My first JUMP! as a Connected facilitator!

31 August 2021.

Small ramifications

Instead of pointing out a number of things I have experienced over the month, indicating one highlight is enough. Quality is better. To begin with, well done Linh for this incredible August, the birth month of my parents. I would like to share this joy with my family, my colleagues, my educators and friends.

Looking forward to the silver line. I miss classroom, backpacking, traveling and going home!

What was the highlight experience?

In the last week of August, I facilitated a JUMP! Connected program, an Orientation Program for Kings’ College International School Bangkok. The program has components of community-building and personal discovery. The activities are familiar to me so I was not stressed at all. I went with the flow and flexibly conversed with my teammates, educators and especially students. The students got to connect with other friends from different grades (year 7 – year 9) as they transitioned to a new school to get ready for a new learning time and space. We ran activities of finding house objects, exploring memorable places, mafia challenge, growth mountain that drove students to be creative, collaborative, and reflective. They are designed in various formats such as teamwork, personal reflection, storytelling, and peer coaching. The most interesting activity for me is to allow students to write down their fear about the new school year which could be about anything like studying, mental health or relationship with teachers. Students acted as anonymous individuals that expressed their concern and gave advice to others. The anonymous context allowed everyone to feel safe from judgment and comfortable to voice out their intimidating thoughts. As a result, given advice was useful to most students as it is relatable and useful to them. The crowdsource of ideas is always beautiful. I will apply this concept more often to inspire others to solve problems.

Why is this experience so special for me?

It takes me 9 months to go for this with confidence! I got the offer to be a JUMP! Facilitator in Thailand Experience Program last December 2020. It drove me over exhausting days and nights. When I think too much about something, I end up not performing well on that mission. For that program, I was like a rigid human being, or I was too nervous that I didn’t have enough energy to talk to students joyfully while others were enjoying their lunch with their kids. I spent too much time reading the activity materials even before going to sleep. I should have let it go, let the flow lead then practiced more, talked to educators. Even when I was on the bus traveling in between our destinations, I was gazing at the monitoring schedule document. My all-neurons told me not to distract from the plan and skip any information. There were a ton of details to remember and my body and mind could not function properly over the intensive adventures. One day, I burst out in tears as I was giving plus and delta after hearing the bell of a colleague facilitator. He carried it with him as a spiritual tool of reflection and to connect with himself. I feel I failed so badly and I wanted to break down. I diari-ed every night through 7 days on my phone to release my anxiety and pressure as I could not use a pen to write.

The actual outcome was not this disaster but my self-critique portrayed myself like this...The students were young but why did I turn out so weak and small in front of them? I was also young to understand what they think and how to engage them in a real-life environment. Because it is about human development, I have to be capable. Failing in an educational project is too expensive to pay because it is the core of human development. I used to fail once in a big project in HCMC in 2019 when I was incapable of everything. The happening of unintended harm doesn’t have a curement pill. If a soul is hurt, the soul might go on living with the disenchantment of self and life. So I decided to take time to enhance my facilitation skills before joining any more J! programs as a facilitator. I stayed backstage as a tech host over numerous Connected programs. By that, I had opportunities to observe the program activities, design of content, learning materials, handle technical logistics and communicate with other stakeholders like educators, project managers, facilitators rather than with students – my target audience.

A Climate Change Ideation Session led by superwoman Shannon, look at our DIY outfit to address climate crisis...Nowhere to be found like in this creative space! =))

What does it feel like?

I feel like I'm on top of the world (metaphorically). With that leverage point, the facilitation world for Connected has and hopefully will become less scary. If this July blog stated that I am close to Connected, this August is blogging about how amazing it is to be on board as a Connected facilitator! I feel self-satisfied since I can achieve my goal to gain this empirical experience during this academic year both for me and the young students, the second half of 2021. My handbag has been packed with readiness of mind, confidence of voice, adequate skills to try and learn from imperfections. If not now, when? I am so appreciated to J!, especially Shannon, staff manager of JUMP!, always offer opportunities for me to take whatever role that I am comfortable with. This freedom of choice is partly stressful :) and significantly stimulating self-improvement. I am so grateful that there were helpful educators who were so sensible in asking questions to interact with students. When will I be able to be skillful, considerate and clever as such?

What challenges did I face?

Here are some questions from students that I struggled to answer:

“Am I supposed to be here?”

“Do I belong here?”

“What if I didn’t learn anything from that?”

“Could you go on with my joke, knock-knock?”

