Chile Forum

The English Opens Doors Volunteer Program, coordinated by the Chilean Ministry of Education and the United Nations Development Programme-Chile, is looking for volunteers to assist with EFL instruction in Chilean public schools. In exchange for their help, volunteers receive training in Santiago, transport to their placement region, a host family stay, and a monthly stipend, Spanish lessons, and more. There are a variety of programs lasting from 10 weeks to 8 months. For more information, read the descriptions below and check out the program's website at http://www.centrodevoluntarios.cl. If you are interested or have any questions, please email volunteers@mineduc.cl.

8, 6 & 4-MONTH PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Volunteers are assigned to public schools in regions throughout Chile, live with host families in their community, and receive a monthly stipend. During the 8, 6 and 4-month placements, volunteers work as English-language teaching assistants to Chilean English teachers for 25 hours per week, and spend an additional 10 hours a week planning classes and leading extra-curricular activities for the school community.
English language instruction begins in the 5th grade and volunteers may be assigned to work with one or more grade levels anywhere from 5th to 12th grade. Volunteers are given their own classroom to work with groups of about 20 students on listening and speaking activities in conjunction with the Chilean English teacher. For many students and teachers, a volunteer is their only opportunity to listen to and practice speaking in English with a native speaker.

SUMMER PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Summer Program volunteers are university students, recent graduates, teachers, or professionals with experience and interest in education. Volunteers act as English-language teaching assistants in public schools in rural and semi-urban communities, which serve children from 1st to 6th or 1st to 12th grades. Depending on their age and teaching experience, volunteers will either work with the Chilean EFL teacher in the same classroom or run their own classrooms in conjunction with the Chilean teacher. Volunteers dedicate 25 hours a week to teaching and 10 additional hours a week to planning lessons and initiating extracurricular activities. During the schools’ two-week winter break in mid-July, volunteers organize and implement additional activities called “Winter School” in the community for interested students, teachers and/or parents.

The link doesn't work!

You're right, Gloria, but I do remember seeing mention of the program, perhaps on the website for MinEduc. You may wish to run a websearch, while I'll see if I can find a "bookmark" for it on my old computer.

Sorry Gloria, I have corrected the link in the posting. The correct address is: http://www.centrodevoluntarios.cl

looks interesting.. although they dont have anything goin on in Concepcion.. or do they?

The time finally came for me to do something a little more constructive with my time other than seeing the beautiful country that is Chile...and of course spending Quality Time with my beautiful wife.. that and the fact she has started her 3 month prac and after such a brilliant summer i suddenly found myself at home with not much to do but watch the idiot box or surf the net.. so i decided to email MinEduc to see if i could volunteer with "english opens doors' but to do it in Concepcion and not in some rural town.. they got back to me and within a fortnight and i am now helping to teach english at a highschool here in Concepcion for about 12-16 hrs a week (Tue-Thurs).. I am very excited as teaching is something close to my heart (have done 3 years B(Ed) in Science).. so will try and keep you all updated about this new experience of mine.. and what eventuates from it..

Please report back. Reviews are golden on the internet.

ok will keep this updated.. so far i am having blast.. the teacher i was assigned to is very nice and is quite innovative and resourceful (the highschool is not the wealthiest and lacks resources).. so she makes do with what she can.. The school has 3 english teachers from what i have gathered but i only do classes with one 4 days a week about 12 hours in total.. start at 8.15am and finish at 12.00pm at the latest so that leaves me plenty of time to do other stuff.. The classes run for 45mins but are mostly 2 classes back to back then a 15 min break.. the worst thing is that i have to wear a white lab coat which i find a little nerdy but then again everyone wears it.. oh and cannot wear sneakers!.. i guess if thats the only negatives i can find then you can assume that its GREAT... my roles is basically to speak english and help the kids develop their conversational skills.. perhaps give them the confidence to speak english.. so far i have spent the week talking about Australia (didnt realise i knew so much..hahaha) and getting to know them. they can certainly ask alot of questions once they get talking.. the most common questions have been what the swear words mean.. and what swear words i can teach them.. no different from school kids in Australia really.. very excited about the months to come and certainly a welcome change from the house husband duties...

