Where: A location in Springvale (ten minutes walk from station. A large proportion of work is organising from home.
When: Class held 12:30 – 3:30 Sundays (beginning first Sunday in February). Most work can be conducted at home and online. First class for the year is 7th of February. It is not expected that you attend all classes.
Who: You will work with the Program Coordinator, Class Facilitators, other Teacher?s Assistants, an English as an Additional Language Teacher, and RISE members.
Questions? rasprogramwfoods@gmail.com
Applicants: Applications may be sent to admin@riserefugee.org Please ensure all applications contain the subject ?Wholefoods EAL Teacher?
Objective: An EAL teacher is required to observe and assess students, assist Teacher?s Assistants, and prepare class material. The EAL teacher will provide structure and direction for Teacher?s Assistants.
Background:
RISE is the first refugee and asylum seeker welfare and advocacy organisation in Australia to be run by refugees, asylum seekers, and ex-detainees; as such, they view those who seek assistance from RISE as members and participants, not ?clients?. RISE exists to enable refugees and asylum seekers to build new lives by providing advice, engaging in community development, enhancing opportunity, and campaigning for refugee rights. RISE advocates on its members? behalf to improve refugee/asylum-seeker policies and to generate positive social change in respect to attitudes impacting refugees.
Wholefoods is a volunteer student run restaurant at Monash University Clayton and a hub of activism on campus. In 2013, Wholefoods began a partnership with RISE. Wholefoods? relationship to RISE is an accountable one: we look to those communities for leadership, and we are responsible to them for our actions. Wholefoods has run a number of English courses English courses (driving program, conversation classes, writing workshops, VCE tutoring); as well as a number of other concurrent programs in support of RISE.
What makes the RISE and Wholefoods partnership unique and successful is that our projects are informed by the knowledge, experiences and expertise of RISE. Many RISE workers experienced the difficulties of settling in Australia and have in-depth knowledge of the political, legal, social, and community welfare system in Australia. The broader importance of the English class lies not only with language acquisition (it is limited in being one class, once a week), but in providing a warm and friendly space, to learn English in a safe environment, to build social networks, and to provide platform to access other aspects of the program. An amazing community of volunteers has built up around the program since its inception, and these Teacher?s Assistants work one-on-one or in small groups with students.
Since moving classes to Springvale a large proportion of our students are at an early beginner stage of English. In 2016 we hope to cater more specifically to these needs.
General Requirements
- Display a high degree of respect for survivors of Australia?s detention industry, including displaying confidentiality, tact, reliability and sensitively to students;
- Available to attend class enough to make suitable assessment of student needs;
- Communicating effectively with Class Facilitators, Teacher?s Assistants and students, whilst displaying high level of ?interpersonal skills to function as an effective team member. Engaging with fellow teachers and students in a professional manner;
- Is reliably able to work without supervision;
- Engage in highly reflective and reflexive teaching practice;
- Work collaboratively to develop a structure and a vision for the class;
- Ability to keep up to date with communications through Facebook/Email;
- Ability to maintain a high level of communication about availability and reliably ?keeping commitments;
- To be a supporter of anti-oppressive and politicised social work that ?emphasises political transformation, and the importance of our accountability to RISE. The EAL Teacher must understand and reflect the vision and values of RISE.
?Specific Requirements
- Engage in an assessment process that will seek to evaluate and respond to the language acquisition needs of the communities who we are working with;
- Develop class material that directly and specifically targets those who are beginning to learn English (for people who are both literate and nonliterate), with the view of developing a 12 week course;
- Developing a variety of resources to ensure weekly classes are stimulating, relevant, and are geared towards strong outcomes;
- To work with Class Facilitators in the delivery of class material and in the support of Teacher?s Assistants;
- To work with Teacher?s Assistants (TAs) in a mentoring and support capacity; to observe their practice and to ensure they work effectively with students; to enable them to develop their teaching skills; to work collaboratively in the development of classes; to develop occasional workshops; assist in the development of useful student records that will lead to strong educational outcomes; and to help TA?s come to class prepared.
Desirable:
- Tertiary qualifications in EAL education, relevant TESOL qualification, or significant relevant experience;
- Experience in collaborative and mentoring approaches to teaching.
- A background in a consensus driven working environment and/or experience working in a social justice oriented environment
- Understanding of issues affecting refugees and asylum seekers in Australia and an understanding of the importance of our partner organisation RISE.
- Basic translation skills in Tamil, Persian, Hindi, Rohingya, Burmese, Malaysian Bhasa, or Arabic.
- Previous experience working with RISE.
- People from refugee/asylum seeker backgrounds and People of Colour are encouraged to apply for this position.
Applicants:
Please outline:
- Why you would like to be considered for this position;
- A description of previous relevant experience;
- A short resume with relevant experience.