When I was 14 years old, my mother took me to our social security office in Durham, North Carolina, and acquired a social security number for me. Apparently, when I was born, my social security was not issued before leaving the hospital as is common practice today. So, we were off to the office to get one as my mother made it clear that I would be working that summer—as a volunteer, of course—but working, nonetheless.
I am not sure if the YMCA required my SSN to volunteer as that would seem unnecessary, but my mother wanted to ensure that I had it so that I could work for pay as I approached 15 years of age. Many of my peers had obtained jobs at fast-food restaurants and at Durham Parks and Recreation Department at 15 and older so my mother knew that I would be eligible for a paying job soon.
That summer, I worked as a “counselor in training” (C.I.T.) at the YMCA, assisting the counselors for the pre-k/kindergarten summer program. It was so much fun and probably planted a seed for my future career as an elementary educator and early childhood teacher educator.
For some reason, I do not recall receiving formal training for that job but remember just doing whatever the counselors asked me to do and of course, whatever came naturally as it related to helping the children.
Now, my experience was quite different when it came to my history with paying jobs. I can recall very clearly being trained when I worked for the Durham Parks and Recreation Department as a counselor and as a director of Fun Caravan, a free outdoor program for youth.
I also remember, very vividly, my training as a cashier for Winn-Dixie, Everything’s A Dollar, Cards N Such, Hecht’s Department Store, Lerner (known now as New York & Company), Payless, and even T.J. Maxx. Yes, I have had my share of retail jobs, as you can see. Educators always need more streams of income. I learned that early on.
As I reflect on my retail jobs, I realize that I felt the most comfortable when I was trained well prior to hitting the floor. Of course, I learned more on the floor than I ever could during training, but those companies with intense training prepared me with the background knowledge and preliminary skills that I needed to increase my likelihood of success.
This realization stuck with me when I became a teacher.
Training became such an important part of my instruction. In fact, when I taught first and second grade, I would tell my students that our boot camp would transpire for the first six weeks of class. I explained to them what a boot camp was and that they would learn everything about how we would do things in our classroom during that time. It was such a wonderful season of learning.
I watched my students bloom into these confident vessels who moved through each day knowing exactly what to do and how to do things. The substitute teachers who filled in for me would often leave notes about how they would love to sub for me, again, if ever I needed them due to how well my students behaved and performed.
So, when I began teaching online and the opportunity came for me to infuse live group sessions in my courses, I knew that training would be necessary. I spent weeks planning how I would lay out what my students needed to do step-by-step to prepare for the live sessions.
I must say that the planning paid off as most of my students came to the sessions prepared and ready to go. Together we learned the ins and outs of live group sessions. I learned what worked and what did not. I learned how to support them and to make the process easier which is the ultimate role of a facilitator.
In this mini-workshop, I share with you what I have learned for the past 13 years. I cover the three components that are necessary for effective training:
- Instruction
- Demonstration
- Accountability
It is my hope that it will shorten your learning curve and support you in providing dynamic, live, group experiences for your students online.
Feel free to share any feedback you have about the training below or submit questions or topics of interest to me at hello@kelliealston.com.