Blog Post #3: Conversation Facilitation

At the beginning of the semester, it was hard for me to find the balance between facilitation and planning a conversation. As I would think about the conversation circle for the upcoming week I would come up with a list of questions to ask my participants, just in case I found that the conversation was lagging. But I've found that this is not as necessary with my group. As I've gotten to know them better I've found that all of them are really good conversationalists and do a great job of asking each other questions, so it's fun to be able to really be a participant in the conversation.

Having such a great group has allowed me to get better at facilitating a conversation. For example, by modeling how to ask follow up questions of the students early on in the semester, I've noticed that some of the others have started to do this as well. As they begin to ask each other questions and continue to be engaged and interested in what others' have to say, I'm able to take a step back in the conversation and just be a participant. I can't plan for any of these things, these questions that they ask for each other. So I still come with ideas of activities, just in case the conversation lags, but I've found that I don't really need to plan anything out. They're interested in being there and with each other, and because of that I've been able to understand better what being a facilitator means.

Even though this has been a really good thing, and I'm happy that they are really able to converse with one another easily, I think that sometimes it's hard for me to go into a conversation without a set out plan. I'm a planner; I like to have a really clear idea of how things will go before I get there. But because I can't really plan our conversations it's become a challenge to refrain from developing expectations about our conversation beforehand. I don't want to come in with any plans or expectations because I know that there isn't a whole lot I can or should do to control the conversation. Though this has been a challenge it's also been a great learning opportunity.