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Programme Facilitation Hints & Tips

These hints and tips are provided to help you with your programme delivery. Some hints and tips are specific for virtual facilitation and some apply to both scenarios.
  1. Ensure your voice is more upbeat and animated than normal, while maintaining a clear and steady pace. Convey your enthusiasm.
  2. Be prepared for silences – the students won’t automatically interact with you. The teacher will be vital in calling on students by name to answer questions. As the sessions progress the students will interact a little more without being prompted to.
  3. Be comfortable with the programme content you are delivering. It’s best not to over rely on the guidebook during the programme. For virtual facilitation you need to keep your focus on the slides. If you as the facilitator are not focused, the students won’t be.
  4. Provide clear instruction for student activities before asking the teacher to hand out materials.
  5. Use the students' names. Reusable table tents on which the students can write their names are included in each kit. Circulate among the groups to answer questions and make sure the students are on task.
  6. Use positive reinforcement – there are no wrong answers in the JAI classroom. Some suggested response could be "that’s a great answer but not what I’m looking for" or "I see where you are coming from but maybe you could look at it another way"
  7. Use examples from the local area (if you can). Share from your personal experience and from your work in order to bring the content/topic to life. Learning is brought to life by examples that the students can identify with. Give an example answer when asking students to complete an activity and then allow enough time for students to construct their response.
  8. Always refer to family members as “Whoever’s at home”. This covers all dynamics in the students' homes.
  9. Be positive about work, but not negative about unemployment and recognise that there may be students from a variety of different social backgrounds in the class.
  10. It is important that the students feel engaged with you. Take your time and think of it as a conversation rather than a presentation. Pause often to allow time for the students to respond.
  11. To enable your virtual volunteering you will need to:
     - have a good, reliable internet connection
     - mute the sound
     - turn off and on your camera
     - come on and off screen sharing on the virtual platform in use
     - blur or change your background: The JA Volunteer Background is available in this eLearning Module under the Downloads Section or link to background by clicking here
  12. Prior to commencing your JA Programme you will need to have a planning call with the teacher. If you are delivering the programme virtually you will need to plan a Connect Check to allow you to meet your teacher and to test that you are coming through loud and clear on whichever platform is the school’s preferred format. You will also have the opportunity to confirm your start date with the teacher, which you can then log in your portal. A check list is provided in the "what to discuss with the teacher".

In virtual facilitation, there are hints and tips that will make your job as a volunteer easier. Which of these tips does not belong?

Be comfortable with the programme content you are delivering and with each slide.
Be upbeat, animated and prepared for silences.
Provide clear instruction for student activities before asking the teacher to hand out materials.
Students must give correct answers.