Leading a session - your introduction

Alright, so we are going to start with the introduction section. So introductions are very key in how we set up the day, it's the time when our learners, who may be new to us or maybe part of an organization that we are teaching with, and it is going to show and explain to learners exactly what to expect through the day. So in an introduction, of course, we want to introduce ourselves, so if we are using a PowerPoint or a flip chart or whichever way we might be delivering this, we have got to remember our VALK, our visual learners and then our reading learners as part of the learning styles that our learners may have. So we want this information written down and it also acts as a cue for the trainer teacher to ensure that we are not missing anything within our session.

So within an introduction then, generally I would put if it's a PowerPoint, first slide come up would be the introduction. So that would be in the section of teacher or tutor activity. So it would be an introduction and that would be like a slide one and it would say just the title, the aim of what your session is and then perhaps your name underneath the bottom of it. As we are going through the introduction, we probably go into the second part, which we always want to go through the health and safety with our learners to ensure that they are aware of what to do in case there is an emergency or where the first aid provision is, fire safety, anything else that may crop up as a health and safety concern or issue.

So we would just put on here health and safety. And within that would be, okay, fire alarm, if there's a fire alarm testing going on today, or whatever day it might be in during the week, if we are here for a whole week, it will be where the fire assembly point is, how to get out of the building through the fire exits and where to go. It will also cover first aid provision, so who is an appointed person or who to go to in case there is a first aid issue. We may even add in here about mobile phones, making sure that mobile phones are turned off or switched off unless it has been agreed with the tutor that you're going to be receiving a call which would be taken outside of the classroom.

Then we go into the areas of welfare, we'll be talking about toilet facilities, where they are, where to get... How to get to them. We would also be looking at other welfare facilities of drinks, so if there is a water cooler or somewhere to get a cold drink and also if there's a provision of hot drinks as well, how to access those. In this also we have included break times, and so we'll be looking at discussing if there's a morning break, a lunch break and an afternoon break. And then any other areas that we may feel necessary to add on there as a health and safety. Depending on what subject we are teaching, it will be... If it is equipment, the safe use of equipment while we are doing that; it could be if we are using anything sharp about how we might move around the room. So it covers anything to do with health and safety in the classroom.

Moving on from there, the next part will be ground rules. Now, it's always important to establish our ground rules. So we will have our imposed ground rules, which are the organization's or the learning environment's rules which must be adhered to. And within that, it could be about the classroom, when we are in the classroom how we should be behaving and acting. No leaning back in chairs, no sitting on tables, we could have one about respecting each other's opinions, one voice at a time. And they could be imposed by myself as the tutor or the organization, as I've said, but also we could then move on to start negotiating ground rules, which is where we would ask the learners in the room, what would you like to have on the ground rules.

Now, the number one no-negotiating ground rule is if we have a shorter lunch, can we finish earlier? Now, that's not a justifiable negotiating ground rule, it's dependent on how long we want for a lunch break, but generally, it's always good that the trainer might need that time to recuperate from the lesson they may have had. So just be conscious about the negotiating side. It could be that other negotiating staff are returning from breaks at a given time, it will be... Try not to discriminate against anyone in the classroom, try not to over-speak anybody, about one voice at a time, but it's a negotiated ground rule.

From our ground rules, we then potentially would be looking at starting a session with an ice-breaker. And so now we would... Ice-breaker in here. An ice-breaker is a short little activity where we would want the learners to give their names, we would want the learners to potentially say something about themselves and we can make this relevant to the session. So on previous courses where I've done first aid, I would ask learners, "Can you just give us your name? Where you're from? And last time you did something to do with first aid." So it just gives a chance for us to have a chat, get the person's name, know where they are from and then something they may have done. And that just would be roughly about 10 minutes for an ice-breaker, depending on the size of the group. On a micro-teach session, we don't want to go more than 10 minutes. On a six-hour course, you may do something longer, on a week-long course you might do something even longer, it's dependent on the size of the group and the session you're running.

And then from there in the introduction, the main other points we need to get across is that we actually state what our aim for the session is and then also what the outcomes are. So in here would be aim and outcomes. With a micro-teach, it's going to be four learning outcomes that have to be informed to the learners and on other courses in the award in education and training or student education and training or diploma in education and training, there may be a time for more or even less outcomes depending on the length of sessions. So in this, you would just state "The aim of my session is to," and then we would always go along the lines of, by the end of the session, the learners will be able to and then this is where you would state your full learning outcomes.

From there, generally, a good idea to put up on the screen any questions as a just quick break, just to make sure that all learners have understood and all learners are going to be able to continue with what's going on. So the whole time this is going on, we should be also identifying how much time this should take, so introduction, health and safety, ground rules, ice-breaker, aim and outcomes; generally, we want to try and do that within the first 10-13 minutes of a micro-teach session, which might last 30 minutes, or if it's a longer session, it may be a little bit longer because we have that time availability. So as I said with an ice-breaker, that's going to be maximum of 10 minutes on a micro-teach session and then we are giving ourselves, say, about three minutes to do the other bits and pieces. So if I said one minute to do the aim and outcome and then if I included the introduction as a two-minute, okay? That is about roughly the real amount of time to use that for the introductory stage.

In the learner activity section of a session plan that you're going to be... Receive and will be completing, this is just what you would like the learners to do. So for the majority of this, the introduction will be lesson, health and safety lesson and you might even put a Q&A there so they can ask questions, a question and answer section. Ground rules will be listen and participate because we are going to negotiate. And then ice-breaker will be participate and then for aims and outcomes, it will be listen.

Okay, there is no assessment within there, so we can put there non-applicable and then our resources would be what we have actually used. So with this, if we are using a PowerPoint, that is a resource, so within the resource section, we are going to actually place in there PowerPoint slide, PPT means PowerPoint on that slide one. Health and safety will be PPT. Two, ground rules, PPT. Three, ice-breaker. We maybe introduce that on a slide, so that's four and then our aims and outcomes will be on PowerPoint five. Okay? It's just for when another trainer may be using this, they know exactly where they are, with what slide they are on, they should exactly have the right information on there.

So this is our introduction, it is a part of what you're going to be assessed against and showing that you actually are aware of what needs to be done at the start of a session to make sure your learners are safe, supported and that they feel comfortable into continuing the rest of the sessions.