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Teaching English to the conservation community in Chiapas, México

Sumary

Theme: Teaching English for the specific purpose of improving marketing, communications and fundraising within the conservation community in Chiapas Placement Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico. Requeriments: This is an ideal program for individuals wishing to put to use their knowledge of NGO management and to gain firsthand experience working with Mexican NGOs. The volunteers’ primary responsibility is Teaching English as a Second Language with the goal of helping NGOs in the local conservation community with marketing, fundraising and communications with Englishspeaking partners. Project language: English primarily, working knowledge of Spanish preferred Highlights: In the last ten years, Ecobiosfera - a small, local nonprofit organization formed by conservation practitioners and scientific researchers - has been collaborating with the management of El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve as well with community groups to achieve conservation and local community development through tourism. Ecobiosfera’s birding trips to El Triunfo, with 400 species of birds, are well known among the international bird-watching community. Short description: The Ecobiosfera Project was designed to improve the skills of the Chiapas conservation community, specifically NGO leaders and staff. The training program uses immersion methods as well traditional classroom methods. Volunteers and students will invest at least nine weeks of intensive training on conversational English, fundraising and marketing for their nonprofit organizations.

Date of start June through August 2010, September through November 2010 Volunteers needed 4 Duration Minimum 11 weeks Prices (In US dollars) 11 weeks $ 3,400 Additional month $ 900 Book online    Other projects Biomonitoring at El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve Promoting fair trade of organic coffee at CESMACH

 

Detailed information

A typical week for the volunteer teacher - ordinary class session:

*The following is an example taken from the third week of the curriculum:

From Monday through Thursday, in the mornings, volunteers will work in the Ecobiosfera office to review background information for each one of the NGO projects that will participate in the course and finalize the teaching materials that will be used during their classes. At 4 pm, volunteers will teach for two hours. At 6 pm, volunteers will have free time to visit the city and/or socialize with students. On Friday, the schedule will change in order to have the classes in the morning (from 8 to 10 am).

The themes of the different classes are as follows:

Monday: Grammar (use of pronouns and verb conjugation in the future tense)

Tuesday: Conversation (NGOs’ vision, mission and objectives)

Wednesday: Grammar (verb conjugation in the present and perfect present tenses)

Thursday: Conversation (NGOs’ organizational history)

Friday: Marketing and fundraising (effective ways to present your organization and yourself)

A typical weekend for the volunteer teacher:

*The following is an example of the 7th immersion session:

On Friday afternoon, volunteers and students will move to the field site. After dinner, they will review the agenda of the session. The rules for an English only spoken environment will be set up, followed by one hour of conversation. On Saturday morning, the first three hour session of classes begins, and the topic for this particular day is the content of a project proposal: executive summary, background, objectives and goals, workplan activities and budget, time frame and description of the key staff involved. At the end of the classes, the student will be tasked with writing background, objectives and goals that will be reviewed in the afternoon. After a short break and for the next two hours, each one of the students with the assistance of the volunteers will start writing a proposal of a project that his or her organization previously approved. After lunch and a short break, the group will begin a two-hour class session focused on a project management system that includes activities, metrics, monitoring and reporting. For two hours at the end of the class, students will work on their own workplan. After dinner, the group will have a one-hour conversation session to end the day. On Sunday, the group will follow the same routine as on the previous day, but now focused on budget issues and the description of the key team involved in the project. After lunch, an evaluation will be done and the group will move back to Tuxtla Gutierrez for the week.