More FBT

So here are a few more pictures of our adventures during FBT (Field Based Training) where we had 9 trainees come visit us to see just what life as a Healthy Schools volunteer is like!

Cristina and I started out with an explanation of what Healthy Schools is using this house to represnt the aspects of the program.
The foundation was made of a drop of water, a picture of chorros (water faucets) and a toothbrush. These elements are absolutely fundamental to the program and no one can be healthy without them. We explained that our job is help the communities get water and faucets in the schools so the kids can practice healthy habits such as handwashing and teeth brushing. Their job as parents is to provide the toothbrushes and paste and towels and other items one needs to practice these habits.



The walls of the house were made of health lessons. If the students don't really understand what parasites are or how one can get diarrhea, they won't see the importance of the health habits.

Finally the roof is made of the healthy habits in the house and at school. Many parents themselves don't have healthy habits and therefore don't insist that their kids do. Encouraging parents to wash their hands with their kids, send them to school clean and buy them the items they need to practice healthy habits is all part of their responsibilities as parents.

This group of trainees did a skit using a fresh egg and an egg that had been soaked in a cup of coca-cola. This demonstrates the harm that sugary things do to our teeth.

As part of their section on dental health, the trainees had the moms use homemade toothbrushes and homemade toothepaste (that they made during the meeting) to brush the egg/tooth. Everyone could see the difference brushing made and how if resources are low, one can use items found around the house to make toothpaste and toothbrushes! Having interactive health lessons with parents is an important part of the Healthy Schools program. Otherwise, the students will only practice the habits at school and continue with poor health habits at home.

This group was responsible for talking to the moms about a homemade rehydration solution made of salt, sugar and water and most importantly explaining why it's important to make sure your child is taking in fluids when they are sick. (some people believe that a child shouldn't eat or drink when sick.) It was a cute demonstration because they used a bag of water as the child. It had a face and body parts etc. The child becomes sick and start vomiting and having diarrhea and crying etc. The trainees poked holes in the bag at the child's mouth and eyes and butt (the moms thought it was hilarious!) to represent how the child loses fluids. If the child continues losing fluids without the mom replenishing the supply, the moms noted that the child will die. It was a messy but fun way to illustrate health concepts to moms who have probably never though of illness affecting their children in that way.

We had a great time!

Cristina and I were lucky enough to have "Field Based Training" come visit us for an entire week.

....Ok so we begged since the moment we arrived at site to have the trainees lol but we got our wish and had 9 trainees come to Olintepeque to see just what it's like when theory and training meet real life in Guatemala. It was an exhausting (and I do mean exhausting) week full of workshops, trainings and meetings with parents, schools already certified in our program and schools still working to acheive certification.

The workshop started out with the teachers doing a short skit about things their students do that drive them crazy. As you can see here, this student is standing on their desk throwing papers at his classmates. Although it was a dramatization, it was certainly not an exaggeration.

We designed this workshop, entitled "Classroom Management", to teach teachers how to manage their students and activities so as to maximize the 4 hours the students spend in school (from 8-12:30 -minus the half hour lost when students arrive at 8:30 - with about 45 minutes to an hour for snack and recess ).

The teachers did a great job on their skits and it was a great way to start the day with something fun and show why the workshop was necessary.


As "practice what you preach or model what you teach", we treated the teachers like they were our students in our classroom. One way to track good behavior was by putting candy or marbles (the little boys LOVE marbles) in a jar for every person who participated or had a great comment or did an activity well and according to the rules (for example without talking). We also removed candies or marblees from teachers who arrived late from snack, who were chatting or if a cell phone rang.

As another way to illustrate how one can develop a discipline system (as in the vast majority of classrooms the teach will say empty threats that they have no intention of carryin out)-we used a volunteer from Cantel's soccer "yellow card, red card" system. If someone was talking to their neighbor, or answered a cell phone, or left to answer a cell phone, or was reading a magazine (it's hard for us to imagine that someone would wip out a newspaper and start reading during a workshop but it happens regularly!)---they would get a yellow card. Another offense warrented another yellow card and finally a red card, after which disciplinary action was taken (for teachers in the form of not receiving their diploma).

Here's a picture of my work partner, Cristina, and I in front of a few posters the trainees made to help them facilite their part of the workshop.

Due to a series of events that lead to the taller we had planned for our 260 teachers falling apart just days before the training events, we gave the presentation to the teachers of "magesterio". Magesterio is the school that aspiring teachers must attend to get their liscense/certification to teach. It was great because we were teaching teachers of teachers! They could either use the classroom management directly in their classes or present the info they recived to their students. They staff of this particular magesterio were extremely participatory and well behaved! We enjoyed working with them and will continue to do so in the future.

After the final session, the teachers broke into groups and played Jeopardy for a prize. They were extremely "pilas" or they knew their stuff!! They didnt' talk when we were presenting and took some notes and made plenty of comments! (sometimes with less "pilas" teachers it's hard to get them to comment or say that they disagree or that they have other ideas that compliment the ideas presented.)

Here's a picture of the diplomas that they received for participating in the workshop.Diplomas are of the utmost importance here. One makes their resume by compiling diplomas to show what they have done in their career.

Finally, to celebrate being doing with a stressful workshop that took waaaaaay too much planning : 0), we went out for Indian food. It was AMAZING!!