Four Teaching Tips & Techniques for Fantastic Workshops

Here are some simple methods to put adult education and popular education techniques to work in order to build skills and increase retention.

The first thing to know is this: Adults retain only 20% of new information they hear. Adults retain 10% of new information they see. Adults retain 30% if they see and hear new information. However, if adults hear and see new information as well as discuss it and practice using it, retention goes all the way up to 90%.

Use your time well. Plan on presenting for absolutely no more than half the time of the workshop. Reserve at least half the workshop time for participant discussion and activities. This may sound frustrating, but think of it this way: there’s no point to lecturing on 100 pieces of new information if only 10 of them will be retained. It’s a better use of your time to present 10 points and provide activities to help participants retain 9 of them.

Provide bullet-pointed handouts with key information. Handouts equalize access to information, account for differences in note-taking skills, and make it easy for participants to refer to information after the workshop. The most useful handouts look more like leaflets than like academic articles.

Plan small group activities. Discussions and exercises in small groups allow participants to process information, provide a safe place to practice articulating new concepts, and encourage as many people to speak as possible. This increases retention because people remember more of what they themselves say. Small group activities could include these techniques:
* A simple multiple-choice or true-false quiz that 3 participants do together, which is then reviewed with the whole workshop group. This can be a good way to begin a workshop, so that you can assess general familiarity with the topics of your workshop.
* After you present new information, ask people to answer discussion questions in small groups and then share one response with the whole workshop group.

Provide opportunities for practice how to apply new skills. Role-plays are the single best way for participants to practice using new skills, so they can prepare to use those skills outside the workshop. Think about what skills you want people to use outside the workshop. Talk about campaign finance reform? Gather signatures? Invite their friends to events with them? Ask participants to work in trios: one person observes, one person is the practicer, and the third is the askee or friend. After the practicer practices the conversation, all three give feedback, then the roles rotate so that the next person can be the practicer.

If you try these tips, please let me know what results you see or what challenges you run into!

Will the last investigative journalist out please turn off the light?

Last night I read Tim Connor's really fascinating interview with the last investigative reporter the Spokesman-Review had: Karen Dorn Steele, who took an early retirement in March, as did her cohort Bill Morlin.

I read Karen Dorn Steele's newspaper stories on Hanford radiation experiments when I was in college. I have a thyroid disorder, and Spokane is in the shadow of the giant cloud(s) of radioactive iodine purposely released there. She made that story public in spite of, as she details, an unsupportive editor, a visit from the FBI, and an atmosphere of mandatory support for government operations at Hanford.

We were just trying to find out what the history of accidents was and the history of environmental pollution had been at Hanford. And so, I’m a stubborn Norwegian. I just kind of got my back up really. First of all I didn’t think an FBI agent should be sauntering into a newsroom. That’s not proper. It sends a chilling message. And secondly, it made me angry.

The interview is also a window into the experience of working inside a newspaper that's been owned by the most powerful family in Spokane for over 100 years.

I guess from my experiences with the family so far I don’t think that they are visionaries and great creative people. I think they really do care about the bottom line as the main thing. When Stacey’s father died suddenly he came in as the new publisher and when he addressed the newsroom, he kept using this term KRA, ‘our KRA for this year,’ and we’re all looking at each other, ‘what’s a KRA?’ Well, it’s a Yale MBA term that means key result area. So he tends to think in the world of the MBAs, at bottom line issues, and very little in the world of journalism, in my opinion.

And she gives her perspective on the current state of media and investigative reporting:

Well, unfortunately in the blogosphere there’s been a kind of contempt for the so-called MSM, you know, the mainstream media, which I haven’t quite figured out because I always thought the two things could be complementary. Like when we did the stories on Mitchell and Jessen and the stories broken by the New Yorker and Vanity Fair and several others. The fact that they [Mitchell & Jessen] are here, and the torture policy was being played out right here on Riverside Avenue in Spokane. There were lots of on-line sites that picked up on our stories, that disseminated them, commented upon them, added new information on occasion, although often it tends not to be very reliable. But I thought that that synergy is a good thing and what it means for us in the mainstream media is that our work gets out much more widely than it used to, where the AP used to be the gatekeeper for any of these stories coming out of Spokane.

I think the decline in newspapers is likely to lead to a further decline in journalism. I think the two things are definitely linked. Now, at the Spokesman-Review, I couldn’t do the kind of reporting I did on Hanford back in the eighties. There’s just not time. And there’s not, frankly, the will. All publishers are looking at their bottom lines and the economic survival of their papers and that’s not a time when you’re paying lawyers large retainers to keep you out of trouble or even having an investigative team. We had a small investigative team and now there is absolutely no investigative team.

