Champions/Club Leader Training

During the Pandemic of COVID19, we needed to offer training to our club leaders and champions in a safe environment. The only logical thing to do was to offer an online training. However, with online training comes great commitment challenges, so I had to think of engaging ways.

I always struggled to commit to an online training, I needed to motivate myself everyday and to force her to set a "Don't Disturb" time. Sometimes I get distracted and spend the time surfing the net! therefore, I had to find ways of teaching/training that motivate my trainers and keep them engaged. In this blog I am sharing my expertise, if you have any tip of how to make this better, please do in the comments section.

Deciding what to offer

The Raspberry Pi Foundation Project Site

First, you need to think of what you are offering the children in your club (you can start a Code Club or a CoderDojo if you didn’t already), are you considering software only or hardware as well, are you offering Scratch only or do you want to introduce a text based language like Python or HTML/CSS, do you have hardware such as Micr:bit, Raspberry Pi or even Makey Makey! However, no matter what you offer, all volunteers, leaders, and champions need to finish the safeguarding e-Learning module offered by Raspberry Pi.

In our training we decided to provide Scratch, Python, and HTML/CSS trainings. For the Scratch and Python, we followed the CoderDojo Learning Path Resource and for the HTML/CSS, we followed the Code Club Modules, and this is what we had:

• Safeguarding e-Learning module
• Scratch Foundation: they have the freedom to choose Block1 or Block2.
• Scratch Intermediate: they can choose to finish Block1 or Block2..
• Python Foundation: they had the choice of Block1 or Block2.
• HTML/CSS Module1.

Setting a Slack Channel

Our Slack Channel

Second, I needed to have a way of instant communication that is suitable, safe and doesn’t force the attendees to share their phone numbers (for various community believes). Slack was perfect, I established a channel and invited trainees. In Slack, you can create different channels that serve a particular topic (such as, general, training, resources, online...etc), it also allow you to create private channel and send direct messages without compromising the privacy of your trainees.

Google Classroom 

The Google Classroom

Third, I wanted to keep track of the trainees progress, send information and assign work in an organised method. For all those reasons and more, I chose Google Classroom platform, you can create a Google Classroom if you have a Basic Google account, you don't need to have a G-suit account. The most important tip I can give you is to publish the work gradually to avoid overwhelming the trainees with information. This is how I organised my class:

• Class Resources: here attendees will find all the important resources, including but not limited to, schedule, information for online meeting (will discuss this next), what they need such as the software/hardware used or if they need to register/download a particular platform/program before starting the training, the instructor contact information (it is assuring that they feel they can reach you in different ways), information for office hours if you are providing any..etc. 
• Pre-event Homework: I wanted to make sure that they will read all the resources, so I assigned this task for them.
• Session # materials: for each online session, I created a topic with the session name and included all the materials. I have the projects we used in the session, a recording for the session, the attendance, and the homework. This will make it easier for the attendees to find related information rather than searching for it. 
• Final tests: at the end of each unit, the trainees need to finish a test to measure how much they gained from the unit. For the Scratch unit, they had to develop their own projects and post it in our studio, the evaluation was based on a set of criteria including originality, reflecting a community need, the use of code (repetition, sound, decision, looks ..etc). For Python, I just asked to change a certain project and develop it. For HTML/CSS, I asked them to develop their own website.

Online Sessions

Fourth, I offered 13 online sessions (meet-ups). It was scheduled twice a week, an hour long each to explain the concepts of programming, the project, and to answer any questions. Here is a great online course offered by Teach Computing and Raspberry Pi Foundation for teaching programming in primary schools. I used Zoom for monitoring the session because it offered us unlimited time per session. You can choose any platform you prefer, just make sure to follow the guidelines to run online sessions. 

Offering online sessions encourage your trainees to discuss their ideas and interact with each other. It also motivate them to complete the course and to do the homework.

Reflect on the Training 

At the end of the training ask your trainees to write a reflection statement, record a reflection video or give presentation to talk about their journey with you, what benefits them and what were the challenges or even if there is something to do better next time. In this way, you are engaging them in planning for future sessions and to make them part of the team.

Our trainees had to attend all the online sessions, finish all the homework,  pass the tests and reflect on their learning (I will update this blog once I have the reflection statements) to offer them the Champions/Trainers title. I know it may sound a lot of commitment! However, we want to provide our leaders and our children the best experience ever. This is how we support our community.