Let's Talk Facilitation Laura Greenfield, Ph.D.

In today's episode of Let's Talk Facilitation, I share with you my top five strategies for building real community in class.

In last week’s episode, I talked about the importance of students experiencing belonging as a central factor in their willingness (or lack thereof) to engage in your class, and I talked in detail about how to position the cultivation of belonging as a cornerstone of your pedagogy.

How do we inspire feelings of belonging?

Through community building.

Today I am following up with the concrete, tangible, practical steps you can take to build community in your class.

If you have been struggling to get your students to do the work, to show up to class, and to participate in your discussions and activities, you are going to want to listen to last week’s and this week’s episodes!

My top five community-building strategies share a number of qualities in common. They all…


Center opportunities for meaningful relationship building
Are humanizing
Allow you and your students to see one another as real people
Provide space for building genuine connections
Provide support for vulnerability, which is key to developing trust

Here’s what these strategies don’t do: They don’t…


Involve silly games
Force impersonal activities
Keep everything surface level
Require a performance
Privilege small talk
Make shy students miserable

Instead, the practices I’m talking about are purposeful and strategic. They are designed to support the kind of relationships that enable students to show up to class and be valued as their authentic selves.

Enjoy!

 

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In today's episode, I talk about establishing and using group norms as part of the process of building community in your class. If you’d like some ideas of how such group norms might be described, you can download a copy of my FREE PDFs “Sample Class Discussion Guidelines Statement” and “Sample Anti-Racist Discussion Guidelines Statement”.

If you are like most college educators in the U.S. who have been teaching during the pandemic, you're experiencing a very particular challenge when it comes to teaching your classes:

Students aren’t showing up!

The lack of recent student engagement has educators feeling helpless and stuck.

They are asking:


What do I do when my students aren’t doing any of the work?
How do I respond to the students who do complete their work, but who submit it at the last minute, and clearly didn’t pay attention to what the assignment asked of them?
What do I do about the record number of students at risk of failing my class?
How do I deal with all the students who don’t show up???

As an educator devoted to helping other college educators to become outstanding class facilitators, I find myself therefore asking:

How can we get more students to show up to class, pay attention, and do the work, so that facilitating a meaningful classroom experience is even possible?

Few things in life have a single, simple solution.

But this one, my friends, I am pleased to report... does.

That's right. I believe there is one single factor that determines whether or not your students are likely to show up and engage. 

In today’s episode of Let’s Talk Facilitation, I share with you a powerful factor–the number one most vital factor–you must have if there is any hope for getting your students to show up and engage enthusiastically with your activities.

If you're among the countless educators who have been experiencing lower-than-usual student engagement, you’re not going to want to miss this one!

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Want more ideas for inspiring students to participate in class? Get your free copy of the PDF "Ten Powerful Tools to Get Your Students Excited to Talk in Class." Download your copy here!

In today's episode I talk about the unsustainable amounts of work and inadequate compensation weighing down many college educators, resulting in burn out and a mass exodus of faculty leaving academia across the U.S.

I share with you a strategy I've honed for saving tons of time on class preparation. Not only does this strategy save time, but it can make the discussions we lead even better as well.

Time-saving hacks are not the same as dismantling the capitalist system. But we need to save up our energy in the short term in order to persevere for the longer fight. Hopefully today’s episode will help towards that goal.

In addition to my time-saving strategy, I also offer a few hard won lessons about taking care of yourself as best you can when your labor conditions are dehumanizing and you haven’t yet found a feasible opportunity to leave.

Some of those lessons include…


Getting yourself an advocate.
Learning to say “no.”
Remembering you may love your job, but your job does not love you back. 
Setting clear work times and off duty times if you work from home.

I hope this episode provides you a bit of relief.

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Want a copy of the class agenda template that I reference in today's episode? Get your free PDF "Sample Class Facilitation Agenda Template" and save yourself tons of time on class prep!

Get your free copy here!

When the Covid19 pandemic hit, were you among the majority of college educators who had to make an abrupt switch to teaching online?

