Practice, Practice, Practice

Growing up we are all told "practice makes perfect". This saying is told to us numerous times throughout our childhoods, yet not a lot of us listen. Just recently, I had the epiphany that this saying is very true in facilitation.

During small group discussions I overheard a student say "why do we need to write scripts? I'm just going to wing it". When I heard this statement it gave me a chuckle, because that just will not fly when facilitating. Being prepared is a way of keeping the participants engaged.
Last semester a group facilitated there whole activity, while reading off a sheet of paper. As a participant this was beyond distracting, and I spent more time staring at their paper than actually listening to the directions. Besides that being distracting, their lack of preparation showed whenever they would slip up on what they were reading. These distractions made a very promising activity, very mediocre.

Another problem that occurs in groups that don't practice, is that the leaders speak over each other. Without practicing as a group, the leaders don't know when to say their parts and therefore they speak out of turn. Also when they don't practice it becomes a distraction because each leader is adding onto each other. This may not seem distracting, but as a participant it is so hard to figure out directions when you have multiple leaders adding things in.
Hearing the student say that they were just going to "wing it", really made me think about how important practice is. Being prepared to facilitate is a huge component of leading a successful activity or event. Something that has made my facilitations so successful in the past is the amount of times I go over and rehearse my scripts. Going forward, I think that practice will always be a big part of leading a group.

Leading With Hands

This week I have been paying close attention to multiple facilitators. Specifically I have been watching how they use their hands as tools. As I have watched I was quick to realize that hands can both be used not only as tools but also as distractors. As tools they can be used as attention getters and to emphasize something you are teaching, or directions you are getting.  On the other hand, using your hands while facilitating can also be very distracting to participants. They become to distracting when you are using them too much or moving them unconsciously.

Hands are very affective tools as attention getters. Doing something as simple as clapping your hands together, is a way to get your participants attention. Furthermore, a facilitator can use their hands to get participants attention by using the "clap once if you hear me" technique. With this technique, the facilitator is able to use their hands, while also getting the participants involved and using their own hands.

Another way that effective leaders use hands as a tool, is when they are used to emphasize whatever topic is at hand. For example, if one is teaching the game duck, duck, goose to their participants. The use of hands is very helpful when showing what the person who is "it", needs to do. Demonstrating with hands can be very useful, and also while teaching topics they can be useful. When teaching a new topic to students, pointing at really important ideas helps emphasize the idea and makes it stand out to the students. Also a simple fist pump after a student answers something correctly can help build confidence within the participant.

Although hands are a great tool, when used to much they become a great distraction. If a teacher points at every idea they are teaching, then there is not one concept that seems more important to know than the others. Also if you are leading a class and you are flailing your arms and hands around while explaining a game, participants start to focus on your hands more than the directions.

Lastly many leaders seem to move their hands unconsciously when they are facilitating. This became very apparent to me when I was in class during the week. I had a professor who kept grabbing her neck or one of her ears. This made it very had to pay attention to the material that she was teaching because all I could focus on were her awkward hand movements from her neck to her ear.

Overall hands are a very useful tool, which I feel every leader should use effectively. Before focusing on this aspect of a facilitator I really only saw positive things about using your hands while facilitating. After a week of observing, I have realized that although hands are great tools, we must also be very conscious of how much and how we are using them. When used to much they are no longer tools and can actually hurt a facilitation. With all that being said, I still encourage hand usage and will continue to use my hands while I facilitate. On the other hand I will make sure to be very cautious about how I use them.

Distractions

Last week we had our KNR 171 class meet in the library to learn about researching activities. I decided to attend this class so I could see how a leader other than Tracy facilitated. While watching the librarian teach the class, I noticed plenty of great ways to facilitate and really noticed something not to do when one facilitates. When facilitating, the leader needs to keep their participants from being distracted.

The librarian leading the class, decided to hand out samples of each book. This strategy would have worked well if she stopped teaching while the students looked at the books. I watched closely to the students, and noticed that they were more interested in the books that she handed out. Whether it was the students looking at the book, or looking for the next book that came their way, they were not listening at all.

While watching her facilitate, I had an "aha" moment and realized how much distractions can effect a facilitation. When we are leading, there will be a lot of set ups during an event. It is our job though to not let the participants get sucked in to the distractions that surround them. This may be hard to do, because you can't block out every distraction, but you can prevent a lot from happening.

Some ways that crossed my mind involved where the students are placed in the room, and good transitions. Having students facing the opposite way of the next activity can be an affective way to keep them engaged in the activity at hand. Also transitions are also very important, and a good transition will keep the participants engaged because they will have to be doing something while the set up is taking place.

Overall, distractions will always be around during events that we facilitate, but we need to do our best to prevent them. Handing out books to participants to look at while one is still teaching is just not a strong way to keep your participants involved. If one can prevent as many distractions from happening, their event or activity will be a great experience for everyone.