A Message from Yayasan LMU
Serving the community
Through this service learning program, you will serve as a volunteer teacher assistant for a local afterschool program in Bali. This comes with great responsibility as you’ll be working with minors in and out of the classroom setting. A school or learning center in Bali will probably look and feel very different from the kind of schools you are used to in your country, but this is part of adjusting to the local culture and infrastructure. Knowing that there are limited resources and technology, you will have to be creative and resourceful when serving at the educational center.
While you are not expected to be a certified teacher, it’s important that you take on a mentorship and classroom-appropriate role. Take your job seriously, as you are helping shape young minds and develop key English skills that can open up doors of opportunity. Public schools in Bali have limited focus on English, so this after school learning center is a great opportunity for the kids to hone in on this skill.
Students are electing to spend their time here after a full school day and we need to make sure that we respect their time as well by taking it seriously.
You’re also expected to behave with 100% professionalism and appropriate behavior for the cultural context. In Bali, this involves a strict dress code (no showing shoulders or stomachs, no low cut tops, only wearing loose-fitting pants and/or long skirts), as well as avoiding physical contact with the children (only high fives and fist-bumps, avoid hugs).
Also, keep in mind your intercultural training and work to eliminate problematic power dynamics in your interactions with the students and teachers. As a foreigner, you might be inherently seen as of high status and wealth.
It’s also important to remember that you are a guest who plays a supporting role in the classroom, so while you might be leading certain activities in the lessons and will be the English “expert”, the local teachers are the primary facilitators. So, listen to them and follow their lead!
Your goal should be to serve as a resource on the English language and support a fun and quality education for the kids. They are excited to be there and have fun learning, so we hope you can contribute to that!