No, no, this is not an essay about setting one’s table for the holidays, though I have certainly written about Together Trays and Together Turkeys a lot in my time. This blog post is about how you could…set people up for success in and after some Together Trainings!
To encourage Togetherness in your building or at your site, there are some cool things we have seen in our travels as of late! Let’s peek in at a few options of how we see folks support their own and others’ Togetherness – professionally and personally.
After a recent Together (online) Training with yours truly, administrators at Martin Luther King Jr Middle School of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools set up a table with options for teachers to support their Togetherness. What a perfect follow-up to discussion of Weekly Worksheets and Meetings with Yourself. Participants were able to walk right over to the table and figure out what supplies they needed to keep it Together moving forward! Be still, my heart!
Flare pens, Post-Its, and highlighters, oh my!
And of course, you need some containers to hold your Togetherness Tools, so let’s grab those too!
Fill those pouches for a little Togetherness-on-the-Go! Sidenote: Maia always has one of these in her car at all times. You never know when you will need scissors, glue or tape.
Of course, if you don’t want to spread your Together supplies out on a table, you could always build a pyramid of amazing grab and go options like Legacy College Prep in the Bronx did recently.
Stickers, mini-calendars, and an old-fashioned Post-it pyramid!
And then, if you wanted to take the idea of a supply station during trainings a bit further (whether Togetherness courses or not), I loved this idea from Tulsa Public Schools during a summer PD.
Tulsa Public Schools Self-Care Station. Brilliant!
This Self-Care Station lets participants walk over, grab a Tylenol or Tums or coffee – or all three! – to help them out during a training. No one does well when not feeling their best, so a little anticipation of people’s needs can go a long way!
So, the question is. . . as you think about your summer trainings, professional development or onboarding, how are you helping your participants feel Together – both professionally and personally?!
