Out with the old

How many of us have resources hidden away that we dip in and out of, both for training and using with our units? My guiding free month of December, the start of the new year, and announcement of the new programme means it feels like a good opportunity to sort through my 2 boxes of elderly resources. I found a lot to throw away:

• based on old publications e.g handbook quiz
• hand written produced in the days before computers
• covered in sticky back plastic which doesn't last as well as lamination
• old fashioned looking pictures e.g for a suitcase packing game
• old fashioned typewriter fonts which are difficult to read
•  too basic content for todays girls e.g fitness chart telling them not to pick black heads!
•  factually incorrect content
• generally old fashioned appearance e.g in relation to stranger danger.

I got my 2 boxes down to 1 box and had a trip down memory lane (I found a footprint game where I had drawn around my son's foot when he was 3 years & 4 months old he is now 16 years old!)

The paper recycling pile is the one on the left - the resources for keeping are back in the box.

So what went back into the box to keep a bit longer? Carol song sheets, scripts for a brownie panto, semaphore flags, guiding history quiz, water bug identification charts, plastic sewing squares, a set of brownie forfeits made into paw prints and a packet of wool cut to the length and colours for a friendship bracelet. Stuff I reckon I can still use in line with the 6 themes in the new programme.

What have you still got that you should throw away? What do you think you could re-use with the new programme?

 

Brownie 12 days of Christmas

The following was found in an old box of brownie resources which dates back to my days as a district helper in Tetbury (1995-1996).

Sing to the 12 days of Christmas tune:

On the 1st week of Brownies my Leaders said to me .......
      (and we)
1.   hope you'll be a happy brownie

2.   this will be your six

3.   work for your badges

4.   skip around a toadstool

5.   brownies "QUIET PLEASE!"

6.   anyone for ladders?

7.   why can't you remember?

8.   we're going to do some cooking

9.   would you like to sing?

10.  who does this below to?

11.  we're going to go to camp!

12.  we're the best pack in insert name of meeting place

Badges for Trainers

What a fabulous idea - hats off to Region - now we can all honour our remit as Region Trainers. As well as being consistently badged when we go out into other counties to train. I keep mine in my Trainers bag so I always know where it is. Really good step forward.

Post Safe Space again and again

Full house this week with 15 leaders - all the 16-18 year olds sat on the left and the more experienced leaders on the right (including a mum & daughter pair) there is obviously a lovely rapport in the district not to mention tasty swiss roll! Interesting that those on the left asked for more activities in  the training on the evaluation forms as well as saying they wanted to take time to think about how they would apply the knowledge (never really had much of that response on the evaluation forms before).  Easily got through the full programme but big debate about whether you need to tell the parents you are raising a concern first!

Timed the pre-course photocopying this time and it took exactly an hour - luckily I did exactly 15 copies of each.

Revive & Sparkle - but don't make the audience cry!

My first county day where I facilitated the crying of a Brownie Leader - to be fair it was tears of joy! We ended up with a really emotional session - there were 11 leaders and the overall theme was sparkle & shine so I was working through the 5 Essentials one by one looking at how they could be represented in the unit programme in a fun, enjoyable but meaningful way.

We started talking about GG's new hash tag campaign that had started that week and one of the leaders had managed to save it to her tablet (I had tried and failed) we all watched the video which was really hard hitting. It starts with a group of skate boarders - one of whom is wearing a guide hoody and then we hear the words of (discouraging?) men coming from the mouths of girls in various scenarios. Very effective. The leader in question become quite emotional because she was proud of joining guiding and everything it stands for!

We discussed the Quality pilot and I delivered the message on the programme changes (as much as we new at that moment as this was pre November Guiding magazine) and fair to say there was a lot of positivity about all the changes to come. I enjoyed the session but didn't really stick to the Training Plan (but did cover most of the material - although I forgot to use the red, yellow, & green voting cards) they were a really caring bunch of leaders and I would happily go back there again to train. I was particularly impressed with the Counties merchandise e.g notebooks, pens, A4 folders, shopping bags and clothing - they even had a badge for their county day.

How many extra participants should you allow for?

