Third blog post in one week! Stay tuned as the rapid-fire frenzy continues! Over the past few weeks in class we’ve been going through and learning history 12 decade by decade. In order to showcase our learning at the end of each week we’ve been conducting a regular exercise called facilitation Friday. What’s facilitation Friday you ask? Facilitation Friday is basically a whole class set aside each Friday where a small group of students facilitate a discussion with their peers on a subject that came up in class and interests them. At the moment, we are taking time to go through the 1960’s up to the 1990’s, while discussing a range of notable social, cultural and political events and topics that have arguably shaped the coarse of recent history.

Due to the fact that the end of the year was coming up quickly and I knew that I would be extremely busy, I decided to do my facilitation Friday the first week possible. My category was the 1960’s, and the topic I chose was JFK. JFK was the youngest president in US history. He showcased an image and a persona encapsulated by no other president before him. Today he is regarded as one of the best presidents of all time, but do you truly think he is deserving of this title? JFK is significant for many reasons, most notably the Failed Bay of Pigs invasion, The Cuban Missile Crisis, and of coarse his assassination in 1963. In my presentation my goal was not only to highlight his accomplishments, but to pose the question of why he’s still relevant and so widely praised today, and whether or not his reputation is deserving.

On the day of my presentation, I was the third to go after Luciano and Tom. Luciano led a facilitation about LBJ and his role in the Vietnam war, and Tom talked about the Cuban Revolution.

Filling Lyndon Johnson’s Boots In ‘All The Way’ At The DTC

 

Fidel Castro, leader of Cuba’s revolutionary forces, ponders questions at a press conference in Cienfuegos, Jan. 7, 1959.

At this point i would insert my question and visual, but, again, I cannot gain access to iCloud due to misplacing both my phone and iPad.

Although for the most part it went smoothly, I know there was a few things that I could improve on. If I were to do facilitation Friday again I would definitely practice and get comfortable with my script before hand. That way I can assure that I wont stutter, there will be no awkward pauses, and I can maintain eye contact the whole time. Also, I think I would’ve started with my best questions first instead of trying to lead into them with other less strong examples. I believe it would of made for a stronger and more progressive conversation.

Overall, facilitation Friday was beneficial to me because I learned how to properly facilitate a discussion, and keep people engaged and talking for an extended period of time. I learned how to come up with questions and adequate discussion topics that could be interpreted, discussed, and investigated from all sorts of different points of view. But most importantly, I was able to identify what I struggle with most, how to address and correct the issue, and overall how to be a confident public speaker.