Originally Posted by
SouthNarc
ShivWorks Instructorship Hack Number One:
Establishing Connection.
Part of being a successful teacher is establishing connection with not only the class, but every single person in it. This can be difficult, and one tends to be on a constant bungee cord from the entire group at 10,000 feet, to the individual at ground zero.
Years ago I started playing what I think of as the “Name Game”.
I begin every class by asking each person to introduce themselves to me and the group, tell me a bit about their training pedigree, and then I ask what they want from the weekend. After they do that, I thank them for investing in me and the coursework for the weekend and I tell them that I will do my best to make sure their time and money will be well spent. This is when I start working on names. I begin recording names with faces. Sometimes the names are unusual and easy to remember. Other times the names are common and the person is average featured so it takes a while. In an ECQC class this begins on Friday night, and I have until the class ends on Sunday evening to have on average, twenty names. The reason for this is that I end every class by again going to each person, now calling them by their name, and asking them what they thought of the weekend.
Usually this practice is mentioned by someone in their de-brief and they are stunned that I can remember twenty names and faces accurately.
No one taught me how to do this. I didn’t learn it in an instructor development class. I figured it out.