Posted by Global Work And Service Team on Thu, Jan 26, 2012
Guest Post by
Betsy Bruneau
Help Me Teach Desk
GeoVisions
So, you are traveling to a new country to teach conversational English as a member of the Conversation Corps or as a Conversation Partner! What an opportunity. If you don't already know, soon you will learn where you are staying and the age of your "students." Now it’s just a matter of figuring out what to cover while you are there.
My name is Betsy Bruneau and I am a teacher of English language learners. I have worked with children of every age and have also taught adult education. And I also run the Help Me Teach desk here at GeoVisions. I'm here to help you with very particular issues. All of the help I provide during your program is specific to your own situation. Feel free to email me anytime.
I can honestly say that there are advantages for teaching every age. Even if you are working with students in a capacity that you did not expect, chances are you can find your niche with them. Remember to have fun. This is an adventure in teaching conversational English so it is less formal and the possibilities are endless.
If you are teaching children of any age, be sure to check with their parents and guardians to determine what they expect from your stay. You can do that even before you depart your home country. Often, they will want you to work on a specific skill in order to prepare their children for an upcoming task, test or visit to an English speaking area. If you are teaching adults, the same applies. Several of the tutors who are teaching adults right now are preparing them for a component of their job or an upcoming test.
The first couple of days may be awkward but try to imagine yourself welcoming a tutor into your own home. They will want to know a lot about you. So bring some personal affects with you. They will, most likely, be interested in seeing pictures of your family and friends. They will also want to see the region of the country from where you come. Bring postcards of places you have visited or pictures of your hometown. Bring American magazines and newspapers. If you are teaching teenagers, they would probably love to see more about how American or Canadian teenagers live. If they are interested in sports, music, art, etc., bring media that
focuses on that area.
Be prepared to answer questions about your life here. They may want to know about government or politics. They may want to know what the fascination is with American sports or the Kardashians. There are so many possibilities. Be sure to brush up on the goings on of the country that you will be visiting. This will allow for some back and forth between you and your family and also reassure them that you are interested in their lives and their country.
A few years ago my family hosted a sixteen year old from Germany for the academic year. We spent the first couple of days just finding out about each other and sharing pictures. We talked about favorite meals, pastimes, hobbies, etc. We talked about the expectations that we had of each other. It was not awkward because we didn’t rush into anything. Try to take your host family’s lead. And when you arrive, arrive prepared to show your hosts that you are serious about this venture.
Most of all, have fun.
I hope to be hearing from you when you're on your project if you need any help. And if you want to reach out before you depart, do that too. I spend a lot of my time working with GeoVisions participants even before they leave for their assignment. Don't be shy!
Posted by Randy LeGrant on Fri, Jan 20, 2012
I'm not sure where I found the Blog, A Little Adrift by Shannon O'Donnell. I'm glad I did. I highly recommend her travel Blog. She started traveling in 2008 on an around the world trip. Now she travels at her own pace and documents everything that happens on the road.
Shannon wrote a post about Feynan Ecolodge located in Jordan's Dana Biosphere Reserve. I was thrilled to see the post because GeoVisions has an incredible Conversation Partner program at the Feynan Ecolodge. We supply them with English tutors for the staff. And by staff I mean front desk workers, maids, restaurant workers and even the guides.
As the post points out, we need English tutors to live at the Ecolodge to help staff with their conversational English. And if you're looking for a place to recharge the batteries, look no further than Feynan.
If you any interest in Jordan, conversational English, ecolodges or finding a place to just "be" and have time to disconnect from the Internet, Feynan is a great place. I hope you'll read Shannon's post about her experience at Feynan. She posted some great photos too!
This is a great time to revisit Pico Iyer's NY Times piece last December entitled "The Joy of Quiet." Iyer writes, "Nothing makes me feel better — calmer, clearer and happier — than being in one place, absorbed in a book, a conversation, a piece of music. It’s actually something deeper than mere happiness: it’s joy, which the monk David Steindl-Rast describes as “that kind of happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.”
