This week my fellow PCT, Mikey and I taught two lessons to the model school here in Ouyhiguyoa. Model school is a summer school that the Peace Corps puts on to train future Peace Corps teachers and help the Burkinabe students get ahead before school starts in the fall. And no, I am not going to be a teacher but I am going to be teaching life skills and leading community sensiblizations for things like:
HIV/AIDS (VIH/SIDA in French) - There is a organization called “Coaching for Hope” that runs soccer camps and raises awareness about AIDS through soccer! Peace Corps worked along side them this year and it was a success!
Gender issues
Raising self-esteem of the girls and their retention rates in school and why that is important for Burkina Faso’s development
Children’s/ Women’s rights
More effective ways to compost!
Growing crops and the importance of letting fields grow fallow/ crop rotation/ fertilizer
Meringa trees (!) and their uses - I’m really excited about this tree! Check out the website: www.treesforlife.org and educate yourself!
Malaria
Nutrition (I did not know one could starve by not eating a balanced diet!)
Female Genital Mutilation (in 2000 over 100% of women 20+ were victims of FGM in Burkina Faso however this is changing)
Small enterprise development such as soap making, and general strategies for success
Micro loans
(side note: Learning about these topics and how to teach them has really enlightened and excited me about international public health (ex. Meringa trees!) and has furthered my interest in social work! hurray!).
Model school was a good way to practice teaching life skills in French and learning by doing essentially. Mikey and I presented on the differences between someone’s sex and their gender roles. We did this by having the students take cards with different adjectives and jobs and had them place them on the blackboard either under “Masculine,” “Feminine” or “Both.”
The first time they were not allowed to look at their card until we said “Allez!” and then they had to run up and place it on the blackboard without thinking about it too much. It was so interesting to see where they placed them and what they had to say afterwards. The two classes were 9tht and 10th graders. What I thought was interesting was what happened in the 10thTeaching in Model School grade class. They gave all the work to the “feminine” category along with the word, “strength.” After processing the answers on the board we asked the students to do the activity a second time but this time we asked them to place the cards
depending on the physical and biological ability of the word on the card and not on their own opinions. This was the most surprising for Mikey and me.
Once they where done placing their cards on the blackboard the only two cards not in the category “Both” were “pregnancy” for the “Feminine” column and “Constructing a house” in the “Masculine” column. That last one sparked huge debate in the classroom and it was interesting to watch as the students debated about why and why not that card should have been moved into the “Both” column. Overall, I really enjoyed teaching and learning from the students and I am excited to move into my tropical boarding school in two weeks!
Swear-in is on the 25th of August! So SOON!
No comments:
Post a Comment