WorldTeach - Chile Year-Long Volunteer Teaching Program Sample Placements

We asked our Chile volunteers to describe the communities in which they live and schools in which they teach. We hope these samples will give you a picture of life as a WorldTeach volunteer in Chile, but please keep in mind as you read these that every site is unique. Your experience will be what you make of it!

Community
Valparaíso is an urban, coastal city, with a population of 320,000. It is a significant tourist destination with at least two universities. Viña del Mar is a 15-minute ride away and Santiago is roughly a 70 minute bus ride away.

Host School
At the host school there are about 85 teachers, including 7 English teachers. There are 1,800 students from grade primero to cuarto medio. Nearly 500 students are primeros and ages range from 14 to 18. For all ages, the English proficiency level is extremely low. There are 25 to 35 classrooms in total, and each classroom has a very large whiteboard. Digital projectors and speakers are available for use, but there is no printer for general teacher use. The sub-director has an office printer that I use.

Teaching Assignment
My busiest day has 4 classes; my lightest day has 1 class plus English workshop. The students have English twice a week for 90 minutes, so the way we worked it out is that I take each half of the class once a week for 60 minutes, because 90 minutes is just too long.

Vacations do not come too often; we get the occasional Chilean holiday, plus the two-week winter vacation in July.

The level of my classes is Low Basic. Some of the kids have had 4 years of English, but their ability to use what they've learned is equivalent to the kids who haven't learned anything. That is, they may know a bunch of words, but can't produce or understand a sentence, nor do anything like introduce themselves. There are exceptions, but those amount to 2-4 students in a 45-student class, and even their level will be very low.

My co-teacher is Marcela Gonzalez Flores. We don't coordinate the material we teach, but other than that we talk at least briefly every day. She's pretty good about telling me stuff I need to know.

Living Arrangements
I live in a blended family. My host parents are in their mid-50s and late 40s and my host mom's grandmother and host dad's son (age 13) live with us full-time. My host mom's two sons (age 11 and 17) come for weekends or weeks.

Another WorldTeach volunteer and I each have our own rooms, right next to each other, with our own bathroom and reliable, truly hot water. Our end of the house is a bit chilly.

My school is at the bottom of the hill, about a 10-minute ride on public transit. Other parts of town can be an additional 5-15 minutes away, but generally anything I want to get to, I can get to in 20-30 minutes from the house.

Language Issues
My level of Spanish when I arrived was pretty high; I learned it well in school, and lived in Mexico for 3 months at one point. 4 and a half months after my arrival in Santiago, 3 and a half months after arrival at placement, I'm doing quite well overall. My frustrations have to do with being away from my supportive routines at home, rather than with cultural friction.

My greatest challenge has been being unable to practice aikido, the martial art I've been doing for the past 7 years. I keep exploring opportunities for it, and I keep getting shut down. It's important in helping me feel mentally balanced, so it's been hard to live without it (enough so that I'll go 2.5 hours on a Saturday morning to go train in Santiago, with some regularity).

My greatest rewards are the relationships I have with the students. They're great, great kids, and we've all worked really hard to understand each other and create a working classroom environment with boundaries and expectations very different from what they're used to. We clearly like each other, and they understand that the discipline stuff that I do is for keeping an orderly classroom, and is nothing personal about them.

WorldTeach History
I'm the first WorldTeach volunteer in my site, and the first volunteer, period. They seem pretty happy with me, though.

Community:

Catapilco is a rural location with 2,000 to 2,500 people in El Pueblo and 500 people in Hacienda. The Andes Mountains are visible from the town and the weather is dry, arid, generally clear, sunny and warm. In town there is one small supermarket and many small house/fruit stand combinations. By my house there are two fruit stands. By bus or car it is twenty minutes to Maitencillo or to La Ligua. A little further, one hour and 30 minutes by bus, is Viña del Mar/ Valparaíso. Most common occupations for locals are farming, ranching, and landscaping.

Host school:
I have two schools, in Catapilco there are 9 teachers total with 1 English Teacher. In Hacienda there are 8 teachers total with 1 English Teacher. In Catapilco I teach about 300 kids, grades 1-8, at the beginner/intermediate level. In Hacienda I teach 100 kids who are beginners in grades 4-6. There are 8 classrooms in Catapilco and 5 classrooms in Hacienda. Both Catapilco and Hacienda have white boards, chalk boards, books, textbooks, computers with internet, cd players, LCD player/screen, and markers.