How many extra leaders should you anticipate for a training? I was expecting 11 so I did a couple of extra's and when I arrived I had 15 on the list, but then they just kept on coming and I ended up with 19 in this room:

Ok we coped but it was tight and apart from opening the windows I had to deviate from the plan further. I split the Promise fan activity and the marking up of the Whatever the Weather challenge of the 5 E's into 2 different sessions. Fortunately the Promise fan template had 2 fans printed on each card and I had a stack of risk assessment templates with me, so leaders could do a fan & immediately follow it with a risk assessment.
                                       

 In reality there were too many questions being asked to stick to the training plan and that was just fine because the training was meeting requirements by answering their questions. On reflection we did cover most of what was on the training plan anyway. I did a couple of activities from "Learning to Lead" which is now back on the website. Hence the sweets for "Walking the line", the post-it exercise asking what gets the girls coming back week after week - turned up some surprises -the most frequently occurring post-it suggested Friendship was the main reason to keep the girls coming back. At the end of the session, when we checked what we had covered and how we would implement, a number of the leaders commented that they need to give more responsibility to the girls to choose and lead. Music to my ears. I felt sorry for the 2 leaders in the group who were obviously more experienced than the rest but the group drove the discussion in the main. Although the Educational Framework wasn't known about at all. Lovely lunch with other trainers and that was definitely my last training of 2016. What better way to sign out other than with chocolate!                                   

    

Pictures from inset week trainings

The resources used for inset week were:

• Rustle, Bustle & Squeak from SW Region
• Splosh & splat challenge from 17th Gloucester (Salvation Army)
• Beatrix Potter Challenge from North West England
• Whatever the Weather Challenge from Welshpool Brownies - this was the badge leaders earned at the end of the night after doing 6 challenges.

Here are a few photos taken at the first Inset training:

The bundle of resources covered in the evening as a lottery prize at the end of the evening - thanks to SW Region for donating multiple copies of Rustle, Bustle & Squeak.

Adaption on the bug hotel from the Beatrix Potter challenge (Taking it further) to enable the bottle to be left outside and not get wet and soggy!

Origami fish tank from Rustle, Bustle & Squeak

I love the pink mini paddling pool used to display the boat & raft building from Rustle, Bustle & Squeak.

This is the ice melt challenge from the Splosh & Splat Challenge - some sweets worked better than others and in fact the recommended type were the least nice to eat as they took in too much water!

 

Post Safe Space Training again

An opportunity arose to train in another county in SW Region down in Cornwall. The venue was a combined church and village hall type space renovated with lottery money. The training was in the church straight after Rainbows with the Guides playing games next door in the community space - the church was very cold. There were 8 Leaders including 2 brand new ones who hadn't received their LQ books yet, however 1 had previously been a brownie leader and interjected with some relevant examples.

This is the first training I have done with the revised training plan; and it was really useful having the slide numbers on the plan to refer to throughout the training. I stuck remarkably to the training plan with hardly any rabbit holes this time - the hardest part was covering cyber bullying as this particular group of leaders had virtually no experience of cyber bullying. I got the feeling that the local community doesn't receive as many new families as we have in Glos (there was a story of a brownie who came once, but her family were unable to read or complete the Starting Brownies leaflet as they did not understand English).

The leaders were unsure of their county policy on reporting issues of concern and the DC who was present at the training said she was going to raise the requirement for a policy at the next county meeting and feed back to Leaders.

There was lots of interjection from the participants and the 3 hours went quickly but the lack of examples from them meant we were able to cover everything in the plan.

Self Reflection Outdoor challenges Indoors inset 3

Just goes to show how easily the audience changes and the impact this can have on the whole training. This time there were 17 leaders and a big percentage were new leaders and it felt like they were a bit stunned really! The village hall was brilliant what a wonderful place to do Brownies. I think this Division gets the award for being the most able to adapt and reflect on activities!

I remembered the origami fish instructions but forgot the tea, coffee, sugar and milk! Truth to tell I'm bored with this training now and time to move onto something new!   

