Training Sessions

I completed my second training session with a local organisation and this week we were looking at planning a session with their centre members – all of whom have learning difficulties and disabilities. I wanted to develop their skills in brainstorming – a process of organising thoughts in a way that will inform planning for either a single session or a project. Then, once they had go the grasp of this, to show them how to plan and include RARPA and opportunities to assess for SMART targets.

I had designed a rather tight session I must admit, fitting in a lot of activity but felt confident we could cover all the objectives I had set out. Unfortunately I had a rather busy morning and my planning became a little rushed and I think I had failed to figure into my session that fact that the staff are not teachers and perhaps some of the concepts I was trying to work with would be a little harder to grasp.

They are a great class to work with and I really enjoy being there with them. We have fun and it is relaxed, although this week the learning curve was steep for sure! In the end we were able to use the template I provided for the brainstorm – a simple topic web, and to start thinking about how to divide up the tasks for their project into different sessions that could last either a week or for a longer time.

To begin I recapped with the group on RARPA and SMART targets – where I used the traffic light cards to see who remembered what we had covered before. Those holding up the green cards could then explain to the rest of the group what they were confident in knowing. I used this again in the session when asking for feedback on what we had done and it is a good way of getting initial feedback which then allows for further, targetted questioning of those holding up either amber or red cards.

The room we have is low tech and means you have to plan what I call a ‘proper’ lesson. Sometimes it is easy to use technology and forget that learning needs to take place. An example of this, if you like, is from a conversation I had with a colleague on target setting. They teach an IT class, and with the other teacher in the class they had set group IT targets, such as designing a PowerPoint presentation. My view was that where was the individualised SMART target? I reflected that perhaps they could view the IT room as just another classroom which happens to have computers in it which they can use as and when needed. Then, when they have that in their minds begin to think of what do they want the students to learn.

With the lack of IT for these training sessions, I have devised a series of individual and group activities and I enjoy using humour and my more energetic style of delivery to help focus staff and motivate them throughout the time. Unfortunately, this week we started a little later and I had to rethink my lesson plan, which was a good experience for them as I share my session plan with the group so they can compare it to how the session actually went.

The brainstorming activity was more difficult to get flowing, and I had to work one to one with everyone to ensure they had the idea and could produce a topic web for their project. They worked with the activities they usually plan within the organisation, but two elements of the task they found hard to get first off. Many wanted to give the topic web a title, such as computing, Islamic group, art and craft but I said that the title of the topic web should reflect more on what they were planning for the users to learn – developing confidence in communication through stroy telling, counting change when buying things from the shop, developing creative skills by designing an Eid card. These titles will help them to think of all aspects of planning from resources, space, support issues, possibly thinking about individual needs/ targets and tasks.

This took a lot longer than I had originally planned and I then decided to just get the group to begin planning their session or projects. The original sheet I had which is similar to what we use in college seemed not to be suitable for the type of planning they wanted to do, so I had another one for them ready to use which was based on a weekly plan – something you might see or use in a youth club.

We got as far as seperating the sessions out for the week and through discussion I had them realise what they needed to do between now and when I come back again in a couple of weeks. The experience is proving to be very useful as I will be running similar sessions with another organisation in the borough, so I can draw from this when planning how to deliver the same training to a different group.

Finally, I ended the session with one of the many motivational stories I have collected from Chicken Soup For The Soul. I found them originally in a book I bought many years ago for one of my LDD groups called Building On Social Skills, which is a series of eight sessions looking at communication, team working, confidence building and dealing with conflict.

My lesson from this week is to find more time for planning and to be more organised with my time so that things I need to do are given plenty of space for thought and action, particularly if something somes up unexpectedly. Then, I could be more able to plan a session that fully meets the needs of the staff in this group.