Volunteering & Work – English Language Bits

Match these words with their meanings below. You can type the words or copy & paste them. Check your answers by clicking Submit at the end.

exactly – hands-on – encourage – transition – environment – involve – monitor – adapt

to change from one form to another –

to change to be successful in a new situation –

learning about something by doing it rather than just listening about it –

to be part of something; to include –

people, place and things around you –

to carefully watch a situation –

very accurately, correct in every detail –

to give somebody confidence to do something –

Fill in the missing words in the text. You can type them or copy & paste them. You can check your answers by listening or by clicking Submit at the end.

exactly – hands-on – encourage – transition – environment – involved – monitor – adapt

Yuliya: Cheryl, I know you’ve worked with a lot of internationally-trained teachers, so how would you, what would you say, what are some important things that could make somebody, a teacher from abroad, outside of Canada, successfully to teaching in Canada?

Cheryl: I think that there are a few important things. One important thing is to recognize that, although you do have skills and experience, that you’re in a different culture, you’re in a different situation, and your ability to will be really key. So you have to have a willingness to adapt and undergo a little bit of change, because you will have to.

So there are some things that I people to do that will give them a better picture of education in Canada. Probably the most important thing is to do some kind of volunteering in the type of school you want to work in.

So, for example, if you want to work in elementary school, you want to work with children, they’re always looking for volunteers. So they need volunteers to be things like a lunchroom monitor, where you, well, you do what that sounds like, is that you monitor the children at lunch, maybe break up some fights, I don’t know.

Yuliya: That’s fun…
Cheryl: And sometimes they need chaperones, which is a supervising adult for field trips that the students go on. So for example, the students are going to the zoo, and they’re going to see the animals at the zoo, and the teachers need some extra adults to 30 children running around a zoo, right?

So, sometimes they just need extra adult bodies, and that can be a way into that . If you have school-age children, that’s ideal, that your children’s school will need volunteers.

If you’re interested in working with adults, there are also volunteer opportunities in, you know, settlement organizations that teach English to newcomers. Even at the college and university levels sometimes you can get in, you know, volunteering at an open house or something, where they need somebody to…

It might be something very simple, like you’re, you know, you’re a ticket-taker at an event or something, but it will put you into the environment so you can see it in a kind of practical way that you wouldn’t normally be able to do.
Yuliya: Thank you! That does sound like a great opportunity to learn more about the place, the environment, and the culture.

Discussion Questions:

These questions can help you practice speaking or writing.

Have you ever seen any volunteer helpers in your school when you were a student (or a parent of a student)?

What were the volunteers doing?

How common is it to have volunteer helpers at a school in your country/ city?

Who usually volunteers there?

Would you be interested in doing that?

What would you like to help with?

Why are you (not) interested in helping at a local school?

What could be some benefits of doing it?

What could be some challenges?

Find the best sentence for each of these words. You can type the words or copy & paste them. Check your answers by clicking Submit at the end.

exactly – hands-on – encourage – transition – environment – involve – monitor – adapt

For some kids, it may take time to to a new school.

The from paper to digital documents took time, but it was very productive.

We are thankful to everyone who supported and d us during difficult times.

Patients need to be carefully ed for at least 24 hours after the procedure.

His classes are very , with a lot of practical activities, not just lectures.

The numbers may not be right, but they are close enough.

I could not work in such a noisy and unsafe , so I quit the next day.

These changes will all teachers at our school.

Volunteering and Work