I went to a training today.  I got a few neat ideas and learned a few things but the training had more than a few problems.

The training was on a new package of technologies my school district is implementing.  The district only offered the training to technology teachers and librarians, and only the first few of us to respond to the email invitation were granted a place.  In other words, it was a group of early adopters.

The trainer had been informed about who was coming but she hadn’t really put it together that 1) we would already know at least the basics of the products , and 2) that we would catch on to how things worked pretty quickly.

At lunch time, I spoke to someone from the central office.  He asked me what I thought.

“I’m glad it has picked up a little–the first hour was…” I wasn’t sure what to say.

“You wanted to go outside and blow your brains out?”  Central Office Guy said.  

Um, yeah, pretty much.

The trainer just kept explaining everything in really heavy detail.  She would then tell us to do the task that she’d just explained, not realizing that we had had time to do it while she was talking about it.

Members of the group asked more than a few questions to which she didn’t know the answer.   They weren’t gotcha questions; they were legitimate things we need to know to perform our roles in the school.  When she didn’t know the answer to a question, either someone else would raise their hand and answer it, or people would start talking about the question and presenting possible solutions.  

I felt a little bad for the trainer.   Even though she claimed to have tweaked it some, the presentation was not appropriate for the group being trained, and the trainer did not have the skills to adjust it on the fly.  

Some of the people in he group started to talk amongst themselves.  Some of them were at least talking about the products, but some of them were not.  At one point someone got real excited about Mo Willems fabric.

On the other hand, I’m sure the trainer was being well compensated.  She should have been better prepared and better able to adapt.