Self Reflection Adventure Indoors training inset 2

Lovely appreciative Division - they might be the furthest away from me but they are such a lovely lot to train! You just have to look out for the wild boars on the drive home. 10 leaders were booked in and 23 ish turned up. They weren't shy at joining in, and used the small corridor in the school for the snow ball fight. They also proved that leaders can be as messy as the girls (glue all down the outside of the bottle) - well they were doing a challenge from the messy challenge! I forgot the origami fish instructions so in true guiding style leaders taught themselves and each other.

The questions during the formal bit focused in on data protection of the starting section forms and how long they could realistically be retained. We were fortunate to have the County GO! expert in attendance. There were very interested in the educational framework which I think is good because most of the audience were experienced leaders. They helped clear away and were so complimentary one said it was one of the best trainings they had been too.

I'm always willing to go back to this Division to train!

Self reflection on Adventure indoors training inset 1

We tried a new format for Inset week to be taken around all of the Divisions within the County - the formal training part was only 30 minutes long in section groups and the remainder of the evening there were challenges to try, with the objective of getting a challenge badge and including a café with food activities and the opportunity to network. I think the Leaders thought they were going to hear about the new programme so there was a fantastic turnout (22)!

The café format went really well and there was lots of talk going on about adapting the activities on offer to suit the girls.  I was amazed at the lack of knowledge of the 5 Essentials to start with but the dedication of Good Guiding is ..... shone though. Feels like we have gone full circle now when I first started training leaders were saying "we don't want to play games and do activities" but this time they came in saying "wow this looks good" and I think we got approached for more section questions because it was quite informal. The resource pack of the challenges, tied with a guiding blue ribbon, was won by a brand new leader who was really excited to take it away and the other leaders were pleased for her. Everyone was given a handout with URL's for the resources and stating the source of the activities on offer on the night including several from Rustle, Bustle.

The biggest surprise for me was the enthusiasm with which the challenges to get the whatever the weather challenge badge were received. As a county we had previously decided not to have a training badge but I hope that gets re-visited after this training.   

At the start of the session we had nobody booked in and I only did 12 handouts thinking that they would use at the next 2 trainings. Luckily the DC was able to photocopy at the venue but we really need leaders to let us know they are coming - I assumed it had been cancelled so nearly didn't attend! The format was a lot of work for the trainers in making examples, laying out and clearing away but I think the Leaders appreciated it. We also got off to a good start promoting the messages from the Trainers conference  -  less on programme and more on methods and participation by the girls.  

Planning a Training Part 3

I confess I have never done this part of the Training Plan in one hit fitting the content to the timings in order to meet the objectives. I find it a very reflective process over several days sometimes even a few weeks. I find it very iterative; because I do a lot of reflecting- I try to envisage how I can maximise the impact for the participants. Increasingly I'm finding leaders are prepared to challenge GG policies and content:

• "that's too corporate"
• "my girls keep on coming back without all this"
• "I'm just a volunteer"
• "I haven't got access to the internet"   

So I want to feel confident in the messages I am delivering. I'm very conscious that the delivery has to work on 2 levels - firstly that participants get what they came for which inevitably is ideas they can take back and use in their units. Secondly I want to land messages more in their subconscious about the 5 Essentials, Girl led guiding, Good guiding is...., Be our Best and the importance of doing risk assessments. (Most topics will provide the opportunity for a "risk assessment corner").

I aim to keep the pace moving whilst providing plenty of time for discussion - it's better to have too much material rather than too little, as you become more experienced the additional material will give you the opportunity to flex your training plan to meet the needs of the learners. Don't try this until you feel confident to do so - it will knock your confidence if it goes wrong.

Remember you should be developing a contingency plan alongside your training plan - the ultimate contingency being that you can't deliver the training - have you given sufficient detail that another trainer is able to pick up your training from the training plan? What happens if there is an IT failure can you still deliver a quality training?

Don't forget to evaluate the training and self evaluate - that's the best way to improve and provide yourself with input for your personal development plan. Evaluation doesn't have to be a questionnaire - try collecting comments on a disposable tablecloth or make a set of traffic light cards and take a vote. Do your self evaluation as soon as possible while its all still fresh. Remember to spot issues you can take to your Trainers Support Group.

Planning a Training Part 2

Still reading Chapter 3 of Training and with your full understanding of what is required after your exchanges with the Training Organiser the next important step is to put the Aim & Objectives together for your training. In doing so remember training is about delivering the facts & providing opportunities for the participants to share experiences and develop the enthusiasm for leaders to believe they can do that.

