Here by the Rising Sun {FLC Reflection}

"The rising sun is the token of a new era in agriculture. If we will follow the leadership of our president, we shall be led out of the darkness of selfishness and into the glorious sunlight of brotherhood and cooperation."

At the Fall Leadership Conference (FLC) held in Altoona, PA I, along with my two co-facilitators, had the opportunity to teach a workshop to 27 chapter FFA presidents. I am going to capture and reflect on this experience through breaking down the word P-R-E-S-I-D-E-N-T.

Purpose: The purpose of this workshop was to prepare and teach presidents their roles and responsibilities of their office in in 2.5 hours. As a facilitation team we focussed our objectives around the 4 defined presidential roles outlined in the FFA handbook.

Ruh Roh: In the words of Scooby Doo there were some "ruh roh" moments after reflecting on the experience. The biggest one was the lack of stating, posting, and revisiting objectives. The students had no idea what we were going to accomplish today. This was a basic practice we discusses the importance of Day 1 this semester that was a lack of preparation on our part. 

Enthusiasm: This is where we crushed it. I was thankful to have facilitators that met and exceeded my enthusiasm. The students responded well to this energy and spirit by the comments on their learner satisfaction form. What worked well was that we were able to be high energy but also hone in on lower tones and pace when we where trying to drive home the point of a topic.

Share the Stage: This is one area where facilitation and teaching in a classroom is different. I shared the stage with 2 other people and it requires extra planning! I am now not only speaking but I have to think about where the other teachers are, when I need to stop talking, when I jump in, and what my duties are at that time. (Ex: handing out papers) One big take away from this was what to do if your co-teacher misinforms, deviates from the plan, or is unclear. What role do I play then? I can better observe the students when someone else is talking so, for example, if directions are unclear I can see the confused faces. Today it worked out that I could jump in to re-state directions if needed, but my take-away is that I need to be able to observe my students and talk in a classroom setting. 

Informational: "The lesson was more informational then motivational" This was a comment that we received after the workshop. Not sure how to interrupt it at first, I came to a conclusion. We did our job. We gave all 27 of our presidents tools for their toolboxes to be better prepared for their roles and responsibilities. I wish that some of our empowering and call to action comments would have been better driven home, but I know we accomplished our objectives for the day.

Discover: What did I discover today? 2.5 hours is a long time, but when you are over prepared it goes by quick! Dave Burgess told us that you cannot base success off of 100% participation and engagement, and even though it was discouraging to have a few students not be into the activities it was a confidence boost to keep going due to the majority of student's engagement and excitement being evident. Students want the opportunity to express their personalities and skills, so give it to them. 

Evaluation: The area of evaluation and assessment lacked today. As the facilitator I do not know what they learned. They each completed a "Know Book" to take with them, but it was individually completed. Also, I regret not taking the time to provide more time for Q&A during and after the workshop. We constantly where trying to keep up with our allotted times but we never did catch up and it resulted in loss of ensuring our students were learning. 

Next Step: Where do I go from here? As mentioned facilitating is a little bit of a different role then teaching in a classroom, but there are skills I can transfer into a classroom. We had a lot of group activities that allowed me to go around and facilitate conversations and work. Also, when we had students share out, I was able to summarize answers and information. These are just two examples among many, but it was powerful to think about all the practice I had together will applicable skills I can use in a classroom setting. 

Transitions: As something that can always be improved, this was a huge area of emphasis to successfully execute today. Our team aimed to keep the student engaged and the activities connected together. We did well, and honestly some were impromptu, but this is an area of growth I saw in myself today.