Teaching Assignment :
Daily Schedule

Monday: 8-5 pm (Catapilco)

Tuesday: Off.

Wednesday: Off.

Thursday: 8-630 pm (Catapilco)

Friday: 830-1pm (Hacienda)

The first semester started in April and went until the first week of July. Official vacation consists of Winter Break and 2 weeks in July. Second Semester begins in the last week of July and goes until the end of November. My Co-teacher is Marcelo Luciano Fernandez. At Catapilco, we co-teach grades 1-4 and we split grades 5-8. At Hacienda we co-teach all three grades, 4-6.

Living Arrangements:
My host family is a couple, both in their 50´s, and we live in Hacienda. There is also one dog and one cat. They live in Hacienda. My home is a modest house, built by my host father. It has 6 rooms: three bedrooms, one living room, kitchen, and bathroom. We have a big backyard, shared with the mother of my host dad, who lives next door. In our backyard we have 10 sheep and 6 roosters, at night neighborhood dogs come to play with our dog. Next door there are two horses. In another lot they have 12 cows and two horses. In the shower there is minimal to no hot water, ¨tepid¨ would be the best way to describe it. In the sinks, however, there is hot water. My host father is a landscaper and my host mother is a housemom, who has her own flower business. We have papaya, avocado, fig, and membrillo plants. They grow their own artichoke, lettuce, and tomatoes. Living in Hacienda, I am 15 steps from the school (where I teach on Fridays); it is located directly in front of my house. To Catapilco, it is a 20-30 minute walk, or 5 minute drive.

Language issues:
When I arrived my Spanish skills were advanced. Over the past months I have learned much more, especially the way the Chileans speak Spanish.

Greatest Challenges:
1. Arranging solid lesson plans.
2. Classroom management, especially controlling noise and invigorating their attention span.

Greatest Rewards:
1. Seeing my students produce what I have taught them.
2. Gaining actual teaching experience, alone, on my own.
3. Chile´s culture in the form of literature, music, dance, clothing, food, history, and people.
4. Chile´s coastline, trees, and rivers.

Community

I work and teach in two different communities. I teach in Punchuncavi, a rural town with a population of approximately 13,000 people. Punchuncavi lies in between the hills and the coast; it is not on the coast but about 20 minutes by bus in both directions (north and south) to the beach. The town is small; there are some restaurants, a consultorio, the high school, a plaza, and a church, among other things. Punchuncavi is 1.5 hours north of Viña del Mar and within 25 minutes of many small coastal towns as well, including Las Ventanas, Maintencillo, La Laguna, Quintero, Cachagua and Zapallar. I live in El Rungue, which is a pueblito (strip of houses along the side of the road) about 5 minutes north of Puchuncavi by bus. There is one restaurant, an elementary school and a botillería. I estimate that the population is no more than 500. Most people around here work in the campo, on farms, as fishermen, as construction workers or work in the nearby factories in Las Ventanas.

School

There are two high school English teachers and one Elementary school English teacher. I would estimate that there are between 20 and 30 teachers here. The school has all grades, 1º basico through 4º medio. I have my own classroom with a white board, access to speakers, dry erase markers, construction paper, and any other supplies that I need.

Teaching Assignment

Mondays: class from 830-10AM, 11-1145, 230-315

Tuesdays/Thursdays: 830-130AM, 230-4

Wednesdays: 830-10AM, 12-130

I only have 2 weeks of winter vacation and the occasional 3 day weekend. When I began teaching, my students had very basic English skills. I started at the beginning, and that has been a good starting point. I do the division model with all of my classes and make my own lesson plans outside of my co-teacher’s class. We do not meet to make lessons but we talk about the behavior problems of our students. We don’t actually teach the same subjects at the same time. My co-teachers are Karen Viarroel and Alexis Prado.

