Teaching at Mayatan

Being a volunteer teacher at Mayatan Bilingual School is for independent, self-guided, self-reliant individuals who are capable of making the best of limited resources and adapting to circumstances.

In addition to living and working in a new country, teachers will be adjusting to leading a Honduran classroom. We realize that all of these responsibilities and changes are not for everyone, and that is why we recruit a specific kind of intrepid volunteer.

Although you will find support from your primary or secondary school director and your fellow teachers, you will often have to guide yourself. Some courses will have reliable textbooks and curricula; others, particularly at the secondary and high school level, will involve new textbooks or no textbooks at all and will require the teachers to decide upon what is taught. Part of the self-guidedness is also an artifact of yearly volunteer teacher turnover. As Mayatan continues to grow and expand, incorporating a full high school, courses will become more regular; for now, we depend on our volunteers for a good deal of direction.

Teaching Responsibilities

Volunteer teachers at Mayatan teach at either the primary (K-6) or secondary and high school (7-12) levels. There are about 18 foreign teaching volunteers at any given time, although this changes with enrollment and as our high school program expands. Please see our curriculum pages for more information.

Primary school teachers will teach a classroom by themselves for most of the day. They will have up to 20 students per policy; in rare cases, class size may be as high as 24. Some grades have one classroom and teacher, and others may be split into A and B sections who team-teach by dividing up subjects. Kindergarten and first grade teachers have Honduran teaching assistants. The other grades have Honduran counterparts to teach certain classes in Spanish, such as Civics. Primary teachers have their own classrooms. Expect to plan for at least 5 different class periods a day, although team teachers may teach two sections of the same class. Primary school students have breaks for recess and lunch.

Secondary and high school teachers will teach one or more subjects and may share classrooms. Students take a variety of courses at a time (often 10+), and teachers often wear multiple hats to cover this. For example, one teacher may teach literature, anthropology, and art history; another will teach multiple science or math classes; another may teach grammar; and still another may teach a math subject, gym, and computer skills. Expect to plan for at least 4-5 different class periods a day; you may also supervise online courses from the University of Missouri High School. All of secondary school has a lunch break at the same time, and teachers may have several free periods during the day. Some secondary and high school classes are taught in Spanish by Honduran teachers.

All teachers must grade student tests, quizzes, activities, and homework assignments; create lesson plans; record attendance; complete report cards; perform homeroom, recess (primary), and lunch duties; write year-long plans; meet with parents when requested; and complete student evaluations, report cards, and progress reports.

Schedule

School days follow and American calendar: Monday through Friday, from late August through mid-June. Public schools in Honduras have a different schedule that lets out in November.

The Mayatan school day runs from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 (primary) or 2:30 (secondary and high school). Teachers must be at school by 6:45 and stay until the end of the day. Most teachers find that they have to arrive earlier and stay later to plan lessons, grade, and tutor students, and they generally report the weekly workload as 50 hours or more.

Mayatan observes a number of national holidays with vacation days. There is a two week break that begins before Christmas and extends until around the New Year during which all teachers must leave the CA-4 immigration area at their own expense to renew their 90 day visas (Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua). There are, additionally, several days off for Thanksgiving, and two trips to renew 90 day visas: one in mid October, and one in March.

Student Population

Student enrollment is more than 300 and growing. We recommend that you read about our students elsewhere on this website for more details. However, we would also emphasize here that, although nearly 50% of our students receive scholarships of some kind, our student body is economically diverse and the other half pays full tuition. We have students who are wealthy by Honduran and American standards, and we have students who are middle class. We have students who live in large houses, and we have students who live in mud houses. In secondary and particularly in colegio, wealthier students will make up the bulk of the population; that is because colegio is a newer program and we haven’t found funding for scholarships yet.

Escuela Mayatan started by enrolling students whose parents could pay the fees. Once the school was established, a scholarship program was created so that less well-off students could attend. In recent years, outreach and donations have allowed the school to increase the number of children receiving scholarship funding. It is part of our mission to educate students from poorer backgrounds, and we are hoping to increase our ability to do this, but Mayatan’s education does not reach every student in need. In teaching here, you will be educating the future leaders of Honduras, whatever economic class they come from.

Student Attitudes Towards Learning

Teachers at Mayatan do have to be aware of cultural differences in the classroom; often, teachers will find that problems they encounter in the classroom have to do with cultural differences in method and expectation, not to mention the language barrier, rather than bad attitude or ineptitude, which one may initially infer. Remember, our students are learning in a second language and a second culture.

