Education

ELL Teacher or Teaching Assistant

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When
Friday, September 18, 2026 · 6:37 PM
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Where
1548 8th St, Des Moines, IA 50314 · View on map →

About this opportunity

We are looking for volunteer teacher/assistant/substitutes for Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Our classes are held from Sept through May, and we sometimes offer an abbreviated summer course for students who want to keep their skills current. We are looking for volunteers who want to form community with their students and the other volunteers and are able to commit to a full school year, since when there are disruptions and changes, it disrupts the classroom cohesion. We teach English in four or sometimes five levels, with the vast majority of our students in Basic or Level One.Our program is well established in the community and has been ongoing in the same location since 2001. We offer 4 levels of English classes: Basic, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and sometimes Level 4. All course levels use the Ventures English Language Learning series textbooks which we are able to provide to students for free thanks to our fabulous grantors. Students can start at any time and are not penalized for absences, so the composition of each class varies quite a bit with a core of students who are present for most of the semester and sometimes all year. The everchanging class composition is very stressful for some volunteers while others experience it as an invigorating challenge.Our classes are set up with one teacher and one assistant on Tuesdays, and a different teacher and assistant on Thursdays. Teachers and teaching assistants volunteer from 5:45 PM to 8 PM in a specific classroom so they develop a relationship with the students and understand what their needs are. The lead teachers have a teacher's manual and communicate with their partners on where the class left off, and what grammatical issues the class encountered, if any.Students can register and begin class at any point in the

About 8th & College Connections

Our primary project is English classes in four levels for immigrant and refugee adults, with a free childcare program to allow parents with children to attend. We emphasize relationship building between volunteers and students. We also have a community garden project and collaborate on a prison van project to enable neighbors to visit relatives and loved ones in distant state prisons.

This opportunity has already taken place.

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