If you read Shannon's post about her experience at Feynan and then take a look at Iyer's article, and if you have any desire at all to travel to Jordan, contact us. We can put you up at Feynan Ecolodge and make sure your room and your meals are covered. We only as 20 hours a week of your time to help all of the staff there speak conversational English. And as you see in these articles, you'll gain much more than you give.
Posted by Randy LeGrant on Wed, Jan 18, 2012
It isn't often I'm at a loss for words. I can find a subject to write about easily. And I've no problem wading into a controversial issue. But when Sara in our office introduced me to Lawrence Mattingly's Blog about his trips with GeoVisions (yes, trips as in plural) I was speechless. You just have to see this.
First of all, let me just humbly say that when an organization provides a "big ticket item" we don't expect people to come back again and again. Most of our volnteers and teachers use GeoVisions as a spring board to help them reach goals. They do magnificently. We don't see them again.
Lawrence went to the Galapagos with us. And now he's in Chile with GeoVisions. When our volunteers and teachers choose GeoVisions, we listen. When someone like Lawrence goes twice and then writes the kind of Blog he's writing, we sit straight up.
I'm in Washington, DC right now on a business trip. And I'm meeting one of our volunteers today who will be leaving for China soon. We like to meet as many volunteers and teachers as possible. It helps us understand their goals, their needs, their drive. I'm going to learn a lot this afternoon from Martin, who is leaving soon for China for 6 months to be a volunteer teacher. Wow. So I could go on and on about the Martins and Lawrences of the world.
Instead, I'll head out to the station and provide a link to Lawrence's Blog. Hundreds of photos, an incredible job, I'm so envious of his Blogging ability and when you read some of his posts and find out more about Lawrence and also realize he's on his 2nd volunteer journey, you will be blown away. His Blog is not like others you have seen.
So, I'd like to introduce Lawrence Mattingly to you, and his blog Wandering Whim. Please click the link, sit back and enjoy.
Posted by Randy LeGrant on Tue, Jan 10, 2012
Terri Wingham (A Fresh Chapter) is leaving today for Vietnam with GeoVisions on an incredible 6-month journey to volunteer abroad. I spoke with Terri a few hours ago going over the details of her program for 29 days in Ha Noi, Da Nang and Ho-Chi-Minh City.
Two years ago, Terri found out she had cancer. I use the past tense because she is a survivor today. And what Terri is on her way to do is "volunteer on almost every continent as a way to generate awareness of the challenges of survivorship and build partnerships with the best volunteer organizations in the industry."
We are thrilled that the first month of Terri's journey will be with GeoVisions. We wish her safe travels today, until she lands in Ha Noi and is met by our staff on the ground there. We have connected her with hospitals and cancer survivor centers to interact with adults and children who have cancer and to talk to survivors. We have her taking time with Doctors and nurses in the cancer field in Vietnam. We have her spending time at the Ho-Chi-Minh City Hospital to participate in play sessions with children there who have cancer and spending a lot of time with cancer survivors.
GeoVisions came to the party late. We normally take about 60-days to put a program like this together for someone. We did this one in less than a month. So...Terri knows there are some loose ends. Not to forget the fact that she's in Vietnam during the Lunar New Year with schools and organizations shut for over a week. Ugh.
PLEASE watch Terri's 2 minute video below. You will instantly see why we jumped on board to put something together at the last minute for Terri, and why we believe so strongly in what she is doing. You will see why we are humbled to be involved in Terri's Big Dream.
I truly hope you enjoy this short video and please join me in wishing Terri a safe flight and a successful month in Vietnam to launch her six months of volunteering abroad.
Posted by Randy LeGrant on Mon, Jan 09, 2012
Scott has just arrived in Spain for GeoVisions' Conversation Corps Spain program. He'll be in Spain for 2 months tutoring children and living with a host family.
As you can see from Scott's journal entry this past weekend, he has fallen in love. Well, like everyone else, he has fallen in love with the food in Spain.
We are thrilled Scott is already writing his online journal with GeoVisions' Community Pages, and he's only been in Spain 3 days! We can't wait for him to write more when he actually starts his lessons with the children...which in fact happens today. "The kids go back to school tomorrow, which means I also start teaching my classes! I'm pretty excited to do this. I looked through their English books today, and its basically the same as my Spanish books have been, just in English."
