I had just come from facilitating for a small group of students. Two weeks with students is a short span of time to really develop a comprehensive opinion, but that's the reason why it is called an exposure. My own basic toolkit for facilitation is a listening ear, a ready smile and an eye for reading faces. I have been part of a few projects with different people from foreign countries. And at the start the language is the most obvious mountain to summit.
The truth is, it's not such a tall mountain. Aside from the help of excellent interpreters, I have learned that one of the most important things with a group endeavor is setting up ground rules for the whole team. It will be hard enough to be in a strange situation, but it will be easier to go through any experience with a winning team attitude.
By the end of the two-week exposure, I got my rest, and am currently working on staving off a bacterial infection. I cannot let it just pass right now because I have a long day trip coming. Plus, it's never convenient to get sick.
I did enjoy this past experience, though. It is always a special memory to see a group form a system of support and open pockets of dialogue to share thoughts. Compliance to the schedule draws surface observations, but group reflection, pieces together personal opinion, feelings and knowledge. What students do afterwards shows how much they interact with their group and personal times. At the very end of the exposure, the students were given homework to do some art. The output was amazing to me. Each one was a record of what they valued the most from their personal experiences. This is what I will treasure.
The students are all back in their homes now. I do not think of the exposure as a pivoting experience for them. In many ways, the students will have bigger and more harrowing experiences in their lives. I prefer to believe that the exposure will be part of what they will consider in the future as part of their framework. This is where I hope I have been responsible in the time I had been allowed to think with all of them. To my group, I hope for the best.
Growing takes time, but like the sugarcane, the sweetness comes after much rain, much heat and much work.
The truth is, it's not such a tall mountain. Aside from the help of excellent interpreters, I have learned that one of the most important things with a group endeavor is setting up ground rules for the whole team. It will be hard enough to be in a strange situation, but it will be easier to go through any experience with a winning team attitude.
By the end of the two-week exposure, I got my rest, and am currently working on staving off a bacterial infection. I cannot let it just pass right now because I have a long day trip coming. Plus, it's never convenient to get sick.
I did enjoy this past experience, though. It is always a special memory to see a group form a system of support and open pockets of dialogue to share thoughts. Compliance to the schedule draws surface observations, but group reflection, pieces together personal opinion, feelings and knowledge. What students do afterwards shows how much they interact with their group and personal times. At the very end of the exposure, the students were given homework to do some art. The output was amazing to me. Each one was a record of what they valued the most from their personal experiences. This is what I will treasure.
The students are all back in their homes now. I do not think of the exposure as a pivoting experience for them. In many ways, the students will have bigger and more harrowing experiences in their lives. I prefer to believe that the exposure will be part of what they will consider in the future as part of their framework. This is where I hope I have been responsible in the time I had been allowed to think with all of them. To my group, I hope for the best.
Growing takes time, but like the sugarcane, the sweetness comes after much rain, much heat and much work.
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