Check out some sample aims and objectives (many GG resources include a sample training plan to get you thinking) remember the language of the words in the objectives - are they measurable ones? If you are struggling check out the Guiding Conversations series - these will start you off with questions to ask and you can really see the benefit in the planning process.

Are you using the correct medium to deliver the training? Some topics work well in a virtual classroom others need to be hands on and body language is valuable in determining how the messages you are delivering are being received. Giving consideration to the best format for delivery is important as this will impact on how easily you can vary the pace. {20 years ago the concentration span used to be 60 minutes now the recommendation is to change the pace every 12 minutes = the average length of an X-box session!}So you need to incorporate into your planning.

At this stage you will have an idea of what resources and content is available to include in your training; the planning process will help you refine this list. Next comes Part 3. 

Planning a Training Part 1

I've been developing a training plan to be used as our County Inset one to run in a few Divisions by being tweaked to match the venue and the stated training requirements from each Division.

The bible is of course chapter 3 of Training "Planning and designing a training session" which provides 18 pages of really good solid advice and lots of links. I thought it might be useful over the next 3 posts to cover the practicalities in relation to planning this specific training.

Firstly is at the requirements stage - I really can't impress how important it is to have a dialogue with the Training Organiser (who may be not a trainer herself) as to what the expectations for the training are! A classic methodology is for the training organiser to pick a catchy title and expect you to design the entire training around one statement. Have a number of conversations if possible and don't forget to ask questions about the potential audience. How experienced will the Leaders be? Will there be Leaders with Special needs? What facilities will I have access too? Don't expect that just because the training is in a school that you will have tables - you may be put in the gym! I once went to train in a fire station and I didn't ask, so wasn't told that the training was to be held in the garage where the engine would normally be kept. The impact being that the floor of the garage was really shiny and slippery so I had to change the programme on the hoof to accommodate the fact that we couldn't play active games on the floor. On one occasion I had a lady temporarily using  a wheel chair which again meant a quick adaption so we spilled out into the corridor to allow the room required for all the activities.

The training you deliver to perspectives Leaders is very different to delivering the same topic to experienced leaders; if you were to have s significant number of new leaders could you adapt your training to meet their requirements? Could you cover Be our Best, Good Guiding is......., Adventure and Girl Led Guiding all in the same training to new and experienced Leaders?

Secondly the budget allocation - make sure you have agreed what expenditure is allowed. More frequently these days an allowance is made per head participating - but how will you reflect this in your plan if Leaders don't commit until the last minute before the training? Make sure you get guidance from the Training Organiser if this arises, don't ever be out of pocket. (If I see and buy something for a potential training I now keep a file with annotated receipts to use at a later date if I decide I can use the resources bought at an earlier date). Start your expenses early on in the process - if you leave it too late you might forget to include something.

In this particular example the primary drivers were to provide section trainings that are accessible around the County; and that Adventure is promoted indoors through out the Winter months. We also wanted to ensure we supported Leaders in applying the 5 Essentials when adapting activities to match the interests and abilities of their girls. A tall order!

If in doubt go back and discuss with the Training Organiser!

Personal Development Plan Training: Self reflection

A classic example where I should have grilled the training organiser about the audience as I hadn't appreciated just how many prospective trainers were present (and who didn't even know what a PDP was) and that the prevalent idea still appears to be that the PDP is a "to do list." An idea I thought we had got rid of years ago, but there were leaders asking in both sessions "well what can I put on it?". In the first session, after the first 15 minutes, I intervened and moved some leaders around to get a mix of experience in groups with new trainers. The empathy mapping missed the mark completely in both sessions. Self reflection on trainings was being carried out but not necessarily written down or consciously acted on. In both sessions I estimate there was only 1 leader per session actively practicing PDP (one leader had her PDP with her and she carries it in her diary to add to on the spur of the moment). There were some light bulb moments coming from the group work with the cootie catchers, and leaders realising the sorts of things they are doing, and that they can record on their PDP. The WAGGGS magnets went down well (the surplus going to a leader for swops on an international)! I asked the question from "Peas in a pod" evaluation who is going to go back and make a change in their PDP practice and the result was:

Leaders as well as girls like to hear the sound of the marble dropping into the glass.