Until then, Scott says, "So yeah, thats what I have been up to. Eating, drinking wine, playing soccer, and playing video games. Life is great."
If you're interested in reaching out to Scott, here in the link to his online journal. Even if you're not a member of the Community Pages, you can still "shout out" to him. And we'll stay in touch with Scott because we're eager to know how it goes when the kids come home from school.
Posted by Randy LeGrant on Wed, Jan 04, 2012
We have this amazing program in Thailand (for degree holders or not) to Teach in Thailand. You will earn a full time salary and have great benefits.
Or, you can join the Conversation Corps and live with a family and teach them conversational English on Conversation Corps-Thailand.
Or, you can come to a summer camp and be a camp counselor (coming soon) and during all of the activities with the kids, you'll speak English.
And maybe learn a little Thai.
And learn all about Mai-Pen-Rai.
Watch the video and contact us. We have families along the coast waiting for you, and 150 full time teaching jobs available each month.
Enjoy the video. It only takes 3 minutes and it's amazing!
Mai-Pen-Rai!
Posted by Randy LeGrant on Tue, Jan 03, 2012
GeoVisions founded the
Conversation Corps in 2007. The Conversation Corps is a program whereby you agree to live with a host family (currently we have host families eager to learn English in 22 countries) and teach them conversational English or help the children in the family with their English homework. Or both. But for doing this you get free room and board for 1, 2 or even 3 months.
Founding something like the Corps, we needed to be certain we provide a great deal of support to the hundreds of "live-in tutors" out there in so many different countries. If you join the Corps, you can expect to find help anywhere you turn.
Our own text, "A Tutor's Guide--Teaching English To Families and Children," is available for download. We do this because we want you to read it online and print the pages you really want to bring with you when you travel. Plus, that keeps the program fee low and it's the "GREEN" thing to do this year.- Premium membership at the ESL Lounge. Here you can download worksheets, games, flash cards, lesson plans…you name it. You can use this service before you go and while you're with your host family and it's completely free.
- Blog posts tagged Help Me Teach. These posts are actual emails from our tutors abroad who write with very specific questions concerning some really unique situations. In these Help Me Teach posts, we provide the email from the tutor and the response from Betsy, our ESL teacher, who mans the Help Me Teach Desk.
- Help Me Teach is a service we offer, normally with 24 hour turn around. If you have a unique situation with the family and need some highly specific ideas to make your lessons go better, simply write your email to helpmeteach@geovisions.org. Betsy will respond with tailor-made suggestions, and coming from an ESL teacher, you can rest assured the suggestions are helpful.
And because host families are more interested in conversation rather than grammar, lessons can be lots of fun. And of course, it is impossible to stay away from Colloquialisms--those informal (almost slang) phrases we take for granted in the U.S. If you are having a meal with your host family you might just blurt out, "That meal was great but we're going to need a lot of elbow grease to clean the plates." Your hosts may look at you as if you have 12 heads.
Language in many other countries is more formal and sometimes have a lot of usage rules. In English (especially conversational English) native speakers will easily lapse into informal English, and that is when the fun begins.
Sometimes Colloquialisms are geographical in the U.S. In the Northeast we "take" someone to the movies. In some places in the south they "carry" that same person to the movies.
We thought it would be fun to list the Colloquialisms our tutors have written to us about, which have created the most laughter at a family dinner table or in an informal class. We would love for you to add your own in our comments section below. As you read the Colloquialisms below (highlighted in red) imagine people listening to you who have no knowledge of these everyday, informal phrases and imagine the look on their faces when they hear:
- I guess we'll have to browbeat you to go with us.
- I just dumped my sweetheart.
- I just got a serious tongue-lashing.
- Don't buy him a beer, he's a hothead.
- When I looked out they were necking at the front door.
- I just don't want her to badmouth me.
- I just had a brainstorm.
- Wow! What a brownnose.
He is very headstrong.- Can you believe that egghead? (knucklehead, numbskull)
- What a great belly laugh.
- I think she just gave me the evil eye.
- We're going to have to knuckle under.
- Her hope chest is large.
