{"id":2703,"date":"2017-09-01T14:23:51","date_gmt":"2017-09-01T14:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/?p=2703"},"modified":"2017-09-01T14:23:51","modified_gmt":"2017-09-01T14:23:51","slug":"my-summer-in-estonia-as-english-teacher-volunteer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/my-summer-in-estonia-as-english-teacher-volunteer\/","title":{"rendered":"My Summer in Estonia as an English Teacher Volunteer"},"content":{"rendered":"

As someone who has always enjoyed mentoring students in a voluntary capacity, I was ecstatic when I came across the listing for English teacher volunteers for the Bellnor International Summer Camp in Estonia, as this was an opportunity to embrace my passion and mentor young minds during my summer vacation. The camp, like University of Westminster, embraced international differences and celebrated diversity with students being from Lithuania, Finland, Latvia and other divides. This opportunity allowed me to not only visit a new country and interact with locals, but allowed for an exchange in learning experiences. As a PhD student, I gained valuable international teaching and events management experience.<\/p>\n

The camp was set in the forest with a two-minute pathway connecting to the seaside. The beach became the teacher\u2019s regular brainstorming office, as you can see below.<\/p>\n

\"Summer
Sandy beach along the Baltic Sea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My responsibilities as a teacher included testing the level of English of students, as well as designing a two-week lesson program with activities. The objective was to encourage students to practice their English conversational skills, general grammar, forms of speech and provide confidence boosters. The camp was a non-stop energetic experience, requiring full participation by the volunteers and students alike. I participated in events such as the parody show (where we presented ourselves as the Powerpuff Girls), the hairstyle and make-up competition and theatre night. As a judge, the karaoke competition, fashion show and talent show required my rather \u201ccreative\u201d expertise.<\/p>\n

This contributed to a great learning and character building experience, especially in dealing with my own expectations and the expectations of contributing towards the camp experience of the students.<\/p>\n

\"Hairstyle
Hairstyle and Make-up Competition<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Powerpuff
Powerpuff Girls Parody Titled Red Spotted Piglet Fever<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the flip side \u2013 having always prided myself on being able to adjust\u2026 this opportunity not only presented positive experiences but also a realisation that sometimes it\u2019s good to try something new\u2026 you never know what \u201cshock\u201d your system needs. For me, not to have my daily cup of green tea and muesli in the morning or sticking to a strictly vegetarian diet, presented some interesting \u201cadjusting\u201d to say the least. My adjustment to camp life – this was confirmation that I was out of my comfort zone. On the bright side, this experience was just what I needed \u2013 the camp was exciting, fun and brought back tons of childhood memories.<\/p>\n

An excursion was arranged to visit the city centre of Tallinn that paid tribute to the medieval history of the city, while incorporating a modern feel. This was a great opportunity to visit the old town and the new town. One of the most amazing sites was the Kohvik Dannebrog Caf\u00e9 set in the tower of the old city wall, where you walk up a steep staircase to a linear set caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\"Old
Monk Statute In Front Of The Kohvik Dannebrog Caf\u00e9 Entrance and Chapel of the Consistory of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Friends\"<\/p>\n

My experience of volunteering at the summer camp was invaluable and a memory that I will cherish forever. I met great individuals and forged great friendships with an international group of people from Romania, India, America and Thailand. I also had an opportunity to learn from the students about their experiences and insight into life. Leaving the camp at the end of my two weeks was a bitter sweet moment. I highly recommend volunteering as a way of discovery your inner child, learning from others and embracing life experiences. I challenge everyone to try a new experience during university breaks, whether that is volunteering, travelling, having a new cultural experience or a combination of all three. Overall it was a summer well spent!<\/p>\n

Thanks to our guest blogger Zubeida Lowton<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As someone who has always enjoyed mentoring students in a voluntary capacity, I was ecstatic when I came across the listing for English teacher volunteers for the Bellnor International Summer Camp in Estonia, as this was an opportunity to embrace…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":158,"featured_media":2711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10,12,18,19],"tags":[85,228,233,371,392,679,681,689,744],"class_list":["post-2703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-favourite-memories","category-friends","category-student-experience","category-travel","tag-bellnor","tag-english-teacher","tag-estonia","tag-international-student","tag-kloogaranna","tag-summer","tag-summer-camp","tag-teaching","tag-volunteering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/158"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}