PCV Project: Sexual Diversity Training for Teachers

All it takes is a slightly awkward dinamica to get people participating

Recently teachers and MINED técnicos in Muelle de los Bueyes, RAAS had the opportunity to participate in a workshop about sexual diversity. The workshop involved presentation on topics such as concepts of sexual diversity, gender rights for the LGBT community, and stigma and discrimination. Participants watched the video “Diversidad a todo color” and presented sociodramas about topics like coming out to family or rejection from friends.

The workshop was part of a VAST project that HE 61 PCV Monica is organizing with a group called Movimiento de Diversidad Sexual, based in Rama. Coordinating with Consejería Escolar and the delegación of MINED ensured permission for teachers’ participation. 

Presenting sociodrama situations

If you’re interested in learning more about this project, contact Monica.
To watch or use the “Diversidad a todo color” video, contact Health sector staff about borrowing it, or look it up on YouTube. 

Teacher Training on Gender

Have you ever found yourself wondering why only the boys ever play soccer during recess, or how girls are almost always called on when the class needs mopping but not nearly as often when a question needs answering? Have you heard teachers giving advice to students like “Girls, you’ll have to take care of yourselves in the future because your husbands will probably be unfaithful” or “Real men don’t cry”?

In honor of the upcoming Day of the Girl, here’s a workshop designed by volunteers to address just those issues of how gender norms affect the school environment. The charla has three objectives:

Counterpart relations across genders: Volunteers speak

You asked, we investigated! Some volunteers wanted to hear suggestions or advice for working with counterparts of the opposite sex. We polled current volunteers from all sectors and here’s how volunteers responded in their own words…

Males PCVs with Female CPs …

“I always hear comments or chisme about how I’m dating the profe I work with. When it’s kids from class I tell them that we just work together, but when it’s adults making jokes I laugh it off.”

“I made a point to get to know my profes’ husbands and families. And also just co-plan at times and places they feel comfortable with.”

“I work with all women in both my schools. This can be challenging at times. It can be hard to feel a part of the community there although I get along with most of them individually. I haven’t really found anything (activity or topic of conversation) to make me feel more part of the community. I work there and have confianza with my profess, but my communities are elsewhere.”

Resource Overview: Teaching English to Prevent HIV Manual

Education is a key to preventing the spread of HIV and reducing stigma and discrimination against those who are living with the virus. Teach English to Prevent HIV: A Teacher’s Manual is designed to enable PCVs to teach English while also providing students a safe space to learn about HIV/AIDS and develop life skills that reduce their vulnerability to infection. The curriculum focuses primarily, though not exclusively, on speaking and listening skills and aims to achieve a measurable impact on students’ knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, intentions, and behaviors.

Props to the HIV-AIDS Taskforce for sharing this information in their monthly update!

Program Design:
This manual is designed for school-based programs targeting students ages 13–16 with an intermediate level of English language proficiency, but could be adapted for an intermediate community class, a group of college students studying English or even a class with English teachers.

Most lessons last one hour, except lessons 10 and 11 which require project work and more time; however, all lessons could easily be extended to an hour and a half with more time for review and language reinforcement activities. 

Piropos in the classroom... what do you do?

Even if it the words weren’t aimed directly towards us, we’ve all heard piropos. Cat calls… Hola mi amor. Chelita bonita. Regálame un beso, mwah! Preciosa. Mírame con esos ojos gatos. Oooh baby. Dame su número. The tone of voice, the leering stares, the kisses and mocking laughter—it’s enough to make your skin crawl right off your body and into a cleansing bleach bath. It’s one thing when piropos come from truck drivers or intoxicated men on the street, but on school grounds, or in the classroom… what do you do?

Volunteers from around the country sound off on how they responded to piropos in the education environment…

Mochila Educativa: Autoestima

The Mochila Educativa is a resource developed by MINSA and Nicaragua Avanza “as an educational guide that allows adolescents to learn about a series of themes concerning sexual reproductive health in order to apply and share the information with other adolescents, young people, family members and community groups.”

This Spanish-language guide offers activities and plans for teaching youth about the following themes:

Gender in the English Language classroom

I was very excited and surprised in a planning session with one of my counterparts (CPs) because the CP had printed flashcards for presenting different types of sports. Soccer, football, cycling, swimming, tennis, baseball, basketball, volleyball… we were ready to go! Except, then I realized every single picture was of a male athlete. When I brought this to the teacher’s attention, the CP responded “But girls don’t play football.” That’s true, I conceded, but we went on to make a pile of the sports women do play (most of them) and the sports women don’t play (football and baseball).

I don’t think this teacher was intentionally favoring male athletes. My CP was just going with what they see most often, and probably some of the first images that popped up on an online search. It’s an easy thing to do. That got me thinking about all the topics during the year when it’s especially important to be conscious about how we portray gender norms to our students.