Saturday, education training time!
Good news for all the students of primary schools, high schools, MBO and HBO: there are new, freshly trained guest teachers coming your way! On 6 and 13 October the yearly training session for guest teachers took place and I was there. In this short article I will tell you everything you need to know.
My name is Danisha and this year I am a member of the education committee of Amnesty International Students Group Utrecht (AISU). The committee organises guest lectures at different schools around Utrecht. More practically speaking, two committee members give at least one lesson each month. The committee exists for quite some time now. I applied for this committee because I think that human rights education is important and that it can really have a lasting impact on children. Furthermore, I consider it as a learning opportunity. I like to give presentations and I enjoy working with children, so I think it will be an enriching experience.
In order to give those human rights lessons, all the committee members are required to follow the Amnesty Guest Teacher Training. In those two days we got a good understanding of what the lessons should entail, how to prepare the lessons, how to make them diverse and how to handle difficult situations. The training was mainly about teaching skills, not about human rights related knowledge. For example, we paid attention to different kind of learning strategies, communication with teenagers, giving feedback etc. However, it was not purely theoretical. We did multiple exercises that we could use in class as well.
In short, the training taught me a basic understanding of teaching. I will definitely use this knowledge to prepare and give my own guest lectures. There was room for all kind of creative teaching ideas. Furthermore, the teachers of the training were highly skilled and genuinely passionate about human rights education. I felt inspired and cannot wait to get started!
Interested in following this training as well? In February 2019 we will start the next one. By the way: the training is in Dutch!
