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If you are following a specific program or curriculum, it is most likely you will be given teaching strategies to learn and use. In most cases, these strategies were tested, researched, and judged as the best way to teach a certain sex education program.   Some curriculums will be very specific, providing you with detailed lesson plans, activities, and strategies. Many educators will work with their school, community, or sexual health organization to figure out what the best approaches and strategies to teaching sex education are. If there are particular strategies or approaches that you believe are effective, you can always find a way to become involved with how sex education is taught to others. Join organizations, your school board, or speak to officials about ways to better sex education in your area. Most sexual health organizations encourage educators to adopt cooperative learning strategies. This means students or learners work with others in assignments, discussions, and projects. This gets students involved in their learning and helps them construct meaning from information on their own. Some examples of cooperative learning strategies include:    Inquiry-based learning: This approach places students' questions, ideas, and observations in the centre of their learning experience. You will act as a "provocateur" or someone that introduces students to ideas or topics that is of interest to them or what matters to them. Students are guided to investigate and look for answers using critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills, and evidence-based reasoning.  Problem-based learning: This approach begins by presenting a problem to students before they receive any knowledge about a topic. This method gives you more control of what topics or problems to focus on. After students are informed of the problem, they are encouraged to seek knowledge and solutions cooperatively together. For example, you could make up a hypothetical problem like "Sally doesn't want to have sex with her boyfriend. How can she tell her boyfriend this?" and then ask students to come up with a solution.  Project-based learning: This approach has students working on a long term project that addresses and investigates complex questions, problems, or challenges in sex education. A popular project-based learning approach used in sex education is to simulate what having a baby is like. Students bring home a lifelike baby doll that cries, eats, poops, and pees, and are asked to care for it for an extended period of time. The project helps students realize that caring for a child can be difficult and teaches them responsibility. If you have had a baby, try caring for the doll yourself, and then tell them how it compares to caring for a real baby. (Is it easier? Harder?) You can use pictures, diagrams, videos, or visual demonstrations to keep students engaged while you're teaching. Try these activities:  Fill in the blank diagrams. This is especially helpful to demonstrate the human body and things related to it such as the menstrual cycle, genitalia, areas affected by puberty, or the reproduction cycle. Watch informative videos. In most sex education curriculums, videos will be provided to help you teach your students. Demonstrate how to do things. In many sex education courses, educators will demonstrate with objects how to put on a condom, how to use a menstrual pad or tampon, how contraceptives work, and how sexually transmitted diseases work. It's important these demonstrations only simulate the actual action. You may have seen educators put condoms on bananas or use small cups of water to demonstrate how a tampon works. Journal-writing encourages students to record, reflect, and write about their health learning. Many health care providers encourage people of all ages and life stages to use journal writing to keep track of their health concerns. Having a health care journal can:   Keep track of your health. It's easier to detect patterns if you record any concerns you have about your health the moment it happens. A constant ache or pain could indicate a bigger problem if it has been happening for days or weeks. An injury in the past might explain a new health concern today. Keep track of medications. A journal could help remind you to take medication, get tested regularly, or inform them of what medications they have used in the past. Provide an overall review of a person's health. Just by recording all things health-related, a health care journal can give a brief summary of your health. After teaching your students, it's important to evaluate how effective your teaching was. There are many ways you can assess your students:  Do a comprehension check. You can simply ask students to reiterate what they learned after a lesson. Or give them a quiz or do a review exercise. Observe your students. You may notice a few disengaged students, or you may realize a certain topic makes everyone feel uncomfortable. By observing your students, you can assess how effective your lesson was. Assess projects and assignments according to a rubric. This is a more accurate way to measure the success of your lesson. Many curriculums provided by your school or a health care organization will have rubrics to help you assess students' learning.
Learn the teaching strategies required of your program. Choose activities that encourage students to work cooperatively. Use visuals and media to aid your teaching. Encourage students to reflect through journal writing. Evaluate and assess your students' learning.