Teach English in primary schools by Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

Our team is looking for enthusiastic individuals with a passion for teaching to join us in Guatemala.

Highlights

• Volunteering with One, Two… Tree! is FREE, our volunteers only pay for their own expenses which go directly to the local families and businesses volunteers interact with.
• This is a unique opportunity to learn and master new skills and discover all your potential while contributing to something bigger than yourself. We are keen to listen to your ideas!
• You will immerse yourself into the Guatemalan culture, make new friends and learn more than you give in the end. Engage with locals and meet passionate volunteers from across the globe!
• You will improve your teamwork, collaboration, and creative problem-solving skills as well as any other professional skill you would like to hone while staying here.
• This will be a great experience too to master your Spanish and English as you will be working bilingually all day long.

About One, Two.. Tree!

We are a non-profit organisation working on education in Central America.

We aim to make English accessible as a tool for social empowerment and intercultural exchange. We teach in public schools, collaborate with local organisations and offer English classes to those keen to learn. We share a vision of strong united communities and individuals in charge of their economies, ready to grasp and create the opportunities that work best for their future.

English is our tool for this as it opens up new opportunities for our students to get their studies to the next level and have access to a wider range of jobs. As the tourism industry is one of the main sources of income in Atitlan, followed by goods production, English is a way too, to empower the local community to be in charge of their economy.

In many non-English speaking countries, fluent English teachers are scarce, with the areas we work in being no exception. Our volunteers support public schools and local organisations with English while these skills are slowly acquired by local teachers and the community.

About the program

We teach in public schools, collaborate with local organisations and offer English classes to those keen to learn.

The idea is simple: We collaborate with local organisations to use their premises and introduce English classes through volunteer work. This allows us to get involved in local educational systems and local initiatives, reaching a large number of kids and adults through a sustainable and flexible cost model that can be scaled up or down in response to the community’s needs at any given moment.

In Guatemala, we currently teach English to 450 children and 50 teenagers across five public schools, and our learning centre in Santiago Atitlán and to many adult groups. We have an agreement with the Ministry of Education to provide children in primary school with a basic level of English.

How we work

COLLABORATION

As volunteers, we work as a team as we know we go further together. Locally, we look to collaborate with other organisations to make the most of available resources, creating synergies and using each organisation’s expertise to best serve the local community.

ADAPTABILITY

We adapt and are flexible to changing situations with the aim to best support the community in every given moment. We use our imagination, skills, and proactiveness to make things work in a sustainable way. We are grateful for feedback so we can continuously improve.

INITIATIVE

We create on the ground and use active listening as our most precious tool. The program is developed with and within the communities, truly understanding the context, needs, and priorities. We seize on opportunities as they come and ensure personal growth and passions are tapped into as the program evolves. We look for passionate volunteers, keen to lead and be responsible for positive change. You will be part of a proactive and supportive team where your ideas and thoughts will count in the day-to-day of the project.

RESPECT

We live and teach with utter respect. We learn from the local culture and support each other with kindness, curiosity, humility, and empathy

About the project location

We are located in Santiago Atitlán, one of the many villages around lake Atitlán (4h drive from Guatemala City and not far from Antigua).

Surrounded by volcanoes and coffee plantations, Santiago is a Mayan Indigenous village with around 60,000 inhabitants. It is one of the most authentic villages in the area where tourism hasn’t transformed the village much. Art is lived throughout the village with murals and painters all around. Weaving and embroidery is big in the village as well.

Kayak, hikes, camping are some of the many activities you will be able to experience in your free time.

Volunteering with us

As a volunteer, you will be teaching English to primary-school children, teenagers and adults in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. You will receive our full support while at the post. We will provide basic training and teaching materials upon your arrival, weekly progress reviews, and regular assistance from our Volunteer Coordinator and the team of volunteers, that is our culture, we support each other as we work together towards our goals.

One, Two... Tree! is unique in that we are all volunteers, which lets us not charge any fees. You will, however, be asked to cover your travel and accommodation costs. (They are quite affordable to start with, but if you are planning to stay for a year or longer, we can discuss how those can be reduced.)

Accommodation - volunteers stay with local host families in Santiago Atitlan. This will help you get to know the local people and culture first-hand. All the families we work with have been pre-vetted and have previous experience in hosting international volunteers. The usual accommodation costs range from US$100 to US$300 per month.

Volunteering in Guatemala is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that will not only give you practical teaching skills, but also a more holistic outlook on education. You will have a chance to improve your Spanish, learn about Guatemalan culture, make new friends and learn more than you give in the end. On the weekends, enjoy all the beauty the country has to offer - from lake Atitlan at your doorstep all the way to the wonders of Tikal in the North. Get a chance to directly engage with locals and meet passionate volunteers from across the globe! You will improve your teamwork, collaboration, and creative problem-solving skills as well as any other professional skill you would like to hone while staying here. We love proactivity and self-development and will make sure to offer you opportunities to help you in your self and professional development journey.

Requirements

• Being +18 years old
• Having at least 6 weeks to commit, volunteers with more time will be preferred being 3 months or more the approximate time when you can start seeing the results of your time here
• Good level of English: speaking and writing
• Basic level of Spanish (speaking) and a positive attitude to keep learning and practicing while being here
• No teaching experience is required although it is highly valued
• Proactive, creative, flexible, and self-motivated minds
• Full of energy and enthusiasm to make a difference
• When choosing the period to come, please take into account that holidays in Central America go from mid-December to early February.
• Volunteers must get their own travel insurance.
• A Criminal Background Check Report (since you’ll be working with children)

Volunteers should be open-minded, enthusiastic, flexible, and prepared to face challenges. It’s important to remember that in most cases you’ll be engaged with children from the age of 8 to 17 years old (approx.), so you’ll have to be patient while dealing with them, handle them with utmost love & care, and try to make a difference in their lives in the most beautiful manner. We are also teaching adults up to 68 being our current eldest student! This requires flexibility to adapt to different ways of learning and styles, skills that are more than ever on the rise for any job in this fast-changing world.

Responsibilities:

• Teach English for beginners and intermediate level students in the public schools
• Teach English for beginners, intermediate and advanced level students in our learning centre.
• Make lesson plans, worksheets, grading, etc.
• Work along with the teachers and our team of volunteers to ensure the maximum potential result for the students and keep the class engaged
• Any other admin work related to the schools or learning centre if assigned by the coordinator
• Implementation of new ideas and teaching methods

Typical day

The average workload is 16 hours per week (you should add some preparation time for each lesson). We will ask you for help on additional tasks such as organising events, showing other volunteers around, and other tasks aimed at improving our program. Please feel free to bring suggestions, we love them!

0n arrival: Welcome & orientation by the coordinator

Mon – Thu: 4h teaching in public schools & at the Learning Center

Afternoons: 1-2h Preparation of lesson plans and grading, admin work, or weekly team meetings

Fri – weekend: Free to travel and other team activities (optional)

Team activities examples: Hiking, swimming at the lake, cooking, visiting other villages around, cultural and environmental activities, etc. We actively collaborate with local organisations and have an ongoing activity calendar.