Micro-Training that Sticks!

If summer schedules are mixed and staff rotate, consistency doesn’t happen by accident. In this episode of Elevating ECE, we build an 8-week micro-training calendar using a simple 10-minute structure: FOCUS (2 min), MODEL (5 min), DRILL (3 min).

Download the Summer Reset Toolkit and complete Module 2: Micro-Training That Sticks to train your team weekly all summer.

We cover:

• how to structure a 10-minute staff huddle
• the Week 1–3 training topics + practice drills (ratio awareness, supervision positioning, incident reporting)  
• drill library ideas to keep training easy and consistent  

Download: June Monthly Packet: Summer Reset Toolkit (https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widget/form/BZeeSE0BXixW2svk815Q )

Includes interview Risk Point Identifier, SOP template, 10 Coverage Non-Negotiables, and more!

#ElevatingECE #ECELeadership #ChildcareDirector #PreschoolDirector #StaffTraining #SummerProgram #TeacherSupport #ProgramQuality #EarlyChildhoodEducation

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

If your summer plan for training is we'll cover it at the next staff meeting, you're not training. You're hoping consistency shows up on its own. This episode is about a different approach. 10 minutes a week that actually changes behavior because it's short, repeatable, and specific. If you can't train for an hour, train for 10 minutes every week. The time adds up. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Elevating ECE. I am your host, Beatrice Hutcherson. And for the month of June, we are continuing with our theme of summer reset, training consistency, and a strong fall launch. And so last week we were together, we talked about summer operating systems. And today we're talking about micro training that sticks 10 minutes a week to raise consistency. And so today you'll leave with a simple training structure that your team can repeat weekly focus, model, and drill. I'm always talking about systems. So we're going to talk about focus, model, and drill. And we're also going to leave with a completed eight-week micro training calendar. Together during our demonstration time, we will complete weeks one through three. We'll also leave with a plug-and-play 10-minute huddle agenda you can reuse all summer long. And then you'll also leave with a menu of practice drills. So you never wonder what do we do for training? Let's talk about why summer training usually fails. Training fails in the summer for predictable reasons. They may be too long or they may be too broad, right? We need better supervision, right? That's a very broad topic. Or they cannot be practiced or not be repeated, right? They may be trainings that we can't put into practice or that we can't repeat, right? Something that's not practical. And it often fails if it isn't connected to what you do in your rooms on a day-to-day basis, right? So it needs to be connected to reality and it also needs to be practical. Micro training works because it's tiny, it's frequent, and it's practice. Now let's talk about what micro training is and what it isn't. Let's explore that together. So microtraining is not a lecture, it's a shorter routine. The toolkit, and we're going to go to that in a moment, it defines it as 10-minute weekly sessions with a consistent three-part structure. And so the structure includes that system I mentioned to you, focus, which is you do for two minutes where you name the skill and the standard, then you'll model it, which will give you five minutes where you'll demonstrate or describe what it looks like. And then the drill portion of it is three minutes. We'll take three minutes. And it's the quick practice to build muscle memory. If you want consistency, you need muscle memory, not reminders. Now let's talk about what to train first in the summer. Summer priorities aren't random, they're tied to risk. So that's your time when you can talk about your regulatory items. You talk about ratios and coverage shifts, supervision positioning, active supervision, and your incident reporting and documentation, communication when schedules change, how we communicate to one another, transition cues and behavior de-escalation. So we're gonna dive into it later and we're gonna start to build these areas together. We're gonna build weeks one through three at least, so you'll see. But we're gonna use racial awareness, supervision positioning, and incident reporting in our sample. So before we get there, let's talk about how do we keep this doable? How do we actualize this, right? It sounds wonderful in theory, but how do we actually do this when we're all so busy? If you lead this like a perfect trainer, you'll burn out, right? If you walk into this thinking that I have to do this like a master training, you you're already, you've already failed. But you want to keep the same structure every week. Rotate who facilitates, you don't have to do it all on your own. Use the drill library so you're not inventing training content. So we're gonna dive in and we're gonna do this together. And again, just using these as samples so that you would know how to do it, but you can modify based on the needs of your program. And so you can get you can follow along with me here, or you can also download your copy of the summer reset toolkit. You'll see the link in the description box below. Get your own kit where you can download it and modify, and so you can work along with me in it. Uh, or you can just watch and follow along and then go back and do your own remembering to modify it based on the needs of your program. And let me share my screen here so you are able to follow along. All right, so here we have the toolkit for the month of June, which is a summer reset for strong fall launch. And so each week we are covering one of the modules. So last week we did the summer operating system, and for the sake of today, we are doing the micro training that sticks. So let me just go down to where that is. So this is resource number two. There we go. Micro training that sticks, and so each week you want to implement a micro training session that you could do in exactly 10 minutes. And so, if you follow the structure that I just mentioned to you previously about doing your focus for two minutes, you name the skill and the standard being reinforced, and then you model it, which would take five minutes, so you demonstrate or you discuss what it looks like in practice, and then drill is would only take three minutes, but that's when you allow them to practice, you it give them a practice activity that it builds that muscle memory. And so when you have that component, when you have a drill, when they get an opportunity to actually engage and do something, it helps to it helps them with retaining the information, and so