Living Arrangements

My host family consists of my two host parents (probably in their late 50s), my host grandma (84), and my host brother (27). My host parents have two other children, both daughters, who are married with one kid each and who live up the road and visit often. I have my own room, and though it is small, it is perfectly sufficient. I have access to internet though it does not always work. We all share the same bathroom but that has never proved to be a problem. There is no heat in the house and not really hot water, therefore showering has become a rarity. I am 5 minutes by bus from my school and the bus stop is across the street from my house. Everything that I need, i.e. school supplies, supermarket, phone cards, chocolate, the discoteque, consultorio, police station, is in Puchuncavi. I have access to a vegetable stand and a botillería in El Rungue. To go to a real supermarket, I have to go to Viña del Mar, which is 1.5 hours by bus.

Language Issues

I had a very low level of Spanish when I arrived but I knew how to communicate some things. I’m completely able to get anything that I need, nonetheless, I am limited in what and how and I communicate. There are a lot of things I still don’t understand or know exactly how to say but I am still very functional and independent.

Greatest Challenges: the food, culture shock, classroom management

Greatest Rewards: getting to see a beautiful country, experiencing the importance of the Chilean family, learning Chilean, students coming to my room in between classes to chat

WorldTeach History

There has been one volunteer before me in my school for 3 or 4 months only. And before in my home stay, there were 4 others.

I live in Cachagua, a small town of about 800 people on the coast of Chile. It’s a really beautiful town with an awesome beach and an island with penguins! I spend most of my time walking on the beach and there’s also hiking in the hills along the coast. It’s a quiet town during most of the year but apparently it’s very busy during the summer when all the people come from Santiago to vacation on the beach. By bus, it takes me about an hour to get to a real city (an hour and a half to get to Viña del Mar and Valparaiso), but I have friends that live less than a 30 minute bus ride away.

I work at two different schools. The first school, Cachagua, is in my home town. There are about 150 students from first grade to eighth grade and 10 teachers. The school is really nice; there are whiteboards in every classroom and most have a video projector. The other school is more rurally located and has only 70 kids from first grade to sixth grade and 7 teachers. Each class has its own classroom and all rooms have whiteboards. At both schools my co-teacher and I are the only English teachers.

I work three days a week: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Mondays I’m at the rural school from 8AM to 2PM teaching grades first, second, and third. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I get to school at 8AM and leave at 6PM. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are long days, but it’s worth it to have four day weekends. We have a winter vacation for two weeks in July and a day off here and there. For the most part my schedule is pretty regular and there haven’t been any strikes this year. My students are mostly at the beginning level of English, they know some words (colors and numbers) but I started at square one with them. My co-teacher and I divide the class for the 90 minute class and take each half for forty five minutes. We discuss what we are working on with the class but for the most part we each teach to our own themes and lesson plans.

I live with a host mom and a host dad who are close to my grandparents’ age. They have four kids but all of them are grown up and live in Santiago. I have my own room and my own bathroom with hot water for the shower! My house is less than a ten minute walk from the school in my town and I have to take a bus to get to my other school.

When I first arrived to Chile, I’d had eight years of Spanish class but not a lot of practice in real situations. I was nervous to speak but learning Spanish was a big part of why I decided to come here. As of now (almost 5 months since my arrival) my Spanish and my understanding has improved greatly. One of the most notable changes is my willingness to speak. I am not longer shy about speaking and I feel much more confident when I converse with people. I still have a long way to go but I am definitely encouraged by the progress I have already made.

My greatest challenge so far has been with classroom management. I knew that teaching in Chile would not be like teaching in the U.S. but I was not prepared for how different it would be. Also, I teach younger children and sometimes I feel more like a babysitter than an English teacher, but I’ve had to be more creative and come up with games and songs that little kids can understand and have fun with. I’ve also had to get over my hesitancy to be firm in the classroom, it’s more important to have control than to be the nice guy (or girl). Over time I’ve developed new ways to teach and keep order in the classroom and things have improved since the beginning.

My rewards have been great, both personal and work-related. It feels great to know that I can travel anywhere in Chile and feel confident that I can get around and communicate on my own. When I first arrived everything seemed scary and so different and now I realize that it’s not so different and it’s not scary at all because I have confidence in myself and my ability to communicate with others. I also love it when my students come up to me and say “hello miss, how are you?” and when I ask them how they are and they reply “awesome!”- that makes me so happy. Also, my students want to come to my classroom and if anything, I am happy to know that they are enjoying English class and will want to continue studying English in the future.

There have been volunteers in my community (both school and home) but they were not WorldTeach volunteers and they were only there for three months each.