- Have you ever seen a one-armed bandit?
- Keep a stiff upper lip.
- People are different in this neck of the woods.
- She's a bleeding heart.
- You're skin and bones.
- Give me a little elbow room, will ya?
- It happened in the blink of an eye.
- Now I have to go face the music.
- You are going to have to toe the line.
- I'd rather meet face to face.
- We went toe-to-toe over that.
- That stone is like a baby's bottom.
- When they questioned us, I got fingered.
- She broke my heart. (She must have a heart of stone.)
- You are a sight for sore eyes.
- Just made it by the skin of my teeth.
- You are the apple of my eye.
- He has no stomach for it.
- I'm having a bad hair day.
- Zip your lip.
- Just eyeball it.
- Can I have that last ear of corn?
Language is fun. And using Colloquialisms can lead to some great lessons around a dinner table or in a classroom. And a lot of laughter. As a former teacher, I found when you combine laughter and a lesson...the lesson is rarely forgotten.
So what do you say? Don't get all
up in arms about it. That new Colloquialism is right on the
tip of your tongue. You can write it in a comment box in the
blink of an eye. Go ahead,
I've got your back.
Posted by Randy LeGrant on Thu, Dec 29, 2011
We're here at the end of the year and I'm going through a lot of travel journals from our volunteers in 2011. There are a lot of great journals in our Community Pages.
One of my favs was by Lauren Linares. Her journal, Vino,Besos y Mas, was joy to read. I am linking to her final entry entitled Ciao for Now. But if you check it out, take a look at her other posts and photos as well. But Ciao For Now provides a great list of "I will miss" sentences.
For example, Lauren will miss the olives, the kisses goodnight from the children she tutored on our program, "Live With A Family In Spain And Teach Them English."
If you plan to go to Spain with GeoVisions, this travel journal is a great place to start. Even if you're going elsewhere, try starting here and then browse through the subgroups where we have more journals from other countries.
Live With A Family In Spain And Teach Them English is a great opportunity to teach English in Spain but have the security of a host family and 3 meals each day. It's a great way to travel to Spain or teach in Spain.
Did you know this program is one of the very few with a "low season" price?
Try to beat 1 month is Spain, living with a family and teaching them English, 3 meals each day and your own room for $895. Yep. Under $900 for the month. And if you can stay for 3 months the fee is $970…less than $100 more for 60 more days. At 3 months, you're spending $11 per day. Try to live and eat in your apartment for that!
Seriously. Check out Lauren's journal and then the program and maybe I'll see you in Spain real soon!
In the meantime, here are some interesting Blogs and posts about living and teaching in Spain I came across and recommend:
Teaching English in Spain: An Interview with Cat Gaa (Part 2)
The Truth About Teaching English In Spain And Beyond
Posted by Randy LeGrant on Mon, Dec 26, 2011
On December 12, Edudemic ran a Blog post we really liked by Jeff Dunn, the Executive Director of Edudemic. They produce a monthly iPad magazine about education and technology. We follow Jeff on Twitter (@Edudemic) because we work with hundreds of teachers each year, placing them in full time teaching positions in Thailand, China, S. Korea and soon in Vietnam and Japan. Their content on the Blog, Twitter and their Facebook page is helpful.
The most recent post we loved was "50 Must-See Teacher Blogs Chosen By You." My brother-in-law is a Math teacher in New York City, and I didn't see his Blog in the list and so I'm going to suggest you take a look at JD2718. It's a great Blog for teachers, especially if you're teaching in New York City.
Because GeoVisions is interested in teach abroad and especially paid teach abroad, I looked through Edudemic's top 50 to see if I could find some Blogs to pass along to our teachers abroad and those getting ready to go overseas and teach. Here is a short list from Edudemic's list of the top 50:
A Journée In Language by Brad Peterson. A great Blog about Etymology and quite a few posts that can help you prepare to teach English abroad.
On of the most incredible and information-rich Blogs on the list for our teachers is An A-Z of ELTby Scott Thornbury. Scott is the author of An A-Z of ELT, an encyclopedia-dictionary of terminology relating to English language and English language teaching. It was published by Macmillan. The Blog is a great online resource if you're headed overseas to teach English as a foreign language. Scott also teaches an online MA TESOL program for the New York School System. He lives in Spain.
