My T&D Experience: Facilitating Journey

On the day of our training was nerve wracking. I was very nervous and almost panicky
because I am not really into interacting with a huge crowd, but I guess that being nervous helped
me be conscious with mistakes. This year has been very exhausting and fun at the same time
because I got to interact with my classmates a lot specially in other subjects. Also, our counseling
subject helped me got a little bit comfortable talking in front of a person, but I guess I could do
better in this training if it is face to face. It may be a too brave statement but if its that way, I could
have more control over them and also, I could control my next move and reaction. Meeting them
virtually has a great impact on me due to the fact that I could not avoid technical issues and I could
not see the faces of some participants. I understand that some of them were just using data and
maybe hotspot because we facilitators provided load assistance in which it really affected their
participation. I am very aware that mobile data is very unstable compared to WIFI and their
participation also affected me. For my experience, many of them are not answering us, like they
are just there for the sake of attendance, and maybe its also my fault for not making it more fun
and participative. That is why F2F is much better because they could really give their best and may
have fun since they will be interacting with their fellow officers personally, in addition to that,
facilitators could have more control of the participants.
As a student of University of San Carlos, I am very proud that I did experience conducting a
training, it is more challenging because we conducted the training to a non-usc affiliated. Mr. Abrea
taught us a lot this semester that we could not learn through reading books. I heard that other
classes with different instructor only taught them the context of the book and maybe experience a
little, while Mr. Abrea did teach us to make training design and conduct it. During the preparations,
many things happened. We were planning on what organization we will be conducting our training.
At that time, I suggested to conduct our training to Sangguniang Kabataan ng Barangay Opao,
Mandaue City because I am close with its chairman and secretary, but in the end, we chose Iubel’s
option which is the ONE GUADALUPE. As a student and as a group member, I could say that I am
very open and cool with their decision regarding of the overall plan. Most of time I suggest but also
most of the time my ideas are not the best choice, also my groupmates are very active and
sometimes I felt left out because of not equating with their efforts and may be at times, I felt that
my contributions in the team are insignificant. Luckily, I did my best to contribute as a part of our
team. The task was not divided, instead anyone can give their ideas openly. I was disappointed to
myself a bit because they have fun ideas and at that time, all I could think of is to agree. Maybe I
was intimidated by their excellence. During the time of the training, I am sure that I managed and
maybe prevented possible technical difficulties of the whole program and also facilitated well,
however I do have many mistakes during my debriefing and ask insignificant questions. It was fun
and nerve-wracking experience. As a daughter and the eldest because we’re only 2, I have to
strive and maintain my position. In our family, from the hierarchy of my Grandparents, there is only
3 grandchildren, and we are all taking up BS-Psychology. My cousin, which is also a product of
USC, had the same experiences which is also to conduct a training. I wanted to strive so I could
still chin up, and I could catch up what we were supposed to be. In addition, I wanted to make my
parents proud because they did not graduate college, it will the biggest achievement for us if me
and my sibling could graduate. When I was doing our training, I realized that being their daughter is
worth it because they even delivered dinner for me, my brother is also helping me at that time
because I was having difficulty with his laptop because I was using his. This training experience is
very challenging, but I had learned a lot along the way. It taught me to be more confident specially
with speaking because I am very bad with speaking in front of a crowd. It taught me to improve
next time and take note of every mistake and learn from it so I could avoid doing it the other time.
Looking at the camera is hard for me because I always wanted to see their faces, overthinking their
reactions with how I speak, thinking that they might judge me, but how life is. I needed to be judged
in order to improve my skills as a facilitator. It will be a shame if I am a product of USC and I could
not even conduct a training, so I am just very lucky to experience the hardships of being a
facilitator. This experience will be very useful specially that I am an incoming 4 th year, and we were
required to have an On-the-Job Training. With the advice of my cousin and my experience with this
training, I believe I can do it and apply all that I had learned with this experience.
On the day of the training, I honestly had a lot to improve. As said, it was hard for me to
always look at the camera because I overthink the reactions of the participants. I am always
conscious about how the way I speak, and sometimes stutters and cannot pronounce certain
words properly. As a facilitator in training, it is such a thumbs down when I let my anxiety take over
my performance because a training is not about the facilitator but the clients, the participants. The
facilitator’s performance could impact the participants that is why I must learn from that mistake. It
is not easy to conduct a training virtually because of so many possible problems, I think as a
facilitator, I was not fully prepared for everything that could possibly come on my way. I am surely
needed improvements and I don’t want to make excuses. When the activities pass by, I became a
bit comfortable, that I could actively interact with the participants mostly in the chat box because I
do not want to interrupt the current facilitator. I also remembered that I asked insignificant question
during debriefing in which is a very big mistake, I swore to myself that I should learn to question
properly. A participant also commented that they are not familiar with my activity, as a facilitator, I
could have asked them many times if they understood the mechanics or if they have questions and
to also improve the giving of the mechanics of the activity in a way they could understand easily.
As a facilitator, I know that I haven’t neglected any participant and gave my best to entertain them,
offered them help if they needed it during the program. In addition, as a facilitator, I ought to help
my co-facilitator for the program to flow peacefully. I oftentimes, hype them up so they could be
lively because we finished at dinner time, and they could have been hungry and low in energy, I
am just glad that some stayed with us despite of having internet difficulties like running out of
cellular data. It is also important that a facilitator has a stable internet connection with a stable
working PC. On that day, it was very fortunate of me that I had a strong WIFI connection and the
laptop I was using is just stable. I was alone in my whole because I warned my family members not
to use and sharing with the internet so all of them went to our other house just few blocks away. As
a facilitator, I must secure everything so I could do my tasks without any problems. Being a
facilitator is already hard, for me dealing with people is hard and needs a lot of work but surely,
experiences give us life lessons.
I have come this far with this journey, as a facilitator on training, grades is what a student
is. I honestly do not know what grade I deserve because I have done well with our training design
and I am not aware of our midterm grade so I do not know to compute the final grade, but if a
person would ask me if what I think I deserve, I would think of 2.2 or just not below 2.5. I dedicated
a lot of effort, and during the training, I risked my health because I did not get to eat my food not
until the training was already done. In the group, I may not be the representative or the team
leader, I always do the tasks the leader ordered me to do. I also made sure that every tasks are
done properly. I recheck my co-facilitator’s tasks and edit or re-do them if needed to. Being positive
all the time even though sometimes I needed to force my positivity in order for my co-facilitators
and participants will not get affected by my current real emotions. I am also quick with tasks, so our
representative expects results within 24 hours. I also contributed with providing an advice from a
psychometrician since my cousin is a licensed psychometrician. I was fortunate for having such
resources but also unfortunate that my own laptop broke. It was very lagging and overheating
when I try to use it so at the day of the training, I borrowed my brother’s laptop. To add, I had such
peaceful room to conduct the training although the lighting is not that appropriate or pleasing in the
camera. I also turned off my camera only on short moments. If I had the chance to wish for a
grade, I wish to have a grade that is not below 2.0. and I think every student would wish that their
grades will not have a “dos” lined up. I know that it will still be the instructor’s computation, but I
wish I could be granted with that. I always be contented with the instructor’s given grade as long as
it justified the hard work and hardships of the experience.