Fantastic to see Foxlease promoting themselves with a range of cookies and fudge in the shop and entrance hall - shame I never got to try them as they all got eaten at work rather quickly.  

The depths of coffee depravation that guiding has reduced me to - not quite freshly ground Lavazza beans but an improvement on the instant sticks. Increasingly appears guiding and drinking decent coffee are mutually exclusive.

 

Fortune Teller or Cootie Catcher

Clever resource that can be adapted to any training topic so simple to put together with the blank template at www.downloadablecootiecatchers.wordpress.com all you need to add are 4 pictures and 8 questions. This example is aimed at Trainers to help with their Personal Development Plan.





Home made WAGGGS magnets

The stickers from WAGGGS make beautiful magnets that can be used as gifts or swoops.

Don't use Copydex as the ink runs!

Its a shame that the Trefoil Stickers are no longer produced. You can buy the supplies on Ebay - 50 magnets cost £7.65 and 50 glass Cabochons cost £9.42 plus the cost of the stickers and the UHU glue. Make sure you order the correct size magnets! 

Free Writing

This was the final reflection session of 3 and this one was all about getting in touch with your subconscious thoughts. This technique is used by writers to clear writers block and for collecting initial thoughts on a topic e.g when first given a topic for a new training. The technique involves writing solidly for a set period of time, to see what flows - no stopping to check or read work, or even taking the pen off the paper! Some folk benefit from a period of relaxation or moving to a quiet area.

You can use a stimulus - we tried it with items from newspapers to get initial thoughts going - no reason why you couldn't start off with some GG UK resources or activities.  

The Girl Guide Officers' Training School (GGOTS)

 

 

Page 65 from the above "Girl Guide Album"

I picked up this book from Amazon for £3 plus shipping, it bills itself as a "brief pictorial review of Guiding from 1910-1985 drawn from newspapers, books, song sheets, photographs and a wealth of other material." 1985 was the year I started my guiding career and I was really struck how little change there had been in the first 75 years of Girl Guiding; and just how fast the pace of chance has been in the last 30 years. 

 

Page 65 featured above shows a Girl Guide Officers' Training Camp in 1917 at Windy Sayles, Boxmoor, home of Mrs Agatha Blyth who was the pioneer of Guide Training. When Mrs Blyth resigned in 1918 the school became part of HQ, by then there were other Training Schools in different parts of the country. The start of Training in GG UK?

 

If you get chance to look through a copy do so as you will be amazed how much you recognise still from today's guiding.

 



Pacechangers, Icebreakers & Energisers

I had to dig this out this week for a colleague - it was originally compiled by the Midlands Trainer Support Group back in 2003 but I have dipped in and out many times over the years. The ones that go down the best are the sweets ones "Yes and No" (p11) and "Smarties" (p17). I recently promoted at my Trainers Support Group and at the next meeting a former Midlands trainer turned up with some to sell so they are still around. I paid £2.50, and yes you probably could trawl up a lot of these ideas on the internet but it is useful to have them all in one place so you can dip in and out. I've made some notes on the inside cover as to how to adapt one of the most popular ones.

 

58 Trainings delivered since 2000

I had a count up of all my paper training plans since I started printing them off in 2000 and was amazed to find there were 58 in the file so that averages around 4 a year - not bad considering other life events in the same time frame included 2 children and a couple of house moves!

Glad I started a paper file as quite often I want to develop bits from previous trainings or improve on something I have already tried before. I save in MS word with the name of the County the training was requested by, and the date of the training. I discovered a while ago putting the title/theme isn't a great help as topics tend to cycle round on a fairly frequent basis and therefore to search on the topic brings up several different trainings.

 By holding the paper copies I can keep the notes or annotations I made sometimes during, or immediately after the training, all together along with my self evaluation (they tend to be hand written as I try to do them as soon as I get home with a cuppa before going to bed). Having a paper file means I can quickly flick through to find the training I want to adapt; I have had cause to look back on these notes sometimes even a few years after the training was delivered. The content, policy, legislation move on but the techniques can be adapted to suit the audience needs.

