Unsure about daytime courses in-house or off-site, more institutions are moving towards Twilight training.
I have just taken a booking for Honiton College – it will take 2 hours to drive there, for a two hour Whiteboard training session, and 2 hours work.
So if you’re not local and unsure about booking me for a short twilight session – don’t worry.
Last week I ran an INSET day at the International school in Basel Switzerland.
For the Primary school I did a morning on using / editing video in the classroom, and then a session on Blogging / Wiki’s.
For the Secondary school I did an afternoon for mostly Humanities teachers, on the interactive uses of their Promethean Whiteboards.
All of the staff are keen to use these skills in the classroom.
Basel is only an hour and quarter by jet from London, and this makes Day Insets quite practicable, though in this case because I trained from 8.30am, I flew in the night before and stayed in the hotel opposite the school. Didn’t see much of Basel or Switzerland though, but enjoyed using my elementary German with the Turkish cabbie.
Looking forward to more Inset at International / British Schools.
Due to the Cover regulation changes, where few staff are being allowed out on courses, we are making some changes to our sessions in Okehampton.
Monday :
Day course cancelled – Motivating Boys in MFL – but run as a twilight – 4pm to 7pm – run by Peter Dawes – details
Tuesday :
Day course cancelled.
Substituted – twilight course – Using your Interactive Whiteboard interactively and with multimedia – any subject, any board. – 4pm – 7pm – run by Laurence Moss – details
Additionally – since I will be in Devon for both days, I can run any of my courses – as day course, twilight course or drop-in course [based in school but staff drop-in as they have free periods], in any Devon school [subject on Tuesday to me be able to get back to Okehampton for 4pm]. First come first served basis.
Cost:
Twilights - £125 up to 1st November, £150 thereafter
Day courses – drop-in etc – POA according to need/times
Wednesday and Thursday courses are cancelled.
Until cover regulations are adjusted, and teachers find it difficult to attend day courses, I have to respond with suitable courses.
Twilight courses provide an opportunity for training with no cover implications, but how many teachers want to stay after school, and for how long.
What is a twilight. I have presented practical courses for 2 hours after school – I can talk and demonstrate for longer than that – but I believe that training [especially after school] should be practical and active. There is a limit to how much content you can get through in a couple of hours with complete beginners – this begs a solution of having twilights in several episodes.
Schools might want to respond with longer twilights – 3hrs? 4hrs? – but how can staff maintain their interest for that long after a day in the classroom.
How can trainers find an appropriate remuneration scale for twilights? Few people could travel for several hours and stay overnight in a B&B [which is what we normally do for a day course] just for a couple of hours training. On the contrary, I have offered very cheap twilight courses for my local school [travel minimal] which have not been taken up because they seem too cheap.
[Strangely, many trainers find that it's easier to find work when they charge a lot, than when they charge a little!!!].
So solutions?
Drop-in courses – I have been in several schools where I have been based in a room and staff drop in during their free periods through the day. It has weaknesses because I have to keep repeating my work, but it can be very individualised [to staff or department] and can be supported by me providing staff with training exercises/software for them to follow up on. I can provide drop-in support Generically [whole school/ most subjects] or Department specific.
Twilight courses of 2,3,4 hours but perhaps in episodes – one each term
Inset days [more inset days?] - teachers do report boring bureaucratic in-house Inset days, when they would prefer a more active practical day.
Correspondence courses – I can provide some of my courses in the form of booklets and CDRoms [software video tutorials]. These can be supported by:
Mentoring / Skype sessions – face to face over the computer, or by email.
Training companies are facing closure due to current trends, and soon there will be no-one left to provide training. Some ‘professional trainers’ may have to take alternative FT employment [teaching?].
I am able to support myself through alternative employment and can continue to offer training dates through the year.
The change in regulations for cover have effected all Training companies with the result that fewer teachers are being allowed out on training courses. This is also having an effect on my business for day courses, but I have the flexibility of being able to offer all of my courses as ‘twilights‘ – after school.
It depends on what you call a twilight course. For some schools it has been an hour and half after school. Economically to charge a reasonable amount, I wouldn’t want to travel too far, but a Devon school has made an enquiry about a four hour twilight [!] and that’s almost a day’s work – will the staff be physically and mentally able to do a day teaching and then several hours training?
Big training companies are all having ‘delegate numbers’ problems now the bottom is dropping out of daylight training. Surely Teachers are entitled to appropriate training and students are entitled to a well trained teacher. How long can this situation go on?
Have just taken a booking for the International School Basel – that’s Switzerland – November 2009.
An Interactive Whiteboard course on Promethean boards – Humanities etc.
Just booked at the Kings Centre – central Norwich – for 3 days – 30thNov – 2nd December.
Will get publicity out to schools soon
I’ve always said that someone who could do this would make a fortune.
Electricity without wires – wi-electricity - watch this
The big training companies like Dragonfly run courses in the city-centre hotels of big cities. This is fine if you live within easy reach of the main cities, but not so, if you live in Cornwall for example. Hotel based courses are also expensive for the training company and for you – you have to add your travel costs. In London, delegates come up to 1 or 2 hours late because of trouble on the tracks, or the M25 being closed.
I am looking for small venues to run courses in your locality :
They could be schools, small business cemtres with conference rooms, Motels with meeting rooms, even youth hostels or field centres.
They need to be accessible, with places for parking, and/or near rail-links, and near places with lots of schools. Wi-fi would be a great advantage but not always essential.
Can anyone give me a contact to follow up?
comment below please.
We can have reservations about using Twitter socially or professionally in education, but it has its uses. If you have not ventured into Twitter yet, note that it is the focus of an explosion of applications connected with managing Twitter.
This weekend I found www.Geochirp.com – you can be amazed at the technology. It shows a map – place it on the area you live in and then monitor the twitter traffic going on. If there’s too much, you can filter or search for words or topics. You won’t be impressed by the content of the messages unless you manage to inspire your students to be creative.
It’s worth a look.
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