10 tiny tips for trainers and teachers

TINY TIPS

FOR TRAINERS AND TEACHERS

10

SESSION STRUCTURE

1. START WITH SOMETHING

PRACTICAL Make people into active participants in the session, from the very start. Even if you have a lot of theory to get through, give people something to DO first of all.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/45409431@N00/10674184556/

2. ALLOW TIME TO RECHARGE Even just a 1hr workshop can be quite overwhelming. Building in a 3 minute gap for participants to switch-off, chat to each other, and relax, will help them focus for the rest of the session and raise the energy level all round.

3. SUM UP VIA A RANDOM SLIDE

CHALLENGE Don’t summarise the session yourself, let people hear another voice! Put together a simple 5-slide summary, and invite a volunteer to blind present it to their peers. The results are not just fun but surprisingly effective…

4. CLOSE AFTER THE Q&A Put the time for questions 10 or 15 minutes before the actual end of the session, then close on a strong call to action, a clear way forward for your workshop attendees.

TABLET AS TEACHING ASSISTANT

5. USE PADLET ON YOUR TABLET

TO REMEMBER WHO’S WHO Ask people to say who they are and what they want from the session, and rather than using a Whiteboard make notes on Padlet, with the Padlet Wall laid out according to where people are sitting in the room.

6. SKIP AHEAD ON YOUR TABLET Have a copy of your presentation on your tablet, and use any gaps (a practical activity, or a co-presenter talking) to skip ahead and prepare for what you’re going to say next!

HAND-OUTS

7. HAND OUT THE HAND-OUTS It’s tempting to be super organised and put all the hand-outs on desks / PCs in advance. But if you do that you miss a great opportunity to make eye-contact and brief conversation with each member of your audience, which will help communication throughout the rest of the session.

8. USE SCREENGRABS TO MAKE

PRACTICAL EXCERCISES EASY

TO FIND It's amazing how often people lose their place in a hand-out. When you get to an exercise in workshop, put a screengrab on the hand-out of the same slide that's on the big-screen at the time you're introducing the exercise - it makes it quick and easy for people to know exactly where they should be.

MATERIALS

9. STORE MATERIALS IN THE CLOUD Particularly if your session is link-heavy, store a digital copy of the materials on a free wiki (PBworks for example) so delegates can access them that way. This also means you’ll have a copy of your presentation and hand-outs even if your USB stick falls out of your pocket and your printer breaks…

10. EMAIL THE PRESENTATION

ROUND AFTERWARDS Don’t rely on people tracking it down for themselves; follow up directly, ensuring they have a copy of the presentation AND your contact details.

There’s an article with more detail on

each of these 10 tips on my blog:

>> bit.ly/10TinyTips

THANKS FOR WATCHING!

Teacher by cybrarian77 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/cybrarian77/6284181389/sizes/l

Pottery by Aneeye | Aneesh Subrahmanian - https://www.flickr.com/photos/aneeye/3359486375/sizes/l

Robot by Takashi(aes256) - https://www.flickr.com/photos/htakashi/9754012931/sizes/l

Presenter by betsyweber - https://www.flickr.com/photos/betsyweber/10595876455/sizes/l

Applause by marfis75 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/marfis75/10674184556/sizes/l

1st

ipad by Sean MacEntee - https://www.flickr.com/photos/smemon/5171518129/sizes/l

2nd

ipad by bfishadow - https://www.flickr.com/photos/bfishadow/4604736394/sizes/l

Handing out by Wonderlane - https://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/4537003371/sizes/l

Handout by tvol - https://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/2476311752/sizes/l

Hard drive by William Hook - https://www.flickr.com/photos/williamhook/3570060270/sizes/l

Package by lemonhalf - https://www.flickr.com/photos/halfbisqued/2353845688/sizes/l

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