Do other trainers use other techniques to keep track? Are there any lessons we should learn for the Trainers Qualification renewal process? 

Should we be training on overcoming Uncoscious Bias?

Unconscious Bias shows that we all tend to favour those that look, think and behave like ourselves. This week I had the opportunity to attend a course looking at these micro behaviours that certainly provided me with food for thought. Research shows there are an equal number of unconscious bias instances (even just a more vigorous greeting to one colleague over another) that occur as those classed as more explicit discrimination - which is amazing.

The trainer suggested in order to counter unconscious bias we all have to identify & question our own bias. The key is to identify things you have in common then value the difference between you and the other individual. The rest of the advice was stock training techniques e.g active listening, positive body language, eye contact, and acknowledging participants input and build on their ideas.

Can you recognise any unconscious bias in your trainings, mentoring or tutoring?

Interesting that increasingly trainings I attend have learning outcomes rather than objectives - it provides a good opportunity to observe other trainers at work. In this instance I would say there was maybe a bit too much humour. However I got the message of the training and it was enjoyable.

Three Gifts Reflection

I was introduced to this for the first time this week and it strikes me as being a really useful technique for a trainers toolkit. The technique is to think of 3 things at the end of the day that went well, focus on the positives not the negatives and write them down - writing them down helps to focus on the events. Doesn't have to be big things but small positive things that happened during the training.

The key is to not only think about the good things, but to enjoy the good feelings that those things have brought you. Take time to revel in them!

Studies have found the technique to lastingly increase happiness and decrease negative thoughts - it all relates to neuroplasticity if you want to look up more information.

Why not use a trainers evaluation form to write your 3 things down on? 

Evaluation stickers

Wilkinsons £1 a pack

Discovered these at Wilkinsons they are ideal for doing evaluation and participation activities with the girls and leaders. Mix with another pack of plain coloured stickers for the "other" side of the vote or get the girls to use the smiley faces to show how they feel about the options on offer. Think they are a candidate for adding to the trainers and leaders bag.   

Division Queen's 90th birthday celebrations

Glos West Division - Queens' 90th birthday celebrations in Dursley.

 

 

Theses gorgeous celebration snacks were produced by our Trefoil Guild and are not what they look like. They are in fact sponge cake baked inside the cornet with butter cream made to look like ice cream - they were delicious. We had nearly 300 girls for Country dancing, royal craft and edible decorating - everyone enjoyed it and there was a lovely specially designed badge afterwards.

 

The point for training - make sure when you are teaching (in this instance country dancing) that the learners of the knowledge have the basics in place first e.g know right from left! Do we always check Leaders understand the 5 Essentials before we deliver the training?

Self evaluation of another County Day Training Day

This is exactly why you should always write your self evaluation on the same day as the training and not a whole week later, but luckily I did make a few notes last weekend.

Funny how the same training can go down a different path depending on the audience - this was the same training delivered at Bristol and South Glos County day a month before. However I had my coping with challenging behaviour skills tested, this time by a couple of Leaders who voiced their opinion that GG UK was asking too much of them and as long as the brownies are happy and returning each week there was no need to pursue Good Guiding is ...  , Be our Best, Mission Spectacular even 5 E's etc. Whilst they were entitled to their opinion, and hats off to them for making it to a training, the other leaders were really keen to spring to the defence of GG UK - pointing out you choose what interests & challenges your girls.

I also trained my youngest member of the movement as she shuffled around the floor chewing on the cups from the communication cup game from "Be inventive" in Mission Spectacular - it was no trouble having her there.

The mission spectacular ideas jar was well received again with everyone eager to get heir 8 points in order to take an idea away from the jar. There was time to fit in the speed dating this time so that they could each feedback what they were going to take back to their programme planning - I think this was because we didn't need to spend long on Be our Best which had been broadcast during the inset week in October 2015 in Glos. As always the speed dating went well.

I did my photocopying straight after the March training and did fairly well on guessing the numbers except the handbook quiz which I completely forgot to copy - serves me right for being so organised.  Lots of conversation about how difficult the GG UK website is to search and retrieve resources from, but also impressed that there are some really good tools to be had if you persevere especially those around badge support.

