Your reflections are spot on. It is always a challenge on how to keep things fresh and as a facilitator it is a skill that we can work on and develop. I always try to find a new angle or use a question to learn something new about the participants. It is always exciting to ask a question, based on something that is happening, that you don’t know the answer to. I find that if I am not inspired then the people I am working with definitely won’t be inspired.

You have a great confidence and presence in the group and clearly from the film, as a facilitator. The workshop you will deliver in your school will be a good opportunity to explore the work and really make it your own. As you are already in your schools it’s a good time to start observing the boy/ girl dynamics in your classroom and see which areas you feel could benefit from some exploration through drama. Once you get a few ideas together we can look at developing it further.

Good work.

Cassie

Your confidence is good and it is clear that you are comfortable facilitating a group of your peers.

At this stage of your course it is good to ask as many questions as possible and surprise yourself and others as often as possible.

How can you improve your facilitation? What details can you pick up on when facilitating? Which areas is it important to study in more detail? How do you facilitate an activity to achieve maximum learning? With the sculpting for example it is good to encourage people to really focus on the details of the body and then analyse the use of the body to reveal the intricacies of human communication.

What did you notice about your own participation in the workshop? If you were to it again can you identify 3 things that you would change about your own attitude?

You are a great team player and it could be good to explore ways to develop your leadership qualities.

Cassie

It was very interesting to watch the film of the workshop and then hear your reflections. I was struck by the confidence and perception of your intervention in Maryanne’s touch tag. What elements of drama do you think you can ‘borrow’ for facilitation. Watch the touch tag film and also your facilitation. What do you notice about your use of voice and space in both cases? What is different? We have explored what our bodies reveal about us, how we are able to tell by the way someone stands whether they are comfortable and confident or not and also how we can adjust our body language to tell a different story. A saying I really like is ‘fake it to make it.’ It means that even if you don’t feel it, if you stand tall or still with your feet firmly on the ground, you will feel more confident.

It is excellent that you were able to overcome your nervousness about facilitating. When you deliver the workshop in your school, which we will work on together in advance, we can look at simple exercises to increase your confidence.

Your participation in these workshops has been excellent and you have every reason to be confident and believe in your ability to use drama as a tool for learning.

Cassie

Your confidence in the workshop if fantastic. I understand it can sometimes throw us off centre if we are suddenly presented with a task but as facilitators this needs to be something we can handle. When I first started facilitating in Malawi I remember becoming furious with my co-facilitator because he kept throwing things at me that I wasn’t prepared for and I didn’t like it because I felt it made me look stupid. He never stopped doing it and he did it so much that eventually my confidence developed as I got used to it was able to enjoy the curve balls rather than try and dodge them!

In the workshop you talked about exploring different scenarios with children to explore ground rules. You mention the ‘what if’s.’ At TFAC there are three stages to our process of questioning that is helpful when considering the structure of touch tag:

1) What is happening (the situation)?
2) What are the consequences?
3) What can we do differently?

All of these were evident in your facilitation so, as you say, it is about how to adapt ‘touch tag’ to use to explore various situations that are relevant for the pupils.

Perhaps you could begin thinking about issues that are pertinent for the pupils in your class and how you could use touch tag in the delivery of your TFAC workshop.

Your participation during the workshops has been excellent, you are a good leader and use your voice well when you feel confident. The only thing I would say is that next time you are standing in front of your class, observe where your centre of balance is and how your posture affects your delivery. Let me know what you notice!

Cassie

Your facilitation during the workshop was very clear, consequently there seemed to be learning on several different levels. Through the actual doing of the activity with and without rules the participants were able to experience the benefit of ground rules in a very concrete way. I also liked the way you led this onto a discussion about how the activity can be adapted for children. I agree that your questioning was open and well structured, guiding the learners.

You mention about increasing your presence during facilitation – it would be good to reflect on how you use your body, your voice and eye contact to achieve the stability that you are talking about. I would be happy to talk to you about this in more detail. Maybe it is something we can consider during the facilitation of the workshop in your primary school?

Let me know your thoughts about it.

Cassie

I enjoyed watching your improvisation and your sculpting activity in the workshop, you clearly have a natural flare for drama! Your energy in the group is really good and it is excellent the way you draw on your personal experience. Since the beginning of the course your openness has put members of the group at ease and encouraged others to share and participate.

