English Teacher

Warm Heart is a grassroots organization that empowers rural Thai villagers. Working with the community, Warm Heart organizes projects that improve access to education, basic health services, and jobs and sustainable incomes to the poorest people in the Phrao District of Chiang Mai, Thailand.

In 2015, the ASEAN Union will put Thailand in competition with our better-educated neighbors. English has been established as the language of this Union and it is essential that residents of our community are at least conversationally fluent by this time. With this in mind, Warm Heart has partners with a number of local organizations as well as district officials in order to provide the best supplemental English education we can. This includes teaching in elementary schools, middle schools, the regional high school, and preschools, as well as at our own Children’s Home and informally throughout the community. Programs depend on the community needs and our volunteer availability and preferences, but this the paramount importance of this initiative has led us to require at least two hours of teaching per a week from each our volunteers.

Position Overview

Warm Heart seeks a fun-loving and versatile English Teacher to teach English throughout our community to students of all ages and skill levels and to track student progress.

Primary Responsibilities

• Responsible for teaching 5-hours per a day, 5 days per a week, including some weekends (this includes 6 hours per a week of English instruction at our Children’s Home)
• Develop a curriculum for each classroom and create daily lesson plans based on existing documentation and materials
• Create a range of learning materials including worksheets, games, etc.
• Organize and present educational day camps for both Warm Heart children our community during school breaks
• Systematically track students’ progress throughout your stay
• Assist with other projects, as assigned

Experience/Skills

• Excellent understanding of English language and grammar
• High-level written and verbal communication skills
• Flexibility and patience to motivate students with a range of skill levels
• Creativity in learning methodologies (making worksheets, crafts, games, etc.)
• Ability to think creatively and function in a diverse workplace

Working for a start-up NGO in a foreign country, especially one located in a small town, places special demands on volunteers. Volunteers will work with a small team of international volunteers in a Thai organization and community. The work is demanding and can prove difficult at times due to linguistic and cultural barriers.

Volunteers must therefore understand that Warm Heart requires individuals who have excellent interpersonal and diversity skills, lots of patience, perseverance and endurance. Warm Heart also requires initiative-taking individuals who are self-starting, flexible and self-managing.

Bottom line: We serve real people with real needs and we need only volunteers ready to accept the intellectually, professionally, and personally challenging work we offer. Being a "volunteer" at Warm Heart means only that you are not being paid for your work; it does not mean that you carry any less responsibility for the promises we have made to the people of Phrao.

Location

Volunteering at Warm Heart is an opportunity to immerse oneself in both authentic Thai culture and the beautiful mountains surrounding Warm Heart's location in Phrao. Local villagers will welcome you to share in the simple pleasure of day-to-day life, while Phrao's north central location provides the perfect base camp to explore the rest Thailand and Southeast Asia. Warm Heart’s offices are conveniently located just 70 kilometers north of Chiang Mai, Thailand's second largest city, where all the comforts of Western culture can be found.

Duration

A 2-3 month minimum commitment of 40 hours per a week is required, but a longer commitment is much preferred. You will really begin to feel at home and know your job after a few months, and Warm Heart will be able to give you much more responsibility if we know that you are not just passing through.

Benefits

• You will make a real difference. You will meet the people whose lives you are changing and the changes that you will bring will be big: jobs and sustainable incomes.
• You will leverage your university experience. It is one thing to learn about global markets or grassroots development; it is an entirely different thing to do them yourself.
• You will acquire professional skills that cannot be taught in the classroom. Every survey shows the same thing: companies think that their new employees are well educated, but lack interpersonal, teamwork and diversity skills. Warm Heart is a university of this stuff; you will return with amazing cross-cultural, multi-lingual teamwork and management skills. You will gain invaluable insight into how an NGO operates.
• You will grow. You are on your own in a strange place working with a staff of Thais on the real problems of real people. It's like human growth hormone for the soul.
• You will meet cool people. Warm Heart volunteers come from everywhere from Australia to Vietnam. You will have the chance to develop close-knit friendships with other volunteers as well as the locals.

Costs

Unlike many volunteer programs, Warm Heart does not charge a participation fee or require a donation. We do provide low cost packages that include:

• Housing: Single or double in Warm Heart house with screens, western toilet, hot water, kitchen and internet.
• Transportation: Motorbike
• Services: Document preparation and translation for visas, work permits, required health documents, visa extensions, etc.

The Warm Heart package for those staying up to three months is currently $250 per month (subject to change, of course). Volunteers should expect to spend about another $250 per month on food, gas, telephone and entertainment. How much more you spend will depend on how often you go to Chiang Mai for the weekend.

Apply online at www.warmheartworldwide.org.