ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

I'm always intrigued by individual definitions of words and how much emphasis we put on our own interpretation. For me, as both a trainer and a participant, if the training isn't fun I'm very likely not learning or not being successful as a trainer. However, that doesn't mean that I equate fun with fluff. Fun activities are related to the content, help participants understand a concept, or challenge participants to think in new ways. I remember many years ago when a colleague was distressed about an evaluation of her training that complained about the "games" that were played. She asked me if I had any insight and we discussed her reasons for including those specific activities. It took us breaking the training into parts and looking at the games she had played for her to realize that they had no connection with the content. It takes a skilled trainer to be able to incorporate fun in a meaningful way so that participants recognize it is more than just playing - they're practicing or activating prior learning so that new material can be incorporated. Not everyone is successful in using fun in their training but when it's done with intentionality it's very successful - just like anything that is done for a specific purpose.

I think fun can be meaningful and be reminded of the lessons that stuck with you the most. They were the ones that you FELT good about or FELT most challenged

Judy Metzger

I too was put off by the word fun. I like words like interesting, thought-provoking, satisfying. Education doesn't have to entertain - adults don't need entertainment in the name of training and they shouldn't get the message that kids need entertaining either - they get much too much of that already - starting at birth. Involvement is a better goal.

I was pleased to see a follow up article!

We realised that every culture has a stock of indegenous stimulation material and practices. So we decided to involve the community elders to work side by side with our teachers trainees to create indegenous play materials and explain the use. They also explain ideas used to instill discipline in a playway style.

I think there is a difference between learning regulations and office locations vs. reflecting on practice and delving deeper into our work. In a perfect, well funded professional development program, the power of multi-day or retreat type settings are most powerful. Building relationships with a community of practice, modeling behaviors and values we want to see in our workplace can make a huge difference in the lasting results of this model of training.

Ellen Brosbe
Bureau of Jewish Education
San Francisco

As a trainer for the Illinois State Board of Education, I feel that in training, we should model the very behaviors that we would want teachers to use with the children. Why else would we train? That is, we should avoid training activities that are competitive and that don't provide any meaningful learning.

It's easy to do "fun" activities, but does it serve a purpose? Meet your objectives for the training? For instance, as a way to break participants into groups, each participant takes an item out of a basket on their table. They then find all the participants in the group who have the same color of item (red heart, red star, red pipe cleaner, etc). Then, as a 2nd part of an activity to have them discuss with other people, they find all the participants who have the same item as them (all hearts, all starts, all pipe cleaners) helping teachers to understand important math skills young children need.

As Lilian Katz says, "Activities don't have to be FUN, they have to be meaningful." I'm in full agreement.

Carol Weisheit

To quote Walt Disney"I would rather entertain and hope people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained" I have been working in the childcare field for over 30 years and currently I have over 100 C.D.A. students. I have found that using humor and your own experiences in your trainings bring providers back to learn more. They trust me and know I am there to help them . I use a lot of "hands on" because I find that every person learns differently and at a different pace. I want my students to be relaxed enough with me to be able to tell me what they are struggling with, be it one of the chapters in our book or a transportation issue to get to class. I love my job and feel good about how I do it.
Cindy Kern, M.Ed.
CDA Manager
ChildSavers
200 N. 22nd Street
Richmond, Va.
23223

We work within a larger organization and needed to know where various offices in the organization were located. We divided into teams, making the teams staff who would not typically work together and had a treasure hunt wih clues. At the end of the hunt the treasure was a new book for each classroom. Staff enjoyed getting to know people they might not have worked with before and learned more about the larger organization.

We also have staff do trainings themselves. They learn more about the subject and other staff may pay more attention because it is a fellow staff member.

In order to improve our classrooms, we have a workshop on room improvement, then we have experts in the area come to the Center and complete a checklist on each classroom which includes multiculturalism, cleanliness, beauty and organization with 6-8 bullets under each category. Ratings are from 1-5. There is a space for comments and areas of strength and weakness. Staff then take the comments, make improvements on their classrooms and the experts come back and fill the forms out with the changes noted.