 Hello everyone, this is Ross, Teacher Talkit. I'm at home in my spare bedroom where I blog and write So this is where it happens This is my third video. It's my kind of welcome to 2017. So happy new year to everyone who's listening After doing a live periscope on Twitter last week I thought I'd just take time to do a more in-depth video about People returning to school. I know some people are going back to school next week But hopefully this can be used for when people attend inset days or are organizing their own inset days So it's kind of like 10 things to avoid when you're organizing or taking part and leading inset days of staff training at schools. So the first few that I want to go through are essentially Things that people often don't consider. So the first one is housekeeping A lot of training days start with you know the program There's gonna be a fire drill if you're attending a conference for the first time those kind of things There are ways to time people know these things they can read they know the program Yes, there's a few things that might you know when programs change But don't make it liberal. It's just a quick update and get on with it Thirdly most importantly time and stick to them unless there's a significant delay You know an external speaker or some thing that someone's come to here, but I'm talking about school insets here Keep the timing and if if you can finish earlier than planned and let staff feel That they have some time to go on and get on with their own stuff So I'm talking about a typical training day here that you have at school Don't keep staff behind don't open up for questions and one person raise their hand That's the question let them deal with that in their own time and let staff go Thirdly ask yourself is your training day a training day or is it an event or a meeting to get people together for information If that is then have a briefing and let people get on with the training itself Next one fourthly probably the the one that irritates us all Is a one-size-fits-all approach, you know if it's a briefing then one-size-fits-all is applicable Everyone needs to be there, but the most significant CPD that I've been part of or have helped organize is where it's Differentiated and it's targeted and people have a choice people can choose where they want to go and when you're lucky enough to get Out of school and go to a conference you choose your own Workshops and you go to things that are meaningful for your own professional development Fifthly the worst one of all is when you've got a PowerPoint and the presenter turns it back and reads from a screen and The text is either too small. It's Doesn't look very appealing to visually attractive They've got a very dull voice. They're very Disengaging and you're just you know ready to Hit yourself in the head. It's painful. So if you're a presenter, please think of other ways to present your information Handouts activities get people on their feet Those things tend to work really well if you are presenting or organizing something think about How you will present your content when people organize video content, YouTube's sound clips They often don't test it before they arrive Have a backup plan Make sure you got a good connection if you're using the internet There's nothing worse than wait for something and then it turns on it blers out and it gets on everyone's nerves Or it's too quiet and you can't even hear it. It makes it a very frustrating place Number seven on my list Acronyms education is full of acronyms CPD PDD Inset there's already three just for training itself And then you've got NQTs SLTs and we've got all these different acronyms Schools come up with their own as well So if you present them to an audience who don't know the acronyms or if there are new members of staff or you go to conference Make sure they were explained in in a handout somewhere so that staff don't have to worry people Listening don't have to worry about what they mean Number eight I've been really pleased to see on twitter the last few weeks people try and bring and brag or our hashtag speed date in cpd An idea that i've developed and used in my own Staff training that i've been organizing for the last 10 years in in my leadership positions Give staff time to talk staff love sharing ideas So facilitate classroom ideas where staff have time to talk about what they do And let them have an opportunity to hear other people If you present an idea give staff to think pair share it's a great classroom strategy It's equally useful in staff training sessions My two last ones Number nine the environment There's nothing worse than drilling going on behind the scenes the room's too hot the room's too cold the chairs are uncomfortable Sometimes these things are out of your hands if you're in school But in a conference setting think about how you can make your guests a bit more welcome Um have regular toilet breaks even if you're in your own insect day in school Let staff kind of move around let them have a break five minute break bring them back Don't don't treat them like kids give staff time to be comfortable and then the last one number 10 Uh, there's nothing worse than not feeding your staff. So make sure they're well fed and watered It doesn't take take air cost a lot of money in in my experience it typically works out for a day five pound per head And that's enough to to give staff a good breakfast and a hearty lunch And you can it's a good enough budget if you've got 100 teachers in your school a large secondary school That's a lot of money that you can use to feed staff and give them a wide selection of food And and even a bowl of mints and some water on their table if they're going to be sitting in a room for For most uh for an hour or two so those are My 10 things to avoid stroke things to consider if you're organizing a cpd session I want to finish off with two shoutouts. I've got a couple of books on my table One is by andrew morrish. So an experienced head teacher Uh, this is his book the art of standing out and it's about his own journey about school transformation And it's a book that I was lucky enough to read and review So I'd highly recommend you check that out if you haven't done so that was my read from last year And a new book that I've been lucky enough to be sent by mary myit Mary my on twitter, uh, she's an hmi inspector. She's an re lead This is her a new book called hopeful schools and it's about building humane communities and it's a very Important topic in light of our current education landscape the dialogue with you know, accountability working long hours Staff feeling very burnt out after a few Um Weeks months in the first term. Uh, so that's my new uh book that I've got to read. Thank you mary for sending that to copy to me Uh, and I recommend you all have a look at it. Um, Finally, that's all from me. I've got man flu. So it explains why I'm feeling a little bit under the weather Um, but it's my third video. Please share it with people like it subscribe Uh, give me some feedback. Give me some ideas actually things you'd like me to talk about Um, I'm quite getting a bit more up for kind of sharing ideas here. Um So, uh, I hope you've enjoyed it. I hope you found it useful I'm getting the hang of this and all the best for 2017 and I hope that your cpd Programs that you design your own schools or the conferences that you attend are more meaningful for you My name's ross teacher talk it. Thanks for tuning in Teacher talk it one of the most followed teachers on twitter in the uk Find out more at teacher talk it dot me