An Interview with Christina Huizar by Hilandmum

What tips do you have for a newbie facilitator?

To be honest, I still consider myself a newbie facilitator. My best tip would be to not overextend yourself. If you offer to facilitate a class, be sure that you have the time to devote to it, and can check into the classroom frequently and keep people on track. It's easy to get behind and for students to become frustrated because their questions aren't getting answered in a timely manner if you (the facilitator) have too many other things on your plate. My best advice for classroom management is a technique I also use in the workplace and in the home: "praise publicly, criticize privately."  I am not, of course, referring to critique of a student's work, but rather of behavior issues in the classroom. I find approaching a problem through private message is often more productive than reprimanding publicly. But WVU students are so great that I've rarely run into a problem!

Have you taught or facilitated classes outside of WVU? 

I worked in the writing lab at my alma mater, tutoring students in academic writing. I have not taught or facilitated creative writing courses outside of WVU, but have participated in many creative workshops both in real life and online, and so it seemed a natural progression to get involved in facilitating courses at WVU. And of course, Bob and Karen have done such a great job with course materials for each class that facilitators are given a great framework within which to work. 

What have been your favorite classes to facilitate?  

I enjoy facilitating literature courses because I have a B.A. in literature, so I feel very at home in those courses, using my tools from my degree to unpack a text through literary criticism. In a lot of ways, the literature courses feel like coming home.

How much time does it take to research and prepare for each class? And to give feedback? As a facilitator, what other kinds of things do you spend time on?   

It depends on the class, of course. One of the short two week courses does not take as long to prepare for as one of the 8-week courses. It also depends on if I've already taken the course myself, or if the material is new to me as well. Research and prep could be as little as an hour for a short course with which I'm familiar, to a full day for a more involved class. 

I spend more time on feedback than on any other aspect of the classroom. I don't want any student to think that I just skimmed over their work or didn't put any effort into it, so I try to give very detailed feedback. I usually devote at least a couple of hours per week to giving feedback, depending on the number of people in a class. 

Please share what you’d like to on your special love of writing. Is there some aspect of writing which really intrigues you? What classes have you taken here?

I have taken many classes at WVU, and they've all been very valuable to me, but I have to say that my very favorite courses have been MFA702 Subtext and MFA750 Writing Literary Fiction. Through those two courses, I added tools to my toolbox that really help elevate fiction-writing from proficient to profound. They're challenging courses, but incredibly useful if you want to add depth to your writing.