Volunteers will teach and reinforce the English classes for children aging from 6 to 14 years in the schools that are mostly public but sometimes private run by the church. The schools have at least basic facilities but schools in rural areas tend to be more basic that schools in towns and cities so volunteers might need to bring some basic materials to work with and also have their own ideas to work with the children and even to hold the classes alone.

Another problem for the schools is that probably 95% of the English teachers can´t speak English and their classes are normally built up around them reading from a book while the children repeat or copy in their notebook. Due to this the children don't learn to much as it is too hard and boring for them so volunteers needs to help showing them an easy and fun way of teaching/learning if possible.

Another problem that comes with this is that it is sometimes hard for volunteers to communicate with the teacher if they don't have good Spanish and they need to think about not making the teacher look bad in front of the students. For example if they have ideas or want to correct the teacher they should do this face to face and not in front of the class.

Most of the time volunteers have flexibility in their teaching methods; for example, volunteers can organize excursions to teach English outside of the classroom but of course they have to organize this together with the staff in the school as they should not go alone with the students. It is not important that the volunteers have experience in teaching but they need to have an open mind, flexibility and creativity as the schools in Ecuador don't always have fixed schedules for everything and they might need to create some school materials and exercises for the children to work with during classes.

Volunteers often have to use their own ideas and imagination to move on in the projects. Due to the lack of materials and many times even a good work plan they can't expect to be given a schedule so they need to be forward, take initiative and show that they are willing to help. Volunteers that normally do the best are the ones that have great ideas about making flash cards, quizzes, games and similar as the children loves to have fun. The whiteboard is often an excellent tool to work with and many things can be done with this and a marker only.

To be able to realize their ideas of songs, games, quizzes etc volunteers have to be prepared to buy their own materials or make copies as the schools normally don't have any chance to help with this.

Even though volunteers are mostly needed for English they are also welcome to help in all the other subjects like Mathematics, Sport, Geography, Spanish etc. This is sometimes harder due to lack of Spanish but important as volunteers can get to know the children faster and better as well as they can improve their own Spanish and in that way help better.

Depending on the volunteers skills, personality, knowledge and on what help is mostly needed at the time the volunteers might help with:

-Assist and teach English. This is what they need most help with
-Help preparing materials for the students and their classes
-Assist and teach other subjects like mathematics, computer, geography, art etc
-Assist during possible excursions made by the school
-Help to prepare and go on excursions with the children to different destinations
-Help the children in after school activities like football, basketball, art, chess etc

The schools that we work with are spread all over Ecuador, from the Amazon to the Andes, the Coast and the Galapagos Islands.

Volunteers work Monday to Friday and classes take place from about 07:00 to 13:00 but this can vary a bit from school to school depending on location. For example schools in the Indigenous communities sometimes start first at 08:00 as many of the students have to walk very long to get to the school.

The biggest obstacle is normally communication problems due to lack of Spanish but personality is as important so here are some things that we know works best for this kind of project though there are plenty of exceptions:

-Volunteers that do best are normally the ones that understand that they are in a different country with other culture and traditions than "back home"
-Volunteers that expect a fixed schedule to work after will get disappointed most of the time as the teachers doesn’t even have this all the time
-Volunteers that only want to help with English will have a lot of "dead hours" as English is just one of many subjects in school
-There are often a lack of material and books in the schools so volunteers most often need to create their own materials and ideas to work after
-Maybe 5% of the English teachers can have a conversation in English so don't count on this to be the case in your school
-The volunteers that have done best are not the ones with experience of teaching but the ones with best imagination to create fun ways to teach through games, songs, flash cards etc. Remember that children learns best if they enjoy the class
-Both children and teachers can be a bit shy if they ddon'tont know you or hear you speak Spanish so give them some time but don't forget to show them that you are interested in knowing them as well