Week 1 Notes - FDO: The Big Picture

Work-life balance is a concern for many; people are busy, and often "plugged in" to work anywhere, any time.

The reality is, many of you will facilitate FLO above and beyond your regular work life and duties. The same goes for your participants. They will usually be fitting their FLO work into evenings and weekends, above and beyond their regular jobs and family lives.

Our advice to FLO facilitators is the same given to FLO participants: plan for it, book time in your calendar for reading, thinking, responding, giving feedback, and so on. Schedule time to connect with your co-facilitator to initially plan, and to debrief/discuss how it's going (don't wait until the end).

And, an observation:  the demand on our time as FLO facilitators tends to spike in some predictable ways, which can help you choose when to book time:

• Before the course begins - significant time is required to prepare the course site, reacquaint yourself with the course content, and connect with your co-facilitator. Review the sample Facilitator Task List and adapt it for your needs. Start this process at least a couple weeks before FLO begins.
• End/beginning of each week - check with your co-facilitator - are you sharing the task of posting weekly summaries? Agree on a day to "end the week" - Friday or Sunday. Allow time to review where things are, and write your weekly post. This will take some time, to dig around the site in search of highlights to which you want to draw attention. 
• The week before your groups' mini-sessions - last minute stress tends to rise as the participants' facilitation week draws near, and this often falls on a Sunday. Let your groups know in advance when you will be available to help them.
• The weekend after your groups facilitate their mini-sessions - you need to review FLIFs and give rich, constructive feedback in a timely way (not only to help their learning, but also because you're modelling)

Here are some tips from Amanda Coolidge on how she manages her time: