How to find the perfect host family

May 20, 2010

Lots of families want to host foreign students. But not all of them want to do it for the right reasons. How do you find excellent home stay families? Here are a few tips.

Offer a Prospective Host Family Information Session about your school. Host families should know what a typical school day is like, what kinds of things the students will be learning and what type of extra-curricular activities you offer. Having them tour the school and meet a few key staff members will give them a sense of how the school operates. You can make this mandatory for prospective host families. The way to do that is to schedule Prospective Host Family Information Sessions on a regular basis – say once a semester or even once a month. Hand out the Host Family Application Package at the Information Session. If families want to apply to host a student, an adult member of the family must attend the information session because that’s when and where the application packages are handed out. If a family can’t be bothered to attend an information session, you probably don’t want them hosting a student.

At this meeting, outline your expectations of the host families. Typical expectations are:

  • Provide 2-3 well-balanced nutritious meals.
  • Provide laundry-facilities that are not coin operated.
  • Provide clean linens (towels, face clothes and bed linens).
  • Spend time with the student practicing the language they’re learning every day.
  • Invite (but don’t oblige) the student to take part in family activities.

Have them fill out an application. In addition to the usual name, phone number and address, the application should ask:

  • How many children are in the home – including their names and ages
  • If they have pets and if so, how many and what kind
  • Why they’d like to be a host family. (Hint: If they respond, “Because we need the money”, think twice before accepting them as a family for one of  your students.)
  • What types of foods do they eat?
  • What kinds of activities do they like to do?

Asking questions like these will help you match students with families. For example, you don’t want to pair a student who is allergic to dogs with a family of dog enthusiasts. Vegetarian students may be well matched with a family that doesn’t eat much meat. A host family that loves to go geocaching may be the perfect fit for a techie student who loves the outdoors. You get the idea.

Request references. Your application form should also include a spot for the names of two or three references, as well as their contact information. References should not be other family members. Examples of good references include pastors, family doctors, work colleagues and even family friends. The reference check doesn’t have to be intensive, but it is part of your due diligence in selecting families. You want to ask these references questions such as:

  • How do you know this family?
  • What kind of people are they?
  • Do you think they’d be good hosts for an international student? If so, why? If not, why not?
  • Would be comfortable allowing your son or daughter to live with them? Why or why not?

Request a police checks for all adult members of the household. Sound harsh? Not really. More and more schools and non-profit organizations are requesting police checks from their staff and volunteers. Check with your local police station about how to get police checks done. If there’s a form to fill out, include a copy in your host family application package as a courtesy. A speeding ticket or other minor offense may not disqualify them as a host family, but if you don’t check, you may not know the whole picture. Who pays for these checks? The host family does.

Conduct a home inspection. So, the host family has attended your information session. Their application looks good. Their references were glowing. Their police check is clean. Everything looks good. But to be sure, send a staff member to inspect the home. Garbage and old tires piled on the front porch is not a good sign. (And yes, I’ve actually seen this.) Inspect the home as if you were the student arriving from another country. The host family needs to provide:

  • A private bedroom for the student. This may seem obvious, but that room should have a door that closes. Curtains are not an acceptable “door”.
  • A window. Basement bedrooms without windows are not only dark, they are a fire hazard.
  • Somewhere to store clothing and other personal belongings. A closest stacked with old linens with no room for the student’s belongings is unacceptable.
  • A desk and chair for studying.
  • A clean bed, with linens.

There are no guarantees that following these steps will get you the perfect host family every time, but they’ll certainly help you eliminate those who are just in it for the money, or who think of foreign students as extra help around the house.

Related posts:

5 qualities of the perfect host family http://wp.me/pNAh3-6c

Sample Host Family Application http://wp.me/pNAh3-fv

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

2 Comments | ESL, second languages, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Using Skype in ESL and Literacy Programs: Webinar Follow up

May 18, 2010

How thrilled was I to see more than 50 participants in today’s webinar from as far away as Egypt and Kyrgyzstan?! We also had people join in from across Canada and the U.S.

If you couldn’t make the webinar and you’re interested in what we talked about, here’s Link to the webinar recording. Note that this link may ask to download Java onto your computer. If you click “yes”, you’ll be able to access the recording, slides and all the chat that happened during the session.

If you just want the slides for today, I’ve archived them on Slide share for you here:

Click here to get a copy of the handouts from the webinar.

Dr. Peggy George was kind enough to offer this additional resource that she put together on using Skype AzTEA WOW (Way Out West) Conference, May 1, 2010. Birds of a Feather Lunch Conversation: Skype in the Classroom. Thank you for sharing your resource, Peggy.

Check out my research article on this topic:

Eaton, S. E. (2010). How to Use Skype in the ESL/EFL Classroom. The Internet TESL Journal, XVI(11). Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Eaton-UsingSkype.html

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

What do others really think about your marketing materials?

May 17, 2010

Ever heard the expression, “He couldn’t see the forest for the trees”? It refers to someone who loses his perspective on a situation because they are too involved (and invested) in the situation to see it clearly. This is what can happen when you market your program. You may think that your current brochures, web page, etc. are just fine– but what do others think about them? Do you really know?

What’s the solution? Have your marketing materials audited. If you have your current marketing materials audited, you may get a clearer picture of what outsiders really think of your materials – and your program. An audit is usually conducted by an impartial third party, and it involves an objective evaluation of your materials to determine what is good about them and what you need to improve.

