Ideas for Facilitating Rising Song Circles
Thank you for agreeing to be a Rising Song Circle Facilitator. Here are some quick ideas to help get you started.
Some facilitators are just "coordinating"—that is, organizing and scheduling the group. Others are cantors, rabbis or otherwise highly experienced song leaders who will be playing a teaching role in the group, in addition to coordinating.
So, with that in mind, here's a rundown of how we see the job of the facilitator.
Things all facilitators will do:
- Schedule meetings
- Communicate with participants
- Set up Zoom or Google meetings
- Decide with participants which classes to study
- Determine and share the agenda, which may simply follow the online coursework
- Run the meetings
Things coordinator-facilitators will do:
- Have everyone watch the current video or videos, either before the meeting or together at the meeting
- Go around the "room" one-by-one and get reactions and comments, to assess peoples' levels
- Discuss any questions or issues anyone is having
- Help participants get to know each other
- Sing along with the video—all together or ask for volunteers
- Identify group members with more experience to give feedback to those with less experience
Things teacher-facilitators will do:
Well you already know how you like to teach! All of the above might apply, but you will, of course, bring all your own ideas, stories, and methods to the table!
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If you need to learn about using Zoom, this is a great resource: Tutorials from Zoom
The free version of Zoom only allows 40 minute meetings. So, if you don't have access to a paid Zoom account, we recommend Google Meet instead. It works much like Zoom, perhaps even a little easier to use, and is free at any level.
Another useful site is Doodle, a free scheduling tool that helps cut down on the number of emails needed to coordinate meeting times for large groups.
Please let us know what else you'd like help with. We'll give you our best advice and add it to this guide. Write to [email protected].
Thanks again for being a Rising Song Circle Coordinator.
--The Rising Song Team
