DATE Casa Latina Workshop Sarah

So I facilitated two workshops this week, one that went very smoothly and one that went somewhat un-smoothly. I've been thinking about these few workshops as the dress rehearsals for the workshops that will start in earnest in January. I think that by reflecting on the un-smooth workshop, a lot can be learned from that experience that I can channel into future workshops.

I would say the main takeaways are this:

• Start out with a print agenda and discuss it with the students. Make changes to it based on group feedback. Formalize it a bit -- make it a real 'activity'
• Spend some time explaining the student-led nature of the workshops.
• Dealing with language issues: Make a glossary of tech words in Spanish (I'm really going to do this...); don't be afraid to ask people to repeat themselves or explain terms they've used; practice some of the classroom spiels ahead of time (I love practicing a foreign language, i.e. talking to myself, when I ride my bike! I get the weirdest looks!) 
• Create a "box of tricks" (i.e. alternative activities to do if the class is a lower level or a higher level than expected)
• Triple-check technology to make sure it works
• When working with true beginners, it's really great to have helpers
• Always eat (Hungry workshop facilitators are the worst)

I think the workshop on Wednesday went so well because we have a good level of group cohesion and we have a student-volunteer who helps facilitate. I think the intro to the philosophy and rationale of the classes led by Ivette a couple weeks before really put people in a active-participant mindset. We also had a happy surprise -- a new student who was both knowledgeable about cell phones as well as a great peer teacher of how to use cell phones. (I also ate two tacos at Rancho Bravo as well as half a chocolate bar before going to Casa Latina! My blood sugar was in a good place.)

After the workshop on Wednesday, Silvia was looking for someone to teach a workshop on Facebook on Friday. I thought, "why not?" and said I'd give it a shot.

The idea behind this workshop was that the adult students would be able to find Casa Latina and MSF and "like" them on Facebook. Veronique mentioned that most of them use Facebook on their phones. I actually didn't have hardly any time between Wed. night and Fri. night to think about a lesson plan. I tried to download the handouts from the Dropbox of previous workshops, but my computer told me the files were corrupted. I had a vague idea in my head that we would have a discussion about privacy -- I found a Spanish language comic strip featuring a young woman talking about how she was going to post and tag pictures of her and her friends at the nudist beach on Facebook -- it seemed funny at 11pm on Thursday night.  Then I would demonstrate on the overhead how to adjust your privacy settings on Facebook. Then we'd look up the different pages and people who wanted to could "like" them. I also copied and pasted the slides from Wednesday that had embedded hyperlinks to youtube videos about how to download apps in the GooglePlay store.

It turned out the students were much less familiar with technology that I had expected. (I wished I had a box of tricks!) I believe they were also from two different "groups," so there didn't seem to be a high level of group cohesion. I don't know that they all felt that Facebook was relevant to them, and I didn't want to encourage anyone to use Facebook who isn't that interested in it or who didn't have a lot of knowledge about how to protect their privacy online.  I myself have very mixed attitudes about Facebook. (There was also a young child and two elderly people in the room, so I suddenly had second thoughts about the comic strip about the nudist beach and had to skip it!) I also turned out that my embedded hyperlinks weren't working (triple-check technology!). This workshop also allowed students to receive "points." As was mentioned at the Women's Advisory Meeting, points are a double-edged sword because people may be more interested in the points than the topics.

I also believe that facilitators should not set up accounts or install things for adult students. Adult students need to make independent decisions about what does and doesn't go on their phones. This may mean the process of signing up for things doesn't happen right in the class, but I think that's okay. No one is going to suffer for lack of a Facebook page.

Anyway, enough dwelling on things that didn't work well. The workshop was okay (people got some nice chatting in and they got their points!). A few women seemed interested in attending the technology workshops, so hopefully we'll meet them again. I got my nice list of takeaways, or life's lessons learned.

1/28/2015_Ivette,_Casa Latina_Workshop

Location:     Casa Latina                 

Describe Context – 

           

Date: 1/28/15

Name: Ivette Bayo Urban

List things that happened today:

The students and I headed to Casa Latina and arrived there a little after 5:00.  
We had other volunteers, Sandra, Elan and Liz with us.  
Emily was working on the report she needed to submit to the City of Seattle.  

Sarah already had the room set up and we had a few women already there, ready to start.  The topic was craiglist. 