This may mean hiring a marketing professional or educational consultant to review what you currently have. What she will probably do is review and assess how you:
•    use branding (for example, your logo and image)
•    convey the information (language, style, readability)
•    use colour, graphics, font and typesetting
•    can make your marketing more effective

An audit may also include an evaluation of the texture and quality of paper you choose for your printed materials, the accessibility of your web site, a ranking of your web site in search engines or an evaluation of your office stationery. These are all factors to consider when you are thinking about how you present your image to the world.

An audit of your marketing material done by an objective outsider may surprise you. A good consultant will give you no-nonsense feedback about your marketing materials and valuable information on how to improve them. These improvements may give your school the competitive edge it lacks.

There are hundreds of marketing consultants out there. It may benefit you to hire someone who specializes in educational or international marketing so you can get the best assessment possible.

Once the audit is complete, you will then have to decide which, if any, of the auditor’s recommendations to use. This will depend on cost, time and your own perception of how you wish to present your school. But inevitably, you will come away with a fresh perspective on how others view your school through your marketing materials.

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This post is an adapted excerpt from 101 Ways to Market Your Language Program It is been adapted from “Idea # 8: Have your current marketing materials audited.”

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

1 Comment | 101 Ways to Market Your Language Program, ESL, marketing, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Trends in language learning: What’s hot, what’s not

May 14, 2010

The world is changing quickly. Old ways of promoting language learning are not going to fly any more. Here’s what’s hot and what’s not, in language learning and education.

What’s out
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Vague, hollow promises that can’t be proven. Students see right through vague promises that language learning will get them better jobs. Today’s job market requires more than knowledge of another language. Vague promises are down. Unless you can prove it, don’t claim it.

Authoritative “I know best because I’m your teacher” attitudes. In today’s world where technology is moving at the speed of light, young people are very aware that they know more than the “over-30s”, as we are affectionately known. Old, traditional, hierarchical attitudes are definitely out.

Saying that learning languages is easy. Because it’s really hard work. Students can see right through claims that language learning is easy, or that if they play an audio program in their car or on their iPod they’ll achieve fluency. They know that achieving competence takes dedication, time and effort. Lying to students when deep down they know better, is out.

Complaining and grumbling about cutbacks and lack of funding. Students don’t care that their teachers have a big pile of corrections on their desk. Or that they’re overworked and underpaid. Or that language programs are the underdog of the institution. Really, they just don’t care. Complaining about it makes us, their mentors, look stuffy and jaded. Face it, folks, grumbling is down.

What’s in

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Clear, provable demonstrations of how learning a language can have a significant impact on our students. If vague promises from “authorities” are out, then irrefutable evidence from learners themselves is most definitely in. We’re not talking about general-knowledge building here. We’re talking about clear demonstrations of the impact language learning has on our students. Projects that challenge students to ask themselves how they themselves have grown and changed in positive ways are definitely in. Sharing the results of those projects in ways that demonstrate student learning through showcases, school days, and presentations to parents and community members are also up.

Using technology to demonstrate language learning and its impact. Take the projects mentioned above and show the results through technology and you’re very, very in. Demonstrations of work through portfolios, student-made videos, student blogs, Wikis, podcasts. All of it is in. We’re not talking about using technology for the sake of using technology. We’re talking about using technology to demonstrate students’ learning and show how they themselves reflect upon the impact language learning has had on them. And then sharing it with others through technology. Very, very in.

Proving the value of language learning through stories and speech. Public speaking and presentation skills are enjoying new levels of prestige in the Obama era. For the first time in years, there is a U.S. President who is wooing young people with his power to communicate verbally. Today, it’s cool to be articulate. Debate club is no longer for the nerds. Second language speech contests, debates, poetry readings, and story telling are hot, hot, hot.

Linking language learning to leadership and changing the world in amazingly positive ways. All around the world people are quietly learning other languages as a means not only to become self-empowered, but also to empower others.  They are choosing to learn another language in order to go to a country where they can make a difference, for however short a time. Housing projects. Clean water projects. Health-related projects. Projects that help children and families in the developing world. These are more common place today than they have ever been. Learning a language in order to reach out to others and make a difference in the world is “in”.

Showing funders the impact their investment has on our students, our communities and our world. If students are tired of hearing teachers grumble, funders – and that includes government or other funders – are definitely tired of it. Today savvy educators and program directors are saying, “We’re going to show you how your funding makes a difference.” Then you show them through all those provable demonstrations that were mentioned earlier. Then you say, “See the impact your contribution has made? Thank you.  Thank you for investing in our students and our future. Their future. Now let’s see what can accomplish with your continued support…” Seeing government and funders as partners and “investors in the future” is totally in.

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Post update (July 124, 2010) – This post led to a full-fledged research report on these topics. Check it out:

Global Trends in Language Learning in the 21st Century http://wp.me/pNAh3-8I

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

4 Comments | education, languages, second languages, Uncategorized, youth | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

How technology can enhance the non-profit organization

May 12, 2010

Here are some slides from a presentation I did last fall at the Literacy and Leadership Symposium in Red Deer, Alberta. The presentation goes over:

  • Programs to help non-profit organizations can acquire new or refurbished hardware for little to no cost.
  • Free software (including Open Office, Skype, and Primo .pdf).
How technology can enhance the non-profit organization: What it can do for you and how to make it happen
View more presentations from Sarah Eaton.
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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

Comments Off on How technology can enhance the non-profit organization | non-profit, social sector, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

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