I have had many experiences at the university that made me learn many lessons and values of how to be a better facilitator in my teaching career. The various schools, teachers, and courses that I have had the opportunity to interact with have assisted me in my growth as a facilitator and given me the right tools to assist me in my success.
My first experience as a facilitator was an eye-opener as I observed when I joined my first high school to be a facilitating teacher. By then I only had basic knowledge and skills of how to be an effective facilitator. After observing and working with the various teachers at this school, I realized that every one of them had their style and taste in teaching. I came to learn that for one to become a good teacher, one should be passionate about the course she or he is teaching and also care about their learner’s wellbeing and progress. Beginning my teaching career journey at such a high school with prestige made me very fortunate. The students there were dedicated to their work and had a great focus for a successful future.
I was grateful for this first experience at that school, but I came to comprehend what it takes to be successful in my teaching career when I joined my third school as a facilitator in Naperville. I was given a great chance to associate and work with a wonderful teacher who used a lot of diverse teaching strategies in her classes (Peace, 2016). She had a positive attitude towards her work and she had quite an inspiring relationship with her students. I learned that a teacher should have an open mind in her daily approach to teaching. A facilitator should give his or a student’s a safe environment for them to express themselves and learn more. I also got to learn how a high school works and how knowledge and values are incorporated in students.
One of the important lessons I learned at these schools was conflict resolution. I once was made the head of a debate club and I had to facilitate the club. Sometimes the two groups would have very heated arguments and I would be lost on what to do. I learned that conflict should be completely avoided during such conversations and if a topic came up that I saw would lead to conflict, did everything possible to close that discussion. In some cases where conflict was inevitable, I laid down the rules on how to go about the topic to avoid unruliness. In some cases, I had to put in my toughs to break off the tie that brought conflict in the groups.
I also learned a lot on how to improve my listening skills (Pearce, 2016). I learned that I could listen to the flow of points given by the students when they did it in an orderly manner and it got really hard to listen when they were unruly. I had to tame the arguments and conversations to listen well. I also got to work on my curiosity levels during the discussions. I would ask the students questions where I didn’t understand their points and urged them to clarify further. Those points that looked vague I didn’t care to know more about.
I viewed myself as a good facilitator because I was determined to improve on my weaknesses such as conflict resolution and for those values that I knew were right, I didn’t hesitate to pass them across to the students. I intend to be open to learning more and improving my facilitating skills. I would like to learn from some successful facilitators and incorporate their techniques in my facilitating like those of the teacher from my third school.
References
Pearce, D. (2016). Getting started: An action manual. In Action learning in practice (pp. 121-136). Routledge.
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