Life Skills Education for Adolescent capacity building-Workshop -1

Our School participated in the Xth Annual Adolescent Peer Educators Orientation Course in Life Skills conducted at India Islamic Cultural Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, on 19 October, 2011. Workshop-1 Adolescence is the special phase when children undergo mental as well as physical changes. Rapid physical growth, development of thinking processes and identification of adult characteristics etc characterise the phase. Stress, difficulty in making decisions and peer pressure become almost inevitable. In order to journey this phase comfortably, our School nominated 5 students alongwith School-counsellor, Ms. Sukhmeen Cheema to attend a series of workshops conducted by leaders from a variety of professions. The facilitator of these workshops was well-known psychiatrist, Dr Jitendra Nagpal and our students were Amrita Dutta, class 11, Pavas and Gaurav Aswani from class 10, Ojasvi Jain and Palak Aneja from class 9. As PEER EDUCATORS, the students aimed to enrich from these workshops in several ways. Notably, To receive special training in making mature decisions, clarifying moral values and acting accordingly; To master the art of receiving and filtering extensive information relevant to improving daily lives; To be recognized as leaders by peers, family and community and To become committed to being responsible citizens, and acting age-appropriately. LIFE SKILLS, it was explained could help address these needs by reinforcing the qualities of Self awareness, Empathy, Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, Decision-making, Problem Solving, Effective Communication, Interpersonal Relationships, Coping with stress and Coping with emotions. Activities used for the purpose were Mini Lectures, Group Participation and discussions, Brainstorming, Role Play etc. Understanding and Coping with Anger, Loss & Sadness: Managing emotions, Workshop - 2, 4 November, 2011 The idea of keeping an Anger Journal was suggested, aimed at analysing what makes us angry, what we do when we are angry, whether what we do is correct and the efficient ways of dealing with anger. We were also directed to introspect to revisit our aspirations and our fears. Failure in fulfilling our hopes leads to fear, whilst if unable to overcome our fears, it, too, in turn, keeps us from realising our aspirations. We were also shown some movie clippings, depicting anger, leading to loss for eg the conflict between son and father in the movie Udaan . We were also told about the 'Loss Cycle'. Chief Guest, Dr. Shikha Sharma articulated about how ill-health leads to anger. She also enumerated the healthy way of coping with anger like eating good nutritious food . 2 college-going NCC participants, by a presentation illustrated how the NCC helps in managing anger, loss and grief. Palak Aneja, 9-C The mela had myriad programmes for women and child development. It demonstrated the journey of childhood and motherhood and all that empowers these. It gave visitors a glimpse of the policies, schemes,and initiatives of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India. Projects of non-governmental organizations in their respective fields were also represented. A dance performance by a school showcased the discrimination against girls in society. Similarly, a street play depicted unfair means used against women. We were divided into groups and students from our School chose the thematic play to project our viewpoint on the subject. We got 5 minutes to note down the script and 2 minutes to enact. It was an exciting experience and we were very motivated to help create awareness about a worrisome social issue. Ojasvi Jain, 9B. The workshop began with role-plays and enactments prepared and performed on-the-spot by participating students. These educated us about drugs and alcohol-addiction in a fun and interactive manner. A question-answer session conducted hy Dr. Jitendra Nagpal followed. He then spoke about the different kinds of drugs that adolescents are drawn to, the harmful effects of tobacco and alcohol, the reasons which compel teenagers to engage in such risk-taking behaviour and how we can help curb such afflictions both amongst ourselves and amongst our peers. There was an animated exchange between the participants and we returned enriched.