“Sorry, my camera is out of battery, I could not participate.”

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These questions struck me hard.

Technical issues for us and students

Some kids are too young to familiarize themselves with the technical system of online learning. Even the teacher still surrendered her viewing feature of Zoom. Even us, with many times of hosting Connected, still encountered an unexpected Zoom crisis. The patience of the master team saved the crowd. I was a facilitator, I was lost and nervous. I only wished that things would be solved as soon as possible. The kids were having fun challenging jokes. The innocence of the kids and the humor of J! facilitators rescued the majority of tension and awkward silence.

Unreadable minds

I am always afraid to give some answers that might create side-impacts to children’s minds. The answer should guide the kids to think further and believe in themselves. I should plan for impossible scenarios like “what if…” from a lens on students’ mental models. They might not be clear of the task, they have no idea what it means, they are tired of participating, they are too competitive, they intentionally ignore their job etc. Then the imaginary cases might suggest how to address such behaviors and hard questions for me. For example, my intention to encourage them to share and reflect might go like demotivating them as it doesn’t directly articulate their concerns. Importantly, my own worldview is shaped differently from that of students so I have to be cautious to give opinions towards their perspectives.

What did I observe from educators?

Dance to be the lead - be the role model for students

Little comment on student’s appearance to warm up the convo

Offer immediate assistance when students have tech issue

Be firm to students’ behaviors in the right situation

Engage in the experience as students’ friend and tutor

So thirsty to see students’ faces and try hard to fix the tech, though impossible, still act as if seeing the kids and interacting with them. Dance as if everyone’s watching her because all in her view was…me. I can’t imagine if I were her, and I could only see her…

These challenges were like a stream of lessons.

Magic from JUMP! Universe

From a professional aspect, J! is one dream universe for me to learn from students from all around the world. J! offers a maze of resources to deploy and develop, even for our own purpose. Innovation is always shared among our network. How treasurable it is to be here, as part of JUMP! Foundation. The organization is driven by student needs, school-social context and transformational learning. All the time, innovate. All the time feedforward. All the time a positive vibe. I am at the Peak Point, if situated in the Growth Mountain model of JUMP! I have observed and participated in this model multiple times until last week, I facilitated for the first time. I could tell and students also said that it was a joyful experience for them and I am so happy for that! Besides the familiarity with technical administration, I have improved the ability to frame the activity with storytelling, give clear instruction, set an appropriate tone of voice, adjust parameters along the way, and opened up a safe space for students to feel comfortable. Non-verbal communication was powerful, even just through a screen! J! Facilitators (can't name all) are my inspiring-innovative teachers for these techniques. Their modeling, feedforward and thoughts have been so meaningful for me to better my skills across programs - such dots of learning STICK.

To wrap up this experience, I will use Rock, Stick, Leaf Tool of J!:

• Rock - What rocked me about this experience is the boost of my self-esteem, and the high encouragement of my small team of 3 facilitators. Some quick prep meetings and programming time still bonded us together for a common purpose – to bring fun to students.

• Stick - What will stick with me is this inspiration to engage and make others engaged. It’s also the dedication to support students at best from the educators.

• Leaf - I will leave behind my doubt on my capability. I will leave some of my unclear responses to students’ behind and will improve how to better react to their “tough” questions.

Ending ramification: I should not be thinking like this fish – “I want to go to the ocean” telling her friend, “here is the ocean” – “no, it’s just water” (“Soul” Movie). Don’t ever chase for something I want to be in and forget that the world I am living is that ocean I am looking forward to. Be an observant and a learner in all situations. To teach Global Citizenship, I have to be good at my current learning of Global Studies, just another term for global citizenship learning. Next, I have to do something with what I learn to think and reflect critically to make the world more just and sustainable. Mindset and Action. A learner to An educator. Remember, the current world is one of the most invaluable places I could be in. Don’t be like the lost soul, “I have been dreaming about this for my whole life, but the feeling is not as what I thought, now, what’s next?” (Soul) Hope for some spectacular movement in everyday life? That lies in the mundane lives and events occurring right in front of me. The fall of leaves, the sound of water, the smile of my dorm staff, the hello of the food seller, the smell of trees across the footpath, the birds chirping in early morning, the noise of the grass-cutter every several days, the rich flavor of weekly market nearby, the sound of spring in the lake, to name forever. What could be more peaceful and different if I don’t pay attention to them? I love this spiritual life where creatures and my soul are like blended. It is a life where dreams, inspiration and humanity flourish.