I have a little hope I may be able to meet and talk to Karen Dorn Steele, and I am crossing my fingers and trying to think of intelligent, relevant questions.

Atheists and Allies

Circuitously, I saw the link to this piece on how to be an ally with atheists. I posted a short comment there:

I had a great experience in a social justice training where I shared my experience of exclusion as an atheist child in a very Christian community in the form of being silent during "under god" of the Pledge of Allegiance. Afterward, a participant who is my colleague and also is a minister came to me and told me it had been a life-changing moment. He told me "I said to God 'God, I'm in the room with atheists.' And God said, 'You're right where you're supposed to be.'" And it really made me cry.

And I want to say more about that here. That moment was so powerful to me because it's so the opposite of many many many experiences with religious people: finding out a close friend was having her church youth group pray for me to find god; a close relative telling me she wanted to "teach me about the Lord" and in response to my answer that I'd like to study more (which was code for "please don't continue this conversation!) her response that I shouldn't study religion too much; the same kind of public experiences of exclusion that Greta Christina described in her previous blog; being asked about my "religious journey" in a job interview by progressives.... Clearly there is no accurate stereotype of "religious people" any more than there is of any other group; this list is not meant to be representative of 95% of the population or whatever. But it is representative of multiple of my experiences.

And let me also say I've had really wonderful experiences of profoundly religious people standing right alongside me in fighting for the rights of queer people and workers and for environmental justice. Those have been really moving experiences that have made me understand and appreciate at a deep level how important it is to really ponder one's beliefs as I believe these folks have done, so that their actions are really rooted deeply and they won't be swayed by the political risk of standing up within their congregation for gay rights, for example.

And this man who is my colleague, who I've been on picket lines with and in a critical fight this year that's shaped us all--what he was saying to me is that when we are together fighting for social justice and when we are in moments where we can each speak of our own experiences of privilege or advantage and of exclusion or discrimination, and we are really present to listen to each other, so that we can understand each others' experiences and build our analysis and prepare to take actions together toward ending systemic oppression in all forms...when we're together like that, we really are right where we should be!

How's that for a little Xmas or solstice spirit?

Getting Full Nourishment By Not Getting Too Much

On a facilitation note, I got my weekly "Master Facilitator" email on "The practice of getting full nourishment from everything in your life" which focuses on judiciously taking in information or experiences or things rather than gulping and overdoing it. Topical, no? Here's how it applies to working as an educator or facilitator:

As a facilitator, observe closely and resist the desire to pile on just "one more" experience to make sure your groups get their money's worth. Make sure that the desired outcomes of each activity and experience are evident to you and the participants before moving on. And, if you dare, stop before you are faced with a sea of bobbing heads with glazed eyes trying to take that one more step together.

In my role now, where each day is a super-full whirlwind, it's really more urgent than ever that I find ways to grab some stillness here and there. It may not get to this point:

Commit to a practice of "being fully present" for a few minutes each day. Use whatever method appeals to you. Some choices are meditation, yoga, quiet walks, prayer, tai chi, marshal arts, sitting alone quietly, journaling, etc. Or just look out the window with all of your senses. Focus on what is before you and allow it to really enter your being.

...though that sure does sound right. Maybe I can manage a strategic still gaze out the window.

Take the Boy to Work Day

Here's Jack at work with mama, from Wednesday August 6. He carried his first picket sign!

We got back to town just in time to be part of a coordinated picket at 34 Catholic Healthcare West hospitals all over CA, to pressure management to behave at the bargaining table.

When he asked, "What dose guys doin'?" I told him we were there to help our friends tell the hospital management to listen, share, and cooperate, and be fair.

Breastfeeding and Social Justice are Good Friends

"Last year, CDC researchers found black infants are twice as likely as white infants to be premature or underweight, or to die before their first birthdays."

WTF??

That fact is from this article at Women's ENews. In addition to that horrible fact, the article includes a couple examples of hospitals who are becoming certified "baby friendly" in an effort to encourage breastfeeding initiation particularly among African American women. One hospital even chose to pay $20,000 a year to buy formula instead of receiving it for free along with "baby welcome bags" with free samples of formula that are distributed to all new moms. That is impressive to me; that's real commitment to health.

Why increase breastfeeding to reduce infant mortality? From the same article:

Mother's milk improves those odds. Breastfed infants are seven times more likely to maintain a healthy weight than formula-fed infants, notes a 2003 study in the journal Pediatrics. Breastfeeding also reduces infants' risk of asthma, diabetes, infections and sudden infant death syndrome, all more common among African Americans.

