Unit A.2.1 Selecting your workshop topic
Selecting your workshop topic
Selecting your workshop topic
Selecting your workshop topic
We identified the 3 most commonly requested workshop topic areas from over 250 Host organisations registered at teachsurfing.org. You can see an overview of these 3 areas in the table below. If you have skills or knowledge matching to one of these areas, we recommend you select your workshop topic accordingly. This will ensure that you will quickly find a Host organisation with a target audience who is interested to learn from you. If your skills or knowledge do not fit into any of these 3 areas, that is perfectly fine. Please see the category ‘Other”.
There is a high demand from organisations to improve their communities’ digital skills and inspire them to study or work in the field of IT. If you have work or study experience in IT, if you have experience in using digital skills (e.g. social media marketing, search engine optimisation), or digital tools (e.g. file sharing, team communication, or project management tools), we recommend you to offer your workshop in this area.
Here are some examples of TeachSurfing workshops which were offered in this area:
-Felix offered an interactive workshop where he shared his career story as an electronic engineer and taught the participants how to program microcontrollers. You can see a short video, filmed by ZDF, here: zdf-video
-Belen taught a workshop on how to use social media to promote your business product.
-Alejandro and Marta gave workshops about JavaScript programming. (https://teachsurfing.org/#/stories/74)
In this modern era, there is such an enormous variety of career paths and possibilities. University students or unemployed people are in search of inspiring career paths. By sharing your career path story and practical knowledge and skills from your field, you will inspire the audience to continue studying or start their career in new or unconventional ways. Additionally, any skills that support the audience to improve their employability such as interview skills, preparing their CV or public speaking are welcome and highly appreciated.
Here are some examples of TeachSurfing workshops which were offered in this area:
-Gretta held a robotics workshop to inspire college students. (https://teachsurfing.org/#/stories/14)
-Nele inspired students with her exciting career path in social entrepreneurship. (https://teachsurfing.org/#/stories/60 )
-Ani offered a presentation and public speaking workshop to support people with their job interview preparation.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48rwqxGF0cU[/embedyt]
“Some people think that in Damascus people go around with camels and live in the deserts. But Damascus is a lively and vibrant city, just like Berlin.” – says Khaled, in one of his Syrian culture and Arabic language workshops. Due to lack of direct contact between people from diverse cultural backgrounds and the biased image represented to us by the media, there are many misconceptions about some countries and cultures. With our language & culture workshops we aim to break these misconceptions by enabling people from different cultures to share their individual story and present their language and culture. We invite you to present your culture, country and language to others and bridge the cultural gaps existing in our society.
Here are some examples of TeachSurfing workshops which were offered in this area:
-Khaled gave a workshop providing an introduction to arabic language and Syrian culture.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53HorCV39Jc[/embedyt]
He also offered a presentation sharing his personal journey fleeing from Syria to Germany. (https://teachsurfing.org/#/stories/64)
-Anais offered a French language workshop for school students. https://www.teachsurfing.org/#/stories/41
-Adnan presented Germany and German culture for newcomers. (https://teachsurfing.org/#/stories/29)
If your skills or knowledge do not fit into any of these 3 areas, that is perfectly fine! You can also choose your workshop topic outside the three topic areas mentioned above. For example, you may choose topics such as art, dance, science or human rights workshops.
Here are some examples of TeachSurfing workshops which fit into the ‘other’ category:
-Matt offered a history and art workshop, where he inspired the participants to learn from history in order to address current challenges in society from a different angle.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdL3WABmVdc[/embedyt]
-Malte gave a workshop providing an introduction to different meditation formats. (https://teachsurfing.org/stories/75)
Identifying your topic
To help you identify the topic you might like to offer workshops on, we have prepared a list of questions which you can ask and answer yourself. You might like to write your answers down or create a visual brainstorm with your answers.
First, please select one of your skills you identified in Unit 1.3 and answer these questions according to that skill.
1.How confident do I feel in sharing knowledge about this skill or topic?
2.What is the most fascinating or interesting aspect of that skill?
3.What is the simplest way to introduce this skill to others?
4.What is the best real life application of the skill?
5.How do you practice this skill?….
Once you have answered these questions, try to identify the most interesting answer. Reflecting on this answer, imagine whether you could create a workshop out of this! If your answer is yes, then you have found your topic!
Do you have questions about selecting your workshop topic? Post them in the Chapter A Identify your workshop topic forum.
