Teach a workshop - PEP BB community.sand.teach

Some tips for successful teaching, especially for beginner teachers:

Prepare! Know your material very well, so that if you need to be spontaneous, you can. Try an visualize yourself teaching and the reactions of your students and think of responses ahead of time. You might not need those responses, but just the process of thinking through them, will help you (1) know your material better, and (2) know how students react, so you can react to that.

Observe and respond As you teach, watch your students.

Do they look bored? If they do, try to make things more interesting--if you need to skip to your activity earlier than you planned, that's okay! Or maybe try a joke, or do something unexpected. Or maybe ask for a volunteer to help with something.

Do they look confused? Gather their attention (if it has wandered) and try to explain something in a new way--draw a picture, explain it from a different angle, get them to act it out, find something to illustrate your point. Don't just keep talking, though! They will stay confused and start getting bored. It's more important that they learn SOMETHING, than that you get through what you wanted to say.

Is someone being disruptive? Hopefully this isn't the case, but if you're working with young people, or people who are friends, it can happen. There's various techniques to getting someone to stop being disruptive: making a general announcement ("please don't talk to your neighbor, as it makes it harder for others to hear") or something funny, ("I know soil isn't as fun to talk to as human beings, but I promise you'll learn to dig it!"), or asking them a question to get them focused again ("Johny, can you tell me how clay and sand differ? How easy do you think it would be to make a castle with sand, rather than clay?"), or conscript them as a volunteer ("Johny, could you hold his jar of sand?"). If all else fails, point them and their behavior out individually ("Johny, no one else can hear when you keep talking. Please don't waste their time and mine.")

Appeal to all the senses, if possible Have pictures for the eyes to see, activities for the hands to do and feel, words for the ears to hear and the mind to grasp.

Eye-contact It's generally best to keep your eyes scanning over your audience. If there's someone paying great attention, scan to them more often (for your own reassurance and self-esteem boost), but keep scanning and try to catch the eyes of everyone (but don't hold the eye contact, just glance past them). You might also find it easier just to pick a spot to stare at in the middle of the group, but this will make it harder to observe and react to your students.

I think I got this one done this evening.  I taught Introduction to Permaculture to the local homesteading club.  There were 11 attendees and the class ran about 1:15 long.  Here's a link to the thread in the workshop forum:
Introduction to Permaculture talk in Northern Wisconsin

The clock has some glare on it but hopefully it's clear enough.  First photo was at 6:05pm and second was near the end at 7:05pm.

I have a question. I livestream "workshops", mostly just teaching simple farming or gardening skills, almost once a week via dlive.tv. I have tons of links because I save most of the videos. The video has a counter of number of watchers, a countdown clock showing time in the workshop. I was just wondering if this would work. If not, I do have a few videos from preMarch were I was teaching in classroom course. Just wondering about the livestreaming.  Thanks, Have a wonderful day.

https://www.facebook.com/events/113427313443849?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A5%2C%22action_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22page%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22main_list%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%22%5C%22[]%5C%22%22%7D]%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D

Sustainable Garden Series: Seed Starting Soil 20Feb 2020 Bluefield, WV
Important note. The times are wrong due me arrive early to the Library because of them choosing to close early that day.

Normally my class run for 1 hour to 2.5 depending on how interactive the workshop is or how much we need to cover. This class had 12 folks, i believe 2 or 3 left at the end of first hour.

Cheers

Here are snapshots (along with some planning details) from my latest "Kinder Garden" summer school workshop about herbs and natural medicine.  

This workshop was part of a larger education series I've been providing to my local urban community.  You can read about how my volunteering at an old compost bin became an opportunity for building community over here at this thread, "unexpected yields".

Book references:

Doc Jone's delightful Homegrown Herbalist book can be purchased here

The Falcon Guide to Edible Wild Plants and Useful Herbs can be purchased on Amazon here.

The other book I got at a thrift store for a buck!  I can't vouch for it yet, but it is available on eBay.

Something neat I learned here from a teaching standpoint (other than the herbal medicine and plant recognition), is the value of marginal spaces (Permaculture Principle #11).  A fence by a dumpster can literally transform into an expanding guerilla garden classroom and public art display with some simple cardboard and garden wire.

Here is my submission for the Community - Sand - Teach a Workshop BB.

At the PJT, I taught 8 attendees how to make Beeswax Cloths (to replace plastic wrap or aluminum foil).

To document the completion of the BB, I have provided the following:
- the workshop (with countable attendees) as it is beginning (including a clock or phone with the time)
- the workshop (with countable attendees) as it is ending (including a clock or phone with the time)
- you teaching the workshop with at least one identifiable attendee
- some students doing a workshop activity

What is the difference between a give a presentation and teaching a workshop badge bits ? I am planning to do a small something here about root cellar. Could 1hr+ on info about them and 1hr+ more after in the same half day about concrete permaculture planning of their project could be 2 different submissions?

Does concrete planning on paper of their projects is enough for "tech a workshop" ?

I think the difference is that a presentation involves the attendees just sitting and watching/listening.

I think a workshop involves hands-on stuff where the attendees can give it a shot themselves.  I think if they are drawing up plans during the "workshop" it would count...

I teach workshop regularly as part of my art career.  I hadn't realized this BB existed until after my last series of them, however, I found images that should cover all the requirements I believe so I'm submitting them here for consideration.  In the fall of 2022 I did 9 straight days of workshops, broken up into 3 separate 3 day workshops.  This is longer than I normally do but the demand was there.  The images I have are for the middle workshop which was focused on chasing on a vessel form.  

I don't actually have an image from the start and end, but I did find images from one of the days where you can see the clock in the background.  I'll show some blown up images of that so you can clearly see this was WAY longer than an hour.  These photos were also taken the same day so the participants should be easier to identify because they are all wearing the same clothes throughout.  

We had a couple of who were going to attend but had to cancel at the last minute unfortunately, however this workshop still had 10 participants plus one "studio elf" from the hosting venue to help run the camera and such.

Because of the nature of the work stations it can be a challenge to see/identify everyone in all the shots.  Lots of hanging flex shaft machines are in the way!  Hopefully I have enough photos here to help verify my students all stayed the whole time.  (They paid a fair amount to be there so I don't usually have people skipping out!)