All in all I was pleased with the training.

Room 101 ice breaker

Room 101 template



Discovered this in the "Move On up!" Training on the GG UK website. Think it will be like the speed dating activity from the Good Guiding is .... training in that it could be adapted to a number of themes.

The idea is that each participant fills in a slip noting something of relevance to the training topic to be nominated to be put in Room 101. The trainer collects in the slips then picks out a number and asks the nominating leader to argue as to why the subject should be banished to Room 101. I think this could be a good way of exploring myths around the topic. The GG UK guidance is to control the time given to discussion as participants can easily get carried away. I am going to give it a try at the next County Day topic which is on Transitions between the Sections.

eLecta Virtual Classroom

Finally managed to deliver my first virtual classroom as pat of the SW Region trial of eLecta. I've created a set of FAQ's to explain the use of the virtual classroom. The first training was too near to the publicity going live so had no takers so didn't happen. The second was on the Brownie Programme with one leader and I think would have been better if there had been another leader to mix the discussion  up a bit. The lone leader was a bit late logging on so I called her to suss out what was happening to discover her internet had crashed so we were a bit late starting whilst she logged on again. You really do need the headphones as there was a slight echo and I could hear her dog barking in the background.

I gave up on the Brownie Programme powerpoint and focussed on the lone leader and her issues and as a result opened the microphone so that we could talk. So I hope the next session, which is on the theory for module 1 of the LQ has a few more participants to make it feel more like a real training, and to see what other lessons can be learned. The classroom itself is really easy to use but it does need some explanation to get going.

Mash up Brownie Adventure & Misson Spectacular

I do enjoy training in Bristol & South Glos as they are such a well organised County, with a wonderful service team on the day, and the Leaders are so enthusiastic and well informed. This year was no exception the topic was the Brownie Adventure with other resources added in to make easy programme planning for the 5E's. At the last minute I added in Mission Spectacular, the senior section celebration, as proof you can "mash-up" anything as long as it is Good Guiding is ..... and GG UK policy compliant.

Leaders enjoyed he communication cup game from Mission Spectacular and had the opportunity for 2 crafts and a visit to "Risk Assessment corner"  in order to earn points to pick from the Brownie Mission Spectacular jar pictured below. There were 10 bases for circuit training each illustrating a different way to use the Brownie Adventure, and a few bowls of sweets helped.

Surprises - one unit are not using the Brownie Adventure but use challenges and badges instead. There was a lot of debate about whether Leaders should do mandatory training. Risk Assessment corner was a big hit and one experienced leader who has done Safe Space training, was vocal in telling other Leaders that Safe Space training should be mandatory as so much had changed. The idea of the jar was adapted from The USA Girl Scouts who suggest brownies make a family ideas jar - the leaders seemed to like it and were keen to get the 8 points needed to dip into it. One leader is desperate to get a copy of Anglia's Pick & Mix. I gave away my Brownie Section notes only to discover the revised edition is still not available.

Brownie Adventure Spectacular Jar

   

Wide Games: traditional way to deliver outdoors activities









 

No longer published but worth a look to see if it hides in your Guiding cupboard -
it was a fantastic resource for adventure (1998).
Still available 2nd hand ISBN 0852601484.

It feels like Wide Games are undergoing a bit of a revival since the
focus on adventure - see  if you can find GG UK
4 page document with  good ideas for urban
areas like shopping malls on the internet




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Virtual Classroom training

South West Region is starting a pilot of a virtual classroom technology called Electra following on from webinars but a much more sophisticated tool and feels like a real classroom environment - including asking questions and involving live polls. I've participated in 2 sessions now with my really old 2007 laptop and it is incredibly easy to use. This was my verdict on the last trial:

"It was wonderful to be able to spend my 3^rd guiding evening of the week sat on my own sofa with a coffee and “speak” with a commitment to a common standard from my own living room. (My husband would need not know how many nights I’m out training using this method)! This package will give us a fabulous opportunity to appeal to the younger members and just think how we could help support those on the Leadership qualification who have got “stuck”. I can’t wait to get going.