Overall, our students are conscientious and work hard to do well in school, and the majority have strong parental support. As in any school, there are some who are less motivated than others.

Some students come from homes where parents are unfamiliar with school expectations and may not know how to help their children with homework. In some homes, there is no electricity or utilities and in others, the home may be crowded. Neither of these conditions is conducive to completing homework.

Books are an expensive luxury item in Honduras, and most students will come from homes where reading is not as much as part of the culture as in North America or Europe. Books in English will certainly be a rarity in most homes, but students love our library and we are working hard to establish good reading habits.

Although this is not the focus at Mayatan, in Honduras the general standard for education is rote learning and repetition of facts, not the more individualized, process-oriented approach common to the United States. On the other hand, students here are not used to American-style standardized testing.

Parental Involvement

There is a Parents Association at the school and all grades have Parents Associations of their own. The grade associations exist so that the parents can assist with fundraising and planning for events such as graduations, field trips and class parties. These groups are also helpful in planning for Honduran holiday events since the main classroom teachers may not be familiar with local customs.

Parents can be enthusiastic about school projects, but teachers report that parents often can’t give academic help at home. You may find that parents here value student behavior just as highly, if not more highly, than students’ academic grades. Some parents cannot contribute financially to projects or events.

Parents do not usually participate in class time unless teachers have asked them to come in for a special lecture or demonstration related to schoolwork. Teachers and parents get together one-on-one for conferences at the end of each quarter to discuss their child's performance.

Religious Affiliation

The school is secular, but most of the families are either Catholic or Evangelical, and the community tends to be very religious. It is common to hear parents or students bring up religion in everyday conversation or in the classroom. Escuela Mayatan expects teachers, whatever their religious affiliations, to respect the differing religions points of view of our students.

Instruction in Spanish

Escuela Mayatan expects foreign teachers to teach in English and we require that you speak English while at school in your interactions with students and English-speaking Honduran staff.

Teacher Dress and Behavior

The most important thing to remember is that, in a small town like Copán, the teachers at Mayatan don't just reflect the school--they are the school, especially as far as the townspeople are concerned. Everyone in town will know who you are, even if you don't know them.

Conservative attire and personal grooming are taken much more seriously in Honduras than in the United States. It is important for Mayatan Bilingual School's relations with parents and with the community that our faculty respect local standards of proper attire and grooming. Further, teachers are role models for the students, who are required to wear uniforms.

Teachers will be provided with four school polo shirts and you will be expected to wear these shirts with trousers or skirts Monday through Thursday. These shirts may not arrive until several weeks into the school year, so come prepared with appropriate clothing for the first few weeks. Fridays are "casual" days. You will probably want to bring one dressy outfit for special occasions, ie., graduations. The school would prefer no visible piercing (other than, for women, earrings or a discreet nose pin) and no dreadlocks. Hondurans associate dreads with drug use and consider them unhygienic. Tattoos are also frowned upon by local people and will need to be kept covered.

School Resources

The school supplies classroom furnishings, construction paper, dry erase pens, poster paper, etc. The students are required to bring their own school supplies and a grade level list is sent home at the beginning of the school year. In some cases, the school may assist families with the purchase of materials.

Many teachers bring posters and other visual aids and teaching materials to supplement their teaching and classrooms. Often, previous teachers leave teaching materials they have provided and these add to our collection of available teaching resources.

Although we have a growing library, there are no bookstores in Copán Ruinas. Moreover, books in Honduras are expensive (once you get to a bookstore in San Pedro Sula), and it is prohibitive to ship books and materials from abroad. If you have favorite books and reference materials or needed supplies and decorations, we suggest bringing them with you. We also suggest you bring adhesives like sticky tack and foam tape that will cling to our concrete walls.

We highly recommend bringing a laptop computer of your own for preparing lessons, researching, and grading.

Below, please find the lists of supplies students are asked to bring:

Kindergarten Supplies, First Grade Supplies, Second Grade Supplies, 3rd-6th Grade Supplies, Secondary School Supplies

Contract Extensions

In the spring, the directors of the primary and secondary schools will meet with each teacher to discuss the teacher’s plans for the next year. We encourage teachers to remain more than one year and will provide additional salary for the second year.

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