Curriculum days

If you are having a curriculum day using Education Nation, there are a few steps which can help you.

Preparation:
At least the day before your planned Curriculum Day.

1. Print out enough copies of the course notepads. One for each COURSE for each participant.
   https://educationnation.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Course-Notepad.pdf
   So, if say, you had planned an ASD focused day, you may want to watch Autism 101, and Supporting Children with ASD in the classroom. (About 3 hours total viewing time).
   In that case, you print out 2 copies of the above form for each team member who will be watching it. They use 1 copy of the form during each course.
   
2. Print out enough copies of the Pupil Strategies and Resources page.
   https://educationnation.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/PUPIL-STRATEGIES-AND-RESOURCES.pdf
   Ideally, this will be 1 per STUDENT who has been identified by your school team as needing more individualised help.
   
3. Identify which room, classroom or staff room you will be using, and which electronic whiteboard, etc., you will use.
   Check cables, and the physical device you will use to connect on the day, to make sure it works. (This is very much school specific).
   
4. Check your internet speed. Follow this link on ‘Slow internet issues‘ if you are finding that it runs slowly due to bandwidth.
   
5. Print out blank copies of the CPD certificate for anyone who wants them. (These are available direct from us at hello@educationnation.ie via email). As our system will only track the account of the user who is used to run the courses on the day, everyone else will need a copy printed and signed by the principal if they wish it

If you need to run several streams in your school on the same day, at the same time, remember to test the bandwidth while they are all running. So, if you are having a set of topics for one set of teachers, another for another group, a separate set for the SNAs, etc, you would need to check your connection can show 3 videos at once. You don’t need to go to each room and test, if you open up 3 videos from the same account in separate tabs, it should suffice for testing your school’s connection speed.

Time Saving Tip

ON THE DAY

1. Make sure everyone has enough tea and coffee. (Learning requires fuel, y’know!)
   
2. Check that your team understand how to use the notepads.
   
3. Enjoy your day’s training.
   
4. You can optionally have a discussion after each course. A good tool to assist a group discussion is the Reflective Practice template. You can find one at the end of each course. For discussion groups, set a time limit of 10 minutes, and go through the Reflective cycle as a team.
   
5. After the video presentations, – in an ideal world – please set aside 15-30 minutes to go through the Pupil Strategies and Resources pages. This is the part where any tips, ideas, suggestions from the courses, or the after course discussions are noted down on the Pupil Strategies page. It can help if each person takes 1 or 2 students and compiles each.
   
   So, for example, if there are 10 people attending the day, one person goes through their Course notes page, and outlines what they found useful, and for who. E.g. “On Autism 101, I thought the idea of line space may help Sean in 1st class. If the others agree, suggest, then the person who is compiling Sean in 1st class’ Pupil page notes the course name and timestamp when the appropriate idea can be found again in future. If other members of the group also spotted that idea as useful for other kids, they note it on the pupil’s page as well.
   
   Remember: The video and timestamp should be always included, in case team members change during the year, so a new staff member can go directly to what was suggested on the system, to help that pupil.

One of the BIGGEST FEEDBACK items we got over the years was from participants of in person courses, where at the time they realised an item could really help a pupil, but when the time came to implement, they had to rely on notes, or a manual if they were lucky, and found it difficult to implement. As the only aim is to spot what may be helpful now, or in future – when the time comes that the pupil has progressed to the level where the new technique may be useful – you just need to go and revise that specific extract on the courses system. (People are nowadays getting better at viewing and learning from extracted information – think a 5 minute snippet from a documentary you may watch on YouTube.) The main aim is to refresh the teacher’s, or SNA’s memory directly, at the time they need it.

Time Saving Tip