Freddy joined the class also.

In the news:

Next week we go to Federal Way Library and take it mobile.

List Action Items from workshop:

Sarah led the craiglist and the women were using the tablets.  
Pick up tablets and see if Emily can charge them charged for next week.

  Things to look up, check out and explore:

• Make sure we have everything logistically ready for carpooling next week.  
• Confirm drivers

Describe an important an evocative social interaction that happened today:

Describe a success.

Everyone was engaged, whether with the adults, the children and even Emily working on the grant adminsitration.  I was thankful to be able to touch base with her and get her the information she needed for the report, even if it was later than what she needed, given her schedule.  Next time we will plan ahead to make it work in a more timely fashion - but for today we got it to work. 

Describe a failure.  What fell through the cracks?

I felt horrible that one of the women was upset that there had been an email lost.  She had spent a lot of time working on it and in the blink of an eye, when Freddy was helping her it was gone.  I wish I would have dealt with the challenge better, but the computer she was using was not one that I was familiar with I felt she was disappointed that we did not have the answers as to where her email went and how it was deleted.

What surprised me the most?

I was not in one place very long.  I didn't feel like I was part of any group since I spent my energies going between the children, the adults and emily for the reports.  What this confirmed it that there are a lot of moving pieces and that I need to set a time to process and delegate so I can BE in the moment. 

Reflections

I did take the opportunity to work discuss the challenges of working with technology and reminded the participants in the room to use the four agreements since, the intent Freddy had in helping her was with good intention, even if the outcome for her was not.  I have been there, deleted something, spent so mcuh time and energy to have it go in the wind and have my hard work disappear.  It is not a good feeling, but I think with these experiences, I learn that the only constant is that things CAN go wrong, and sometimes they do.  But life has shown me that we cannot change what happens to us, but we can control how we react to it.  

1/13/2015 Casa Latina Meeting Willa

Casa Latina

January 13^th, 2015

8:10 AM – 12:00 PM

            Ivette and I met with Emily Gaggia at Casa Latina to discuss the progress of the workshops. Emily needs all of the information about the volunteer hours, reflections, and materials by the end of January. We also discussed what type of technology to purchase for the children. One of the ideas was buying stop motion cameras and software. However, we thought that it might be too complex and perhaps frustrating for the amount of time we have during each workshops. I think that we should buy digital cameras, printers, and the proposed tablets because we know how to use those. We have a better chance of teaching them to use it. We also discussed gift cards for the staff members who also volunteered. We were thinking of $30 gift cards to Target or Fred Meyer’s. We were able to talk with Araceli over the phone as well as when she arrived later.

            After our meeting with Emily and Araceli, Ivette and I went downstairs to talk with Sierra about advertising the workshops on the Casa Latina’s Facebook. While there, Kasey also walked in. We talked with them for a while about the grant as well as the aims of the workshops. We also talked about our website and adding a link to Facebook. They wanted us to change our wording about Casa Latina on our website. It was great to meet with both of them and get their feedback. It was also really good to meet with them face to face because now we have that connection that we can draw upon.

1/6/2015 Federal Way Library Visit Willa

Time and Location:

Federal Way Library Reflection

January 6^th, 2015

8:10 AM to 12:15 PM

            Ivette and I drove to the Federal Way Library in her tiny, but loud, old VW bug. In between the loud vrooms, we talked about the plan for the meeting with Catherine Lord and Edna. Our approach, as it has been throughout the project, is to start where we are, which means that instead of bringing any kind of definite plans to the table, we wanted to have an open discussion about what the library could offer and what we could offer in return in order to create a successful partnership. Our only steadfast requirements are a workspace for the people, childcare for their children, the requisite technology, and volunteers to help.

            The library has a beautiful space with large windows that allow viewers to see the forestry outside. It is also a large space with many computers and books of course. After we arrived, we looked at the meeting rooms where we would be holding the workshops as well as providing educational activities for the children.

I think that the future workshops at the Federal Way Branch library will be incredibly successful because of the enthusiasm of Catherine and Edna. Furthermore, they had a lot of different avenues for spreading the word about the February programs.

            Afterwards, Ivette and I headed back to Seattle and stopped by a coffee shop to discuss the blog and reflection posting for the class. We also talked about a way organize the posts using tagging.