Saturday, February 25, 2012

Another Way to Encourage Girls To Be Confident

One night this week, I was teaching an English class of both boys and girls at the dar chebab (Darija, or Moroccan Arabic, for "youth center"), where I do most of my volunteering as a Youth Development PCV here in Morocco. Moroccan kids don't seem to be used to raising their hands when answering questions I pose to them when I'm teaching a class. I direct them that if they know the answer to raise a hand. Often they'll just shout out the answer, but sometimes a student will actually raise his or her hand. I'll then call on a student who has raised his or her hand.

I love it especially when girls raise their hands in response to questions I ask when I'm teaching. It shows that they're confident. It's important to reinforce such self-confidence, especially in girls, who don't get as many chances to assert themselves here. Therefore, I try to be sure not to call on boys raising their hands more often than I call on girls raising their hands. By calling on a girl raising her hand, I'm encouraging her in how she is being confident by raising her hand.

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