that is there as the reminder. And so our eight-week micro training calendar is what we're gonna build together. So we're doing just weeks one, uh, weeks one through three. All right, so our 10-minute training. So for week one, we can do ratio awareness, and these are just some examples of what we can do. Ratio awareness, who's responsible when coverage changes, and then the practice drill. So remember, we're doing our uh few minutes, our two minutes where we are naming the focus, right? The topic, what we're talking about, and then we're gonna spend five minutes really discussing it and really presenting it and really giving all of the information around it, right? So that's when we actually model the info. We give the information and we model it, yes, and then our drill there is that for a blind, we do a blind spot walk. So we identify three supervision blind spots in your room. So this is what you ask them to do, and you can even have them demonstrate it, which is what we're gonna talk about next, right? So with the all right, so for week one, right? So remember these are the two, the 10-minute trainings and we the micro trainings, if you will. And then what we're going to do is we're gonna spend two minutes identifying or naming the focus, what we're focusing on, and then the five minutes of modeling, right? Giving the information and really highlighting how we implement it and put it into practice. And then we have the last part, which is three minutes, which is the practice drill. So here we're going to just identify the training topic, right? Knowing that that includes uh it's a total of seven minutes because it includes us naming it and then giving all the information around it and modeling it. And so these are some examples, just examples. You can modify them however you choose based on what you are required to do, based on your regulator. You may have other trainings that you need to do, but this is a process to follow so that you can keep them short and sweet, but also effective. So for week one, the example here is ratio awareness. Who's responsible when coverage changes? And so how you talk about you would talk about that and explain what the process is for that and model it. And then the practice drill would be a quick count drill. So staff count children in their assigned zone in under 60 seconds. So they and have them actually practice it, right? So imagine you're in your classroom and count your children, right? So have them to do a sec 60 seconds, they should be able to get how many children they have. For week two, the example here is supervision positioning, eyes on every child at all times. We call that active supervision. And so here, you of course, you give the information, you name it, name the focus of it, give the regulation around it, give the information about it, model it, and then your practice drill. Here is that you have a blind spot walk. Have them identify three supervision blind spots in their room. So, what does that mean? Three areas in their room where they do not have the direct line of sight. Maybe there's a shelf that's in the way and you can't exactly see behind the shelf, or sometimes there's a corner, right? Especially based on the layout of your classroom, you may have things that are in the way, maybe a dramatic area piece of furniture that's kind of out and it creates a little um like alcove, a little crevice where someone could go in and sneak and hide, right? So you want to make sure that there are that there is a direct line of sight to all areas of the classroom. And so you have them actually do that, have them pretend they're in their classroom, or have them go back to their classroom and do the practice drill, but have them practice it so it becomes part of that muscle memory. And then for week three, we have incident reporting. What gets documented and when? And so you give the information around it, whatever your process is. For my agency, we have a process where every incident gets reported, right? But we have a 24-hour timeline to be able to report it, right? And then also we have different areas or different layers of uh command that we have to also give the information to in our tracking, right? And so for me, I would give that as, you know, and give, of course, go more into depth about what the process is. And so you would do the same thing if you chose this, right? Talk about what your process is, model it, what does what do the regulations say about it, and then give them a practice drill. So give them a scenario practice. Staff complete the mock incident form together, have them physically do the form. So come to the the 10-minute micro training with your form, right? With the forms and give them a form and let them and give them a scenario. This is what happened. Now you document it on the incident report and then see how well they do, and then you can support as a group to make corrections or make adjustments where needed. And so I just did the first three with you, uh, but you have uh you have up to eight weeks here, so you can do other trainings. And so this again, this is just something to be helpful so it provides you with a way to get trainings in because it's not always easy. At my program, we do designate time for the trainings, right? And so we don't do we do a little bit more than 10 minutes, right? We do like half day sessions or a couple of hours throughout the summer months where we get all of our you know regulatory items in. Uh, but if your person or if your program is really stressed with time and you don't have that type of time that you could take to do the trainings, use these micro trainings because they really can help you at least address all the issues that you need to address, especially going back into the new school year, all those regulatory, all those best practice items, they'd be able to practice those and not just get the information, but also practice it so that you can start to build that muscle memory. And so this goes up to eight weeks. So go through it and put in other trainings that would be more specific to your program and that would help. And so, what the goal would be is in your last week in week eight, you can review, celebrate, and identify what's sticking, right? What from all of the trainings that you've done, the seven trainings now, if you've done one each week, you can now really you can test them and you can make it fun. You know, you can have it be a little game, have it be some sort of uh maybe team competition where you find out what actually stuck from those micro trainings, what did they actually commit uh to memory from the trainings? And so you can give team shout-outs, right? Each staff names one skill that they've improved, right? And so that is the activity there uh that the that they can do, right? To