How old are the students, Tony? When you learn more about them, perhaps you could tell us something about their backgrounds (I've the impression that all but the poorest of Chilean families send their children to private schools), abilities, enthusiasm (or none) for learning, and anything else you find notable.

I really enjoy teaching -- I think.

RWS wrote:How old are the students, Tony? When you learn more about them, perhaps you could tell us something about their backgrounds (I've the impression that all but the poorest of Chilean families send their children to private schools), abilities, enthusiasm (or none) for learning, and anything else you find notable.

I really enjoy teaching -- I think.

The students are between 14-16years old.. i have 'primero medio y segundo medio' (yr 9 and 10's back home).. from what i have gatered they mostly come from the lower socio economic part of the demographic.. their english is not well developed but they do know alot more than i had first thought.. apparently one of the students got 3rd place at some competition last year ( a spelling contest i think)... enthusiasm for learning english is met with the attitude of 'i will never need/use english' so i guess in that respect its non- existent but when it comes to music/movies they are very keen to know what it means.. makes for great teaching opportunities.. i found that when i talked about Australia they we're silent and listened but as soon as we got onto the Government issued books they lost all interest.. I'll admit this is my first time ever teaching english and have no idea what it all entails (my major in Education was Chemistry and Physics with a minor in Communications) but i find these books quite interesting and have a pretty good approach to getting the kids involved in the learning process.. i could be wrong but thats my initial impression.. it has been fun applying some of the classroom management techniques to the classroom.. works the same here as it does back home.. essentially kids are the sme the world over.. gotta love that

Thanks, Tony! All this is interesting and (I think) will prove useful for me in Valparaíso. Please do continue to keep us up-to-date on your new parttime career. Perhaps you could even post photographs?

a few weeks into it and its been great.. Last week all the volunteers in the region met to talk about problems an mainly to give our initial feedback in regards to the program.. this was a great opportunity to clear any issues that we've encountered and also they gave us an idea of the year ahead.. its also great to be doing what i do here in Concepcion as there is always something to be done alongside MinEduc in order to help.. which suits me.. the other volunteers are mainly in Los Angeles and Chillan and are full-timers.. there are only 2 part timers here in Concepcion but with the hope that the exchange students at U de Conce decide to give their spare time to the program.

As far as being in the school itself, its been great.. i love teaching and i find that the kids have an added enthusiasm in learning if only to impress me.. which is a great feeling.. mind u i have also found that lesson plans are a rare thing and kind of a novelty when suggested to the teacher i am with.. even though she is does have a passion for teaching and is very open to learning new things and methods i have come to understand that her home life isnt conducive to lesson planning or out of hours work.. she is still expected to play out her role as house wife at home.. which in Chile means all the cooking and cleaning and attending to the needs of the husband and children.. so maximum respect to her in my book.. mondays tend to be the worst planned days due to the fact that she has visitors most weekends and has to attend to them leaving her no time or energy to 'plan'.. but this allows me to be helpful to her as i have taken on some extra duties of lesson planning or researching some ideas in motivating the students to actively learn in class.. most students lack the desire to learn english as they see little or no value in it.. which makes it challenging but fun

just an update.. I haven't had any classes in the past 2 weeks due to either strikes by the teachers or strikes by students.. the schools have also been taken over by students.. I woke up very early today and went in just in case there were classes.. and today students didnt show up.. tomorrow from what I gathered the students will be on strike again.. and Wednesday the teachers will be striking too.. which means I may have a class on Thursday.. but from what the school principal was saying, it seems the student will vote to continue their strikes on Thursday .. I may not even get to go back and teach before we move the way things are going..

I have a Question, is there a WAY to get names of your classroom mates from a certain year in Chile. I went to my school website but it doesn't provide much of that I want to know the names of my classmates =(, I'm feeling pretty nostalgic right now, I want to GET in contact with THEM, I need a Chilean DIRECTORY =DDFADFKJ

HELP PLZZ