Teacher

Even those with experience will often find that teaching in a developing country is enormously different than from that in a developed country. We have divided these teacher guidelines into five sections: Love, Fun, Internationalization, Learning and Discipline.

LOVE

We love the children we teach. In many western countries, teachers are not allowed to hug and hold hands with their students. None of that applies here: the children are incredibly affectionate with us, and volunteers should welcome and return this affection. Many of the children have eight or more brothers and sisters, so they are in need of individual attention and love. This is a crucial part of what we do. Volunteers need to have an open mind and a willingness to learn as much as they teach or more, in our experience. By building friendships with the children and their families we are narrowing the gap between nations in this divided world of ours. It is a beautiful thing to experience.

FUN

We want education to be fun. We want students to be motivated. We try to incorporate a variety of learning methods into our classes that the students will probably not experience in their regular classes. These include games, songs, activities and craft. Hopefully we can instill into the children we teach the joy of learning. This is something they will hopefully pass onto their children in the future.

INTERNATIONALISATON

Many of the people in the community where we teach have very little idea of what a foreigner is. By working in the school we are able to show the children a world they never knew existed, broaden their horizons and break down some of their prejudices.

LEARNING

English is part of the curriculum at the school and the children are assessed on it. It is important to ensure that the children are learning and are developing their minds. An educated person is also a thinking person, better able to make decisions about their lives and the lives of the people around them. Even if many of the children never use their English it does not invalidate the learning experience. The learning process at our school is sometimes very slow in comparison to the one in a western classroom. This is likely due to a variety of factors stemming from poverty itself, including a lack of generational education, an unstructured learning environment, lack of nutrition, lack of resources and so on. So volunteers should not feel they have failed or that what Ayni does is a waste of time and effort if their students have not learned everything that they expected. The early development of children's minds is crucial for later developmental stages.

DISCIPLINE

Students are able to enjoy and learn more in a class that is disciplined. Instilling discipline in a class should not be achieved through intimidation but through generating respect. Teaching methods in Peru generally promote the use of corporal punishment, parents hardly ever reinforce the importance of structure and the children are not used to mixing learning with the element of fun, so they find it hard to stay calm in our classes. All of this makes it a great challenge for us to gain discipline while we teach, and volunteers should be aware that the classroom environment here is not as organized and controlled as in a western country. However, we believe that remaining committed to fun and non violent approaches to discipline is the best method to productive learning. Learning to respect teachers and seeing them respect each other will again teach the children values they can emulate in other parts of their lives. In rural poor areas it is not uncommon for children to witness or endure physical force to instill obedience, especially against women.

• English Curriculum
• Classroom Spanish

Ryan and Marie teaching action songs to Grade 3