In Conclusion

My conversation circle group has been changing constantly over the course of the semester. In the beginning, I would have different groups of people each week, and at first I found it frustrating, because I didn't feel like we were forming a group bond. But the past couple of weeks, I have really gotten to know one of my participants, who has been fairly consistent in coming. And I would consider that a success. We have had such interesting conversations (including about the use of the word interesting - and in this case I truly mean interesting) about so many different things. Some of my favorites are comparing our different backgrounds, as she is from China. I have learned so many different things about China, but also that it's hard to generalize about an entire country. I have mostly learned so many things about her as a person. And I truly cherish that opportunity through this conversation circle.

If I had to do it again, I think I would try to stress how important attendance is in the beginning, even though I think I tried to do that. But I would definitely emphasize the importance of letting me know if you can't be there, because people often would not do so. I am also torn on including more activities. I think it would have been great to do something like Emily's group with book-binding (that sounds so cool!) and a good bonding experience. But on the other hand I do like the opportunity to just sit down, take a break, and have a good conversation with people and hear about their weeks and any other things that they want to talk about. I think their group is a great example, because they had both!

As a facilitator, I learned how to be a better listener. I have learned about subtle things that occur in conversation that I usually am not aware of, but as a result of this class I now notice more often - the amount of time it takes for a silence to become "awkward", who starts the conversation, the types of things you ask in a conversation, your responses to someone and how they may perceive them and also how that might be different than what you intend. I will think of this experience when working with international students in the future, hopefully in the field of education! I truly learned so much from them and for that I am grateful.