Despite how many educators began teaching through Zoom and other online meeting platforms, very few ever received formal training in remote pedagogy.

Most were simply thrown into the deep end and forced to figure out how to swim on their own.

As a result, many attempted to recreate an in-person experience through an online platform, and were not satisfied with the results.

Today, I address two of the biggest challenges that facilitators struggle with when making the switch from an in-person to an online environment:


Creating an equitable opportunity for everyone to participate
Figuring out how to “read the room”

I share with you exactly what to do to get your students interacting and using their voices during your remote discussion, so you don’t have to be stuck with the frustration of talking to yourself in front of a bunch of empty screens.

I also give you a step-by-step game plan for deciphering students’ level of understanding, interest, mood and other important information that students often communicate through nonverbal cues that can be challenging to pick up over the computer.

By the end of this episode you are going to have specific tools to get all of this same information from your students over zoom that you are used to gathering in person, with a new and effective set of online adaptations.

I also share some tips about what to do when, despite all your best efforts, students just don’t want to engage.

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Don't have a pen and paper handy while listening to today's episode? No worries! I've created a simple checklist of all of the strategies covered today in a FREE PDF you can download to keep on hand for later.

Get your free copy of my "Checklist: Online Engagement Plan" here!

Of all the challenges teachers say they struggle with, trying to facilitate a discussion when students aren’t engaging–or aren’t engaging meaningfully–seems to come up the most often.

One of the most common reasons students are hesitant to share their ideas in class is because they are worried that what they have to say is “wrong.”

In other words, they think that to participate effectively in class discussion they are supposed to answer the teacher’s questions correctly.

They don’t actually understand what is expected of them as a participant in a purposeful discussion, dialogue, or debate.

They are intimidated by a process that doesn’t make sense to them.

In today’s episode of Let’s Talk Facilitation, I talk about why some students are confused about their role in class discussions and how exactly to support them to speak up, and to speak up effectively.

So grab your pen and paper, pop in your ear buds, and get ready to make a plan with the concrete steps I offer to inspire more engagement in your classes.

FREE BONUS

Want more ideas for inspiring students to participate in class? Get your free copy of the PDF The Ultimate Quickstart Guide to Getting Students to Talk. Download your copy here!

Whether you are outgoing, shy, or “it’s complicated,” when we find something we are excited about and in the mood to talk about and we get into the zone… any one of us can go on and on and on!

There is nothing more fun (if I do say so myself) than talking at length about a subject you care deep;y about, especially when you are with others who also share your enthusiasm.

And there are certainly times, in the classroom included, when you should be in the spotlight, pontificating and storytelling and musing at length so that others can learn from your expertise and insights.

But there are other times, especially during class discussions, when the students are better served by your measured guidance and active listening–not so much your prolific speaking.

When the facilitator talks too much, it eats up time that students could otherwise be speaking.

It can intimidate certain students who worry their contributions could never equal your own and so it can therefore discourage some students from speaking up even when the floor is open to them.

And when you speak too much, it can actually derail the discussion–focusing attention on you and where you want the discussion to go, not necessarily on what is piquing the interests of the students and what they are wanting to explore.

In other words, when you talk too much, you risk interfering with your students’ learning.

So how do you step back and let go a bit as a facilitator?

In today’s episode of Let’s Talk Facilitation, I have a heart-to-heart with my listeners who struggle with finding the right balance of talking, guiding, and listening in their classes.

I share three mistakes overly talkative facilitators make that inadvertently shut down conversation, and what you can do instead.

Of all the problems facilitators have to work through, and as challenging as this may be for some, learning to step back is a pretty great place to be working from. After all, it means you are super enthusiastic about what you are teaching!

And that’s a wonderful gift for your students.

Today, I’ll just help you finesse it.

FREE BONUS!

Want even more ideas for inspiring meaningful engagement in you classes? Be sure to check out my free PDF, The Ultimate Quickstart Guide to Getting Students to Talk, for additional strategies you can implement right away.

Get your free copy: The Ultimate Quickstart Guide to Getting Students to Talk