Regarding the facilitation I understand that co-facilitation can be challenging. Even if it is an activity that the group are already familiar with there is always something new to be learnt. Also, as a facilitator there is always something new to be learnt and we should take every opportunity to explore and develop. If we take a leading role, how did it feel, where are we leading from (the front, middle or even the back) or did we just take a back seat and if so why? What could we do to improve our attitude?

When you facilitate the workshop in your school it would be good to see if you can bring some of that dramatic confidence into your facilitation- you have a lot to offer and your energy is inspiring when you share it! The way you bring humour to your activities and reflection is also very positive.

Keep it up.

Cassie

I like the honesty of your reflection. It would be good to consider how we can approach things from a different angle in order to facilitate maximum learning for pupils. Although we may have already done an activity with a group, are there other things to learn from it? How can we use an activity in different ways to explore different areas? How can we make it interesting and relevant?

Maybe ask yourself why you found it hard to talk more during the facilitation and look at what your resistance may have been. Personally I find it helpful to reflect on the occasions when I let myself off the hook and why I do it!

Good work.

Cassie

I have really enjoyed watching your videos of the first day of TfaC workshop and about Sexual and Reproductive Health, you could not hide your excitiment about your first day.

I have also enjoyed reading about your experiences of the workshop you had on ‘exploring societies expectations of men and women’. Much as we have different cultural backgrounds but I have observed that our societies expects more or less the same from men and women.

Here the society expects women to be submissive and have no say in circle where they are men e.g. at community gatherings, developmental gatherings and other.

Society also expects women not to contribute to decision making at home level and community level.

On the other hand men are regarded the most influencial people in the society, given alot of chances to participate in everything that is happening at community level.

Most of the men are bread winners hence can have a string of girlfriends or wives as long as they are taking care of their families.

These expectations by the society help in the spread of STI.

It was really nice to see your reply to my video posting. I really feel that theatre for a change is going to make a big different to my teaching practice. You might notice from our videos that we find it really difficult to talk about sexual health issues but I do feel that theatre for a change is helping us communicate more effectively.

Look forward to your reply
Mary

I really enjoyed watching your video, I learned so much from it. It seems our experiences are similar in terms of how we have learned sex education in school. However, there are things we have experienced that are very different but that is a good thing because we can learn from each other and learn about our differing cultures.

HIV and AIDS is just becoming more common in our society however sexually transmitted infections (STI’s) are much more common here. Things like chlamydia and gonorrhea are much more common, especially in people that practice unsafe sex (no condoms). People in their 20′s are more at risk of getting STI’s. However the doctor can prescribe medication to help you.

I am keen to answer any questions you might have for me. However, can i ask you…how you dealt with your terrible experience of being raped? If that happened to us we would be encouraged to contact the police.

Take care,

Robyn.

It is really inspiring to hear you discussing that you know your rights with regards to sex and that you will stand by them.

It is also really good to hear you speaking so openly, having the ability to use your own experiences in order to make learning “real” is something that our tutors over here in Scotland look for, this is an ability that you clearly have and something that will make your teaching so much more valuable for the children in your class.

Thank you for sharing so much with us, I really am learning a lot from the TFAC experience.

Ashley

I really enjoyed watching your video and listening to your thoughts. I think it is very interesting to hear how things are in Malawi and how they differ from here in Scotland.

I hope to learn from you and your peers and that you will be able to learn from all of us as well.

I also cant believe how sunny and warm it looks over there!! It’s freezing here at the moment!!

Hannah

Your video is such an eye opener- it is fantastic that you feel comfortable discussing these topics and your own experiences. Is Scotland, generally, if people experience the tragic things you are discussing they are encouraged to forget it and not to discuss it, but the fact that you feel comfortable enough to allow others to learn from your own experiences can only be a positive things for when you are teaching.

It is also really interesting to hear that the common problems in Malawi are not too different from the problems we face in Scotland. We do have problems with HIV and Aids but not to the same extent that the people in Malawi do. In Scotland, we have big problems with teenage pregnancies and other STD’s, along with big problems with drug and alcohol abuse and it would be really interesting to hear how you teach sexual health to the children in your class.

Look forward to hearing from you again,

Ashley

I liked your video, thank you for your insights.