Facilitator: What Makes Someone a Good or Bad Facilitator- February 5, 2011

     As teachers we are going to have to wear several different hats for many reasons. One reason to wear several different hats is to engage students in a lesson. You as the teacher may pretend to be a queen or a pharaoh to get kids engaged in math or social studies. While teaching literature circles, you the teacher is not always the person leading the discussion. These are just two of the ways teachers have to wear different hats. One of the job of a teacher sometimes is to be a facilitator.

     This link posted below is to give you tips or key skills on how to be an effective facilitator. Click on the link below if you want to see the video. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbEeHWahNmw&feature=player_embedded

To Be a Great Facilitator: click on the link below and watch the video. This video discusses about being a good facilitator. It discusses the seven key skills for effective facilitation.The seven key facts are: listens, supports, summarize, challenges, leads the process, creates a safe environment, and trusts the group.  This is important to know when becoming a teacher.  If you follow the seven facts then you will  be a good facilitator and teacher. 

This video was short but filled with a lot of important information. This video talks about being a good facilatator. It talks about being prepared, define the purpose of the meeting, ask questions,  make sure everyone is participating and summarize, state next steps. The things listed in the previous were discussed in detail throughout this short video.

What makes a good facilitator? Someone who follows the seven key skills listened above. By listening and encouraging students to ask questions. Make the lesson more like a discussion based where the students and teacher have a discussion and the teacher acts as the facilatator. A teacher needs to have a balanced between between lecture and hands-on experiment which involves more of being a facilatator. A good facilatator looks  to guide the students through a task or experiment. A good facilatator is someone who is prepared ahead of time, can define the purpose of the meeting/ lesson, and  asks questions to guide the students through the lesson. A good facilatator makes sure that everyone participates and understands what is going on in the lesson. A good facilatator summarizes the lesson and gives steps or instructions to the students. 


As a teacher I will be a good facilatator. I will make sure to have the students understand the lesson. I will make sure to gave all the students participate in the lesson. I will be prepared and ask the students questions to guide them through the lesson and to make that the students understand the lesson. I will also define the purpose of the lesson and why we are doing this lesson or experiment. 


 A bad facilatator is someone who does not have control of the classroom and the students in the classroom are off task and talking and moving around the classroom. The students are not listening to the teacher's instructions. This is how to be a good or bad facilatator to the class.