Just as breastfeeding can help black infants, so too can it help their mothers. Research shows African American women are 70 percent more likely than other women to die of breast cancer and doubly likely to be overweight or have diabetes.


A woman's risk of developing breast cancer decreases by 4 percent for each year that she breastfeeds, according to a 2002 study in the journal Lancet. Breastfeeding burns up to 500 calories a day and can help women shed weight after pregnancy. It can also help ward off obesity and diabetes, for which African American women are at higher risk.

For women of all races, breastfeeding can lower the risk of osteoporosis and ovarian and uterine cancers. The health benefits continue through the next generation: Studies show breastfed daughters have lower rates of breast cancer when they grow up.

I knew the breastfeeding rates were different among white women and African American women, but this article was the first discussion I'd seen of why:

"The trend dates back to slavery, when black women were wet nurses but were not allowed to breastfeed their own children regularly," says Kiddada Ramey, president of the Detroit-based Black Mothers' Breastfeeding Association. "Black women disassociated themselves from breastfeeding and continued to do so through the generations."

Modern-day African American mothers are more likely than other women to give birth at cash-strapped hospitals that lack lactation consultants and often give away formula companies' free "welcome baby" packages to patients who take them home and get accustomed to using formula instead of breast milk.

Among some black women, formula is preferred because it has come to symbolize affluence, success and a special treat for babies....

African American women are also three times more likely than other women to live below the federal poverty level and may face difficulty buying breast pumps. Or they may be unable to take time to pump breast milk if they hold low-paying jobs that lack workplace flexibility.

I was breastfed and so were my brothers, and I breastfeed Jack even thought it was a huge struggle for the first 9 months. Someday I'll write that whole story down, when I can handle it emotionally. Suffice it to say I pumped like a maniac to try to increase and sustain my milk supply. I pumped at home, at work, in hotel rooms, in a little kitchen space during a retreat day, in my office on conference calls, and even in the car--while driving! I did that for over a year, then put the pump away except for trips. Now, the boy still nurses sometimes, more on this trip because it's a guaranteed comfort when his little sleep schedule is all messed up.

I think all breastfeeding mothers deserve some kind of superhero suits because not only can it be very challenging to learn this new skill at the time of highest sleep deprivation, it can also be very challenging to negotiate space and time at work and in public. So just as a very short list of helpful perspectives to nurture the determination it can take to push through, here's a list of...

The Breastfeeding Mom's Bill of Rights

The right to breastfeed wherever you are
If you have a right to be somewhere with your baby, you have a right to breastfeed there. ...

The right to choose how long you breastfeed
You have a right to breastfeed your child for as long as you see fit. ...

The right to pump breastmilk at work
You have a right to be bold in asking your employer for accommodations to pump breast milk at work. ...

The right to raise breastfeeding concerns in court
You have a right to raise breastfeeding concerns in legal or civic matters, such as child custody cases or jury duty. ...

Also in Babytalk there was a "breastfeeding license" that showed state-by-state rights. In California, for instance, mothers have the right to breastfeed wherever they have the right to be. In Washington, though, the law is weaker: it's just a guarantee that a breastfeeding mother can't be charged with obcenity for flashing a bit of boob. I can't find that "license" online but I'll check in my pump bag when I get home and see if I can find the one I printed out and track down a link.

Go boob! And, happy "World Breastfeeding Week"!

Jay Smooth, instructor

So I love to read Racialicious, a blog "about the intersection of race and pop culture." I met the founder at the WAM conference earlier this year, and it was in her workshop that I finally caught on to one of the most important reasons why there are so many discussions of pop culture in blogs that deal with race and anti-racism, gender and feminism, etc. It's because it provides a common language and reference point! Duh, but I didn't get it until I heard Carmen say it. Before that, I just thought, why pay so much attention to something I don't want to encourage? And I still mostly think that in terms of my own pie of attention--very small slices go to pop culture. But I really do think it's important to be literate in pop culture as a strategy for effective communication.

Anyway, on Racialicious last week I saw this piece by Jay Smooth on "How to Tell People They Sound Racist" and thought it was great. I sort of also "got" vlogging when I saw it--I think it was my first vlog. I sent it to everyone in my department at work, and really wanted to include it here. His point is critical, again, as a strategy for effective communication: talk about what people DO--don't theorize about what they ARE. I totally agree. Because I don't want to argue about your identity. I just sometimes need to point out the crap you said.

I wish I knew how to embed a youtube link so it's watchable from here, but I'm a beginner blogger, and that's intermediate. I am not there yet!