Indoor Volunteer Information Booklet

This booklet has been designed to guide teaching volunteers who have minimal or no experience. You are able to download a PDF version of this guide to print out if you wish.

Program Overview

Rai Som Learning Centre is a separate branch of the Mirror Foundation, Chiang Rai and has 5 fulltime staff of various ethnicities, as well as 6 other paid teaching staff, which targets stateless children of migrant workers in the locality of Mae Kha, Chiang Mai province, Thailand. The school offers an integrated approach to improving quality of life of the vulnerable hilltribe community, (the majority of whom have difficulties entering mainstream education) and provides education to children who would otherwise have no access to it. The school delivers a customised skills-based curriculum, applicable to the lifestyle of students to allow them the chance to learn and grow, regardless of their circumstances.

Why we teach English

Typically, the remote schools (that poor children attend) have very limited ability to teach English and so these children are cut off from this opportunity to escape poverty. Having the opportunity to practice conversational English with native speakers is an important and rare occurrence for many. Thus, English education reduces the risk of poverty, the risk of being exploited (i.e. trafficked) as well as engaging in other dangerous behaviours (i.e. drug-use).

Educational development towards sustainable and happy life skills

Montessori Method

At Mirror, we try to use or incorporate the Montessori Method of teaching. This method is an approach to early education that focuses on the capacity of children to absorb information when given the freedom and independence to learn at their own pace. Some basic principles include:

• Teachers should seek to guide rather than control
• Children should have the freedom to choose
• Children need to repeat activity as much as they can until the concept is achieved, moving at the child's pace
• All children come to know the world through their senses and personal interests

Focus of Teaching

We teach English, focusing on building confidence in speaking. With the younger grades, we also focus on letter recognition and reading. We teach topics from the school curriculum, which specifies a particular theme for each week. Please stick to the curriculum, because this ensures we are not repeating topics and also ensures we are building meaningfully on language knowledge.

Planning

We cannot stress enough: Please plan and rehearse your lessons. This will help you create lessons that are structured, flow and are more engaging. This means you are providing more of an opportunity for hill-tribe students to learn English, contributing to a broader and long-term goal of empowering these communities. Lessons will need to follow the provided structure, on display in the volunteer office (see overleaf). Prepare for different levels, i.e. more difficult tasks for more advanced students. Students will get distracted if the work is too easy and begin to distract other students. Your program leader is here to provide support: please ask if you require any assistance.

Record Lessons Online

After you have planned your lesson, record your lesson on the online database, filling in all the fields. Following the lesson, remember to write an evaluation of the lesson. It is essential during lesson planning to refer to previous lesson on the database, so you can build on the students’ learning.

Cultural

Rai Som Learning Centre is a learning hub for the entire community, providing education and hope to around 200 young lives, primarily ethnic Tai Yai children who are indigenous to the area, and other Tai Yai children who have migrated from neighbouring countries. The school, which has been operational for five years, started with bamboo huts as classrooms, but now has permanent structures for learning.

Not only are you teaching in a different country to your own, but with students who have differing cultural understandings and relations to the world. Thus, in our lesson planning, we must be aware of cultural differences and connect to the frame of reference of our students. This makes learning relevant and connected to their reality.

Attitude

A positive attitude is critical to effective teaching. Mirror wants teachers who are willing to reflect on their lessons and learn from mistakes, improving their teaching practice.

Teaching Venue

• Volunteers will generally not be required to teach alone, but this is dependent on numbers registered.
• All volunteers are required to record their lesson plans and record reflections after delivery, in our online database.
• A Thai staff member or intern will accompany you (when available), to support your teaching (i.e. translate instructions / activities, when required).

Learning Styles

Every person is different, and thus learns differently. By using a variety of teaching methods from each of these categories, teachers can accommodate their students’ different learning styles. For example:

Visual learners learn through seeing

best learn through visual aids (using pictures when describing things), diagrams, drawings, hand-outs, writing instructions down.

