Outdoor mini-lessons and experimenting with time flexibility in mini-lessons

We had a lively participant who decided on delivering outdoor mini-lessons on two occasions. Considering the beautiful day as well as the anticipated effect on boosting group dynamics, I happily went along with the suggestion, taking a flipchart and the camera with me. On the second occasion, which was on Day 3, the outdoor lesson (which was the first lesson of the day), as well as the following two lessons, went notably overtime. As, on the one hand, the instructors were earnestly taking new challenges and pushing their boundaries, and on the other, the learners were highly involved and excited to see their peer’s progress, I decided not to interrupt the lessons. The first three cycles went approximately half an hour overtime. The participants, however, were all cool with having a shortened lunch break, so we started back on time. What really thrilled me was that, following the morning sessions, the participants were so in-tune that we were able to finish each of the remaining cycles within 25-30 minutes, with full participation and exhaustive feedback. We ended up by not only totally making up for the extra time we ‘invested’ in the morning, but even with an extra 30 minutes which were dedicated to a free discussion on some of the interesting topics that had come up in our small group . For me this was a great experience showing that trusting the process and leaning toward well-formed group dynamics can pay off in enriching the feedback content as well as improving the small group timing.