Goat stress and lion stress

If you've been reading my blog the last few months, it may seem that all I do is plan and run GLOW camps :)
And while that has been a big part of my service, especially in the past few months, I am doing other things. Aside from the random things that come along like the chalkboard project, the thing I do the most on a regular basis is teach guidance and counseling classes.

Guidance and counseling here is an interesting hybrid of health class, some civics, study skills, and career counseling. The topics range from things like stress and anger management, communication and decision making, self awareness and goal setting, to reproductive health, HIV, contraception and teenage pregnancy. There are also topics like voting, crime, career choices, and what it means to be a citizen. These last topics overlap a lot with the social studies and moral education curriculum, so I don't cover them in my classes. I'm not sure the American should be teaching on what it means to be a citizen of Botswana, ya know? :)

Currently I'm teaching 9 of the 18 classes. 5 are Form 2 classes, like 9th graders, and 4 are Form 3 classes, like 10th graders. My favorites are the Form 2s. Form 1s are still very shy and won't talk AT ALL. Form 3s think they own the place and senioritis is setting in. Form 2 is a nice middle ground where they will sometimes talk, but aren't giving me too much attitude.

So far I've taught lessons on self awareness, stress management, communication, goal setting, gender, and peer pressure. Soon I'll be getting into sex and reproductive and condoms and stuff, and that will be a new level of hilarity I'm sure. I really focus on the basics though, of knowing yourself, making decisions that are good for you, managing your own stress, etc. 

So much of the message these kids get are negative: DON'T get pregnant, DON'T have sex, DON'T drink or do drugs, DON'T get HIV. But I feel like most of the time, the kids aren't a) given the tools to not fall into these problems, and/or b) Not given good alternatives to these things. So I'm trying to approach it holistically. Instead of scaring you to death about the dangers of teen pregnancy, let's look at your goals and what you want to accomplish. Now how would getting pregnant get in the way of the cool things you want to do? What are some ways you can avoid that?

Sometimes the kids literally won't talk at all in class. Often they say they can't understand me and want me to speak Setswana, although classes are supposed to be in English. Lesson planning is usually me figuring out what information I want to get across to them, and then figuring out a way to do that which is both interactive AND something they will understand. Sometimes it's writing on big paper and getting teachers to help me translate key words. Sometimes it's having them write their answers instead of speak, or raise their hands to vote what they think is right. Often it's me saying something in broken English and broken Setswana, and trying to judge how many of them understood what I just said.

One of my favorite lessons has been on stress management. I explain that sometimes things that cause us stress are actually good things. I give the example of goats.

Me: What causes you stress? *list their answers on the board* Is all stress bad?
Class: Yes.
Me: Ok. Now, are goats bad?
Class: No.
Me: If a goat walks into class and starts eating your book, what do you do?
Class: *giggles*
Me: *Walks to a student, takes her book* Ke podi. Ke ja buka ya gago. O dira eng?  (I am a goat. I am eating your book. What are you doing?)
Girl: Chase it away.
Me: Exactly! Goats aren't bad, but goats eating your books, ke mathata.  (It's a problem.) Now, what would you do if a lion came in the room?
Class: Ieesh. 
Me: Ditau. O dira eng?  (Lions. What do you do?) Shoo them away? *I pretend to shoo away a lion)
Class: *laughs* No! Run away!
Me: Right! So, stress is your body's way of saying: Stop.  There's a problem. And it's up to you to figure out whether you should fix or cope with something, or get away from the problem. Is it a goat stress, something that is a good thing, but causing a problem? *label some of the things on the list with podi  (goat)* School, exams, being a teenager, friends, boyfriend. Or is it tau stress, something that is never good, that you need to get help or distance from? *label some thing on the list with 'tau'  (lion): abuse, death, lack of food, HIV. *

From there I give them examples to talk about in small groups, and we end with talking about healthy ways to cope with stress. Hopefully they learn good coping mechanisms, and that even good things can cause stress. And that no matter if it's a goat or a lion, it's always okay to ask for help.

I'm probably not going to be a career teacher, but for the most part, I'm having a lot of fun with this :)