Auditory learners learn through listening

best learn through listening (lectures, discussions etc.). Methods include repeating words and concepts aloud, incorporating small-group discussion

Kinaesthetic learners learn through moving, doing

best learn through an active exploration of the world, learning through physical engagement such as role play.

Teaching and Activity Schedule

The students have a limited comprehension of English but are eager to learn so it’s important to teach simple, short sentences and limited vocabulary in accordance with curriculum. Use lots of songs and games at the beginning to ensure that the lessons are fun, interactive and use role play to make more interesting. Split into smaller teaching groups for effective learning and classroom management. Learning activities should have basic instructions, keep sentences short, and limit the amount of vocabulary use. Teacher and or intern is always available to help maintain order.

The school schedule runs from 7.30am to 3.30pm, which includes 7.30am – 7.57am clean up together; 7.57am morning assembly in front of the flagpole and or teaching one English vocabulary word per day; 3pm – 3.27pm high five activities with students and finally, dismissal from school at 3.27pm.

Class sizes vary due to holidays, harvesting and sickness

Teaching Tips

• Smile
• Respectively “Wai” the Thai teacher when you arrive
• Try to make the learning fun and playful
• Use simple and concise language. If you are teaching animals, hold a picture of a dog and just say 'dog', not, “this picture here is a dog, see the dog?”
• Speak slowly
• Use images to support your teaching
• Repeat the vocabulary you are teaching many, many times
• Only have one teacher explaining at one given time. Do not confuse the children by having a discussion of what is happening next, you should have rehearsed this already
• If you write on the board, please print, do not use script, the students will not understand
• When you have numerous resources, do not give to the students all at once, just one by one, otherwise they will feel overwhelmed and get confused
• Use small group work when possible. Taking risks in learning language is safer when not in front of a large class.
• For songs and games, ensure that within your planning you have a common version. Songs and games can vary slightly across cultures. Similarly, the noises for animals vary – the Thai noise for a pig is very different to the English– ensure you use the sounds the children know.
• Do not teach vocabulary in the same lesson that is similar in sound because this will confuse the children. Similarly, do not focus on letters that are similar (such as p and q, or b and d).Thai schools teach the alphabet, but students generally only know the alphabet when sung in sequence. If you point out random letters, they will struggle. Let's help develop this skill in our lessons.
• Teach across curriculum areas, i.e. incorporate maths if possible. For example, picking up 8 red pencils.
• The human concentration span is about 15 minutes, so have various activities in your lessons. For example, speak the new vocabulary, write it down, sing a song with them, read a story with them, draw a picture with them. There are many ways to repeat the same vocabulary in different ways to ensure all learning styles are appreciated.

A Thai staff member or Thai/hill-tribe intern will accompany whilst teaching in each class. They have an important role within the teaching program and should be utilized to explain / translate instructions. Their role is to provide support in facilitating the activity or game you are running, so it’s important to involve them within the lesson planning process.

They are not there to teach for you. Seek feedback often from fellow teachers and interns.

Resources

Teaching resources and limited stationery is available in the Meeting Room for your use. Be creative and think 'outside of the box' with how you teach and the resources you use.

Sample of Resources Used and Needed

The types of resources regularly used by volunteers to assist with their teaching and learning activities are:

Arts and Craft

• Coloured paper and card
• Pipe cleaners and foam shapes / letters
• Poster and watercolour paint
• Brightly coloured wool and string
• Stickers and stencils
• Plasticine and chalk
• Balloons and paint brushes
• Games and Toys
• Jigsaw puzzles – easy and advanced
• Wooden toys and building blocks
• Skipping ropes
• Balls
• Frisbee
• Hula hoops
• Bingo and flashcard games

Books

• Learn to read, spell, write
• Early years story books
• Colouring books
• Adolescent and adult reading
• English curriculum text and exercise books

Essential URLS for Volunteer Teachers

Useful Thai Language for Teaching

Appendix 1
Templates for Teaching

Teaching Reflection

Writer:

Date:

Grade:

1. What went well today?

2. What did not go well today? How should we improve it?

3. Other Comments

4. Summary

Teaching Activity Planning

Date:

Grade:

What to Bring: