part as your function as a teacher, but not the only one. You also spend a great part of your free time with the kids you’re teaching, you eat together, play, go for a walk, etc. which helps create a bond even stronger than the usual student-teacher. You can also participate or even create new projects, such as Reading Clubs, Art Projects, etc., that motivates the kids not only for the period you’re volunteering, but also increases the chances for the students to continue these activities when you’re gone. These projects help your students, that have a lot of material and sometimes even physical disabilities and disadvantages to distract themselves, develop their imagination and leave their problems aside at least for a few hours. The course created by ITTT has given me many tools for the future to use in this kinds of situations and I’m looking forward to put them in practice, including the examples of activities, how to manage certain problems that may appear during a classroom and how to treat with different cultures, something that I’ve never encountered in another course. When you’re abroad, you have to open your mind and your heart, get to understand you’re on the other side of the world, where things doesn’t work the same way as it does in your country, but you also have to open your heart, to all those kids that are willing to learn all they can from you, understand they have good and bad moments (just like everyone else) with a hard story behind them, with some sadness we can’t even begin to imagine. I strongly believe the ITTT course dedicated to Young Learners help you to put yourself in the shoes of your students, something incredibly useful when you’re volunteering. Starting your job abroad may be difficult, even if you’re volunteering and you think you know what you’re up to, many things can get a bit harder than you think; the culture, the rules, the people, even your job, but those are also the most rewarding situations that will help you meet, help and be with your students in a way never seen before. When you’re away from your home you realize that this kind of work will mix up with your daily life, and you will notice how they’re lacking in many ways, so sometimes you not only have to be a teacher, but also a listener, a healer, etc. It may be hard, but with time, you will get to appreciate these moments and try as hard as you can to win the heart of your students. As I mentioned earlier, you can be an English teacher as usual, but you can also use the tools given by ITTT (YL course specifically) to create some activities for the younger population, you can create songs in their native language and motivate them to translate the song to english, start an orchard and teach the kids the name of each plant in English and how to take care of them, etc. Since you see these kids struggling in their daily life so much, even for a piece of bread, you want them to have fun while learning, to ease their mind even if is just during your class hours. Although the classroom is probably never divided by age nor level of English, teachers have to make activities that awakes motivation and interest of all students, which can get a bit difficult at times. Also, the obtaining of some materials, or even papers and pens in abundance can be near impossible, so as teachers we prepare ludic games that consists on noises, hand gestures, mimic, etc., in general, things that doesn’t require much. Something that some teachers don’t realize is that you have to go beyond the academic aspect of the student, not only when working as a volunteer, but in every classroom, even if it’s a private school. It’s fundamental when you work as a mentor to help them increase a personal and emotional balance, create an environment of trust where kids can be comfortable to talk in English but also to express their feeling in a good way. When you work abroad, you will learn and progress along with your students, and even though you may never reach an end, you will leave a mark on each of your students and feel satisfied for what you achieved. Even if you spend a few weeks as a volunteer teacher, you will realize how rich the experience will be, in all aspects of your life, and now that I have the ITTT tools to improve, I will definitely go experience another season volunteering.
