permaculture

16 Facilitator’s Handbook for Permaculture Workshops

As the course unfolds, participants can add new layers of learning to this living project

day by day. They will see the garden evolving step by step, and come to appreciate the

interconnections of the diverse components of the course.

The most successful garden projects tend to be those located in the home of one of the

course participants, which the participant and his/her family will maintain and further

develop after the course has ended. Such garden projects become living models that

continue to inform the community long after the Permaculture workshop has ended.

Keep in mind that if the demonstrations initiated are not properly maintained after the

course, they may become rundown and create a negative image. If this happens, the

local community will not respect the training and the goal of running the course will be

counteracted.

You should factor follow-up into your course plan, and during the Permaculture workshop,

nominate people to serve as stewards of the ongoing garden project.

Step 5. Creating a detailed lesson plan

Once you have a rough idea of the course you want to create

• including the theme, main field projects, key content, and
  time frame for the course – make a more detailed plan of the
  specific sequence of lessons you will teach to assist participants
  in learning the material.

Creating a carefully thought out, written lesson plan for each day in your

Permaculture workshop will let you think logically through the content of

each day before it happens and prepare what is needed in advance.

Without a well thought out lesson plan, you run the risk of losing track of your objective,

confusing the participants, overloading them with too much theory, running out of time,

and ending up with incomplete classroom exercises or field activities.

A lesson plan will also help you to stay on track as you teach by providing

answers at-a-glance to the following questions:

• Topic s: What are the main topics or key points I want to cover today?


• Verifiable learning objectives: What do I want the participants to understand
  or be able to do by the end of this learning activity or lesson? The objective
  should be stated in a verifiable form – a form that shows what results you would
  see or hear that would let you know the objective has been achieved – by the