build that muscle, that practice drill to help them build that muscle memory, right? And so this is something that you want to also continue to do. Uh also, you know, always it's always good to follow up with them and have them give their feedback. And it's it's all we a lot of times do a lot of trainings and it doesn't always stick, right? And so this just gives you like a snapshot of what you can do to make sure that they get all the information they need, but then also that we build that muscle memory because often that's the place that's missing. We give them information, we give them lecture, right? But then they are not able to retain the information because it wasn't committed to to the muscle memory, right? So you give them a way to engage with the information, give them a way to practice the information, then the chances increase as far as them being able to retain the information. All right, so this is the weekly staff huddle agenda for the 10-minute micro training, right? And so this is where this is how it's laid out in the same structure that we talked about. For the first two minutes, we're talking about focus. For five minutes, we're talking about modeling, giving the information, modeling. And then in the last three minutes, we're doing that practice drill. And so this just outlines it, and then it tells you also how to close this week. Watch for one moment when you can apply this skill, right? So it gives them a charge, it gives them a follow-up item, an action item to actually implement what was taught to them during that week. So come back next week ready to share what you learned. And so, of course, you just put in the information there, the date, the facilitator, and also the topic. Because remember, you don't have to, as a leader, you do not have to be the only one that does these 10-minute trainings, right? You can also have others do these trainings as well. And then here we have the practice drill library. This is these are 30 drills for the summer training. And so the drill name here, the zone count. It gives that information, and we talked about that earlier. The blind spot scan, right? It gives that to you as well, but it also gives you the category, right? So it lets you know that which category it's a part of. So those two that we did was the were under the category of supervision, right? And so also another one that we did not discuss, but would be the handoff check. And so it gives you what those look like. Also for under the area of the category of safety, you have emergency exit walk, the allergy alert check, and you also have incident form speed fill, right? So we did the activity on that. We didn't do a speed fill, but we talked about allowing them time to actually fill out the incident reporting form. And so it also gives for all of these, it gives what those activities look like, right? Under communication, you have parent message draft, you have schedule change relay, and you have documentation spot check. And again, it tells you what those look like, how to put them into practice. And then lastly, behavior, your de-escalation script, your reinforcement statement, and your transition cue practice. And again, it tells you what each of those look like. And so that it concludes our tool for this week. It just gives you some good information that you're able to use and implement. And again, you can download this and modify it however you need to so that it meets the needs, the immediate needs of your program. And so, again, that micro training is very, very helpful because it's tiny. It's it takes only the 10 minutes, right? It does not take a lot of time to have it completed. So it's tiny, it's frequent, right? Because now you're doing them every week. And then it's also practice. People learn the structure of it and they get an opportunity to also practice it so that they can commit it to memory. And so I hope that you found that helpful. That's your summer training system. One structure, one calendar with repeatable drills. Remember, summer consistency doesn't come from one big training day, but it comes from 10 minutes per week. If that's all you can spare, maybe you can spare a little bit more, maybe 20 minutes, maybe 30 minutes, whatever you could spare. But the idea here is to have it be focused, to follow the same structure of having it be focused, modeled, and practiced, right? Because that practice piece really is instrumental in helping them to retain that information. So you want to have structure to your trainings and then having the consistency of it, whatever you're able to dedicate or commit to it per week, they can look forward to every week. This is what we will be doing, whether it's for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever time you're able to allocate towards it. But then they are they understand the routine. We're talking about focus, model, and practice, right? And then we're talking about we come into the next session knowing that we have to report out or share on how we implemented what we learned the last session, right? So it builds that structure where they already know it. So that means they go into that week after the training, knowing I have to look for a place now to implement what I learned because I'm gonna have to report out on it next time, right? So it builds that kind of uh that it builds that structure and that system to your trainings, and then the implementation in their real life day-to-day just reinforces the retention of the information that they received. So remember, download your summer reset toolkit so that you can modify it and do whatever you need to do to it to make it helpful or instrumental in your program and for your planning. This week we talked, we use episode two, the micro training. And so as we went through it together, you can also do it for yourself, make it specific again to your program. And do me a favor, comment training below and tell me what breaks down the most. What breaks you down the most? Is it ratios of supervision or documentation, incident reporting, communication? What area is there a struggle in that you're going to attack with your micro trainings this summer? Put it down in the comment section below. I'd love to hear from you. And so that concludes our time together. And thank you so much for spending time and being a part of this discussion. We will be back again next week, right, with another topic as a part of our summer reset. And so we are excited about what's coming next. And so we do hope that you'll join us. And until we meet again, we want you to be well and let's continue to elevate childhood education together.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Elevate childhood education. Where leaders rise, children cry, and your program becomes a legacy of excellence.