Ipad users seemed to be struggling a bit but not to the extent that benefits are outweighed by the disadvantages. My screen protector is set at quite a small time so when it kicked in I lost speech for a few seconds. We still have leaders in Glos who don’t own a computer or smart phone."

A couple of weeks ago I spent a day down in Salisbury having a go as a trainer and now have set 6 dates for Glos virtual class room tainings in the book, and produced a set of FAQ's - let's see how it goes! It's really exciting.

 

 

Post Safe Space Training for the 2nd time

The training took a very similar path to the last one - the Leaders really seem to enjoy the risk assessment part of the training. Not a single person was aware of the red emergency pack  - I sent them all away to ask the unit leader to see the copy for the unit. Looks like a mail out at Christmas really wasn't efficient!

I didn't bother to get the projector again but relied on a few of the power point slides laminated and I think that is actually better as the most important aspect is the facilitation for discussion and providing the opportunity  for the (very young) leaders to feel comfortable asking questions. This time folk wanted to know about guides becoming Pack Leaders at brownies - the suggested length of time is a year gap if they are returning to their old brownie unit. Can't remember how we got onto that topic.

Even starting at 6.30pm we overran and I didn't get home until after 10pm (I was only 15 miles away) but I was very impressed with the level of participation and genuine concern to d the right thing for our members. There were a few out of the 13 who only needed this training, in fact some had had their LQ book returned - yet I was surprised how little those present knew about established practices and processes of GG UK. I was left wondering do we need to put more efforts into getting the more experienced Leaders trained up? More importantly should we be spreading the message about using the unit team especially the enthusiastic ones?

Don't know when my next Safe Space training is as I haven't got one booked. Found a load of Safe from Harm resources this weekend for throwing away - it's actually not all that different, got to move with the times.

Tell me an organisation that can teach fab origami skills - why can't we line up the safe space leaflet for printing and folding so its readable?

Improvements to an annual section training

I once again visited the County Annual Leadership Qualification weekend to deliver the Guide Section training. The concept of the weekend is a really good idea - enabling Leaders to pop in and out or stay for the whole weekend - and the food smelt delicious.

This year I added in Good Guiding is ....... and an introduction to other resources other than GG UK ones in the programme planning including SW Region ones. Yet again it was evident what the new leaders wanted was an understanding of what a basic Guide programme looks like. They were really interested in looking through the GFI's! and what really struck them was the amount of input the girls should have to the programme. 

I enjoyed the session - there were only 3 guide leaders and the time flew by - ran it more like a workshop really. Thanks to Ali for the fab coffee.

Post Safe Space

Ok so there really is a huge amount of content for 3 hours - some crazy leader actually wrote on the feedback form that she wanted longer to be able to have more discussion on individual items! The feedback forms are a bit flawed as they ask how much you enjoyed the content! It proved really useful to have some experienced Leaders who had insights to share. Likewise the young (er) Leaders were able to share a great deal around social media and cyber bullying.

We did use the participants booklets during the training and only 1 out of 12 had printed the booklet to bring to the training. I told everybody to let their DC know they had attended (as well as giving out the certificates) so that GO! could be updated but it turns out that there is someone at County who is happy to receive lists for updating GO!. The recommendation is for a maximum of 15 leaders per session and I can see why as bigger groups would have very little opportunity to input to discussion.
I used some of the slides from the power point training to laminate for demo purposes as I didn't get enough time to borrow a projector and screen

Most of the photocopies were given out so I can see more time on the photocopier - yet more responsibility and expense for the trainer!

It is a good training to deliver.

Before Safe Space Training

Happy New Year

Spent today doing preparation for next weeks Safe Space training - there was a lot of photocopying and some laminating required:

• some reference copies of the participants hand out
• feedback forms
• participant certificates
• what would you do quiz
• blank risk assessment templates
• types of abuse hand out
• GG UK policies to point at
• web safety codes for each section
• cards for code of conduct game
• scenario cards
• "A safe Cyberspace"
• "Be Prepared!"

I decided I needed to have the last 2 so I could wave them at those leaders who don't have access to the members part of the website yet. There is a huge amount of information to cover in 3 hours - hope it doesn't frighten the younger leaders. I will do an evaluation after the training.