English Raven by Jason Renshaw is an interesting Blog. Great posts on getting kids to Blog. And frankly, the best way to teach a language is to have students use it in all sorts of ways, and an online Blog where your students assist is a great way to reinforce language.
Language Moments by Dale Coulter is a great Blog that was a featured Teaching English Blog of the month by the British Council. I loved the lesson plan on using iPhones in the classroom.
I think if you're going to teach abroad, you want to try to find Blogs and Facebook pages that support what you want to accomplish. Read from people who have already gone before you and leave clues to your success. Get involved with their social communities. All good use of your time before you teach in Thailand or teach in South Korea.
I hope you can use some of these ideas. I hope you'll follow Edudemic on Twitter or like them on Facebook.
Do you follow Blogs or Facebook Pages we should also list? Can you recommend them here so we can share?
Posted by Randy LeGrant on Thu, Dec 22, 2011
On December 16, USA Today ran an article entitled Facebook Timeline: 9 Things You Need To Know. Timeline attempts to take your data (text, video, photos, wall posts and links) and turn it into a digital scrapbook.
I case you haven't seen a Timeline, here is what mine looks like. (We are a wild and crazy TaeKwon-Do family of 4 Blackbelts and a green belt.)
Anyway, if you're going to volunteer abroad and live with a host family (90% of our programs involve living with a host family) the first thing you should notice is, ta da, the time line over on the far right.
If I am going to have you live in my home with my kids, I am going to start clicking on those dates and look at what you were writing and posting and then take a look at those photos you were sharing with the world.
There are scrapbooks that sit in your closet and you show your best friend every so often. And then there are digital scrapbooks that just never go away and everyone on the planet can see them. Your Facebook Timeline is one of those types of scrapbooks.
So how much can your new potential host family really see if they click the years you were crazy in college? According to the USA Today article, "Your privacy settings on old posts will remain. A post shared four years ago that was set to be viewable to just friends will continue to be viewable to just friends. The only concern here lies in how a user's definition of friend has changed. A photo or status update that in college that was OK for friends might not be OK for friends now, which might include coworkers." So you really do want to go back in all those posts and photos and make sure you have your settings exactly right.
On the other side of the coin, and something you really do want to think about, is having some of your posts and your photos available for everyone to see. Why? Potential employers are going to go through your site for sure. And your potential host family will also want to rifle through your photos. If you have some set for the entire world to see, you will be directing exactly who sees what and when. Would you rather have your new employer or your new host family see your talent for chugging beer, or loving man's best friend? You can really use the new Timeline feature to put your best...um...lips forward.
You can also go back into your photo library and upload photos from your youthier youth, date them and have them appear in the right year. This makes your Facebook Timeline a great way to showcase yourself to employers and host families. Dedicate a weekend to bringing Facebook up to date with your life. Decide who can see what photos and posts and Timeline can be a great advantage in your life. All you have to do is find that photo of you volunteering in a local park, upload it to Facebook, adjust the date to 2007, and it will appear in the proper order in the new Timeline.
Another item you will want to use is expanding on important posts. According to the article, "The Activity Log is the best place to edit a Timeline. Facebook has built a very helpful new page called the Activity Log, which can be accessed from a profile page, that shows every single piece of content Facebook has from a user. Each item can be deleted or tweaked from this page." So now you can expand on your posts about your graduation, what you want to do with your life, why you want to volunteer abroad or teach abroad and how great of an addition you are going to make to your new host family.
Lastly, make sure you use the "Only Me" feature. As you're editing your Timeline, if you find something you simply cannot part with but you don't want ANYONE to see, mark it as visible to "Only Me." Double check that, and then you're good to go.
Everyone needs to understand that what you put on the Internet stays on the Internet. Facebook is letting you control who sees what, but you need to make time every now and then to tweak your settings and keep yourself safe.
Anyone out there using Timeline in a creative way? Do you have other ideas to share that would make it a useful tool for getting a job or convincing your new host family they are going to love you?