TCNewMarApr2012



 

 

 

 
March 2012 Edition

 
Welcome to The Coordinator, a bi-monthly online newsletter for training coordinators and other judicial employees involved in staff education.  In each edition you will find valuable information about upcoming training events, COJET policy, resources you can use, and insights from your peers in the judiciary. 
 
We always welcome your ideas and feedback at [email protected]

Upcoming Events


Don’t see your event listed? Click here to let us know about your upcoming events.

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

 


Code of Conduct Computer Based Training Revised Edition Now Online!
 

The Education Technologies Unit of the Education Services Division wants you to  know that there have been a few revisions made to the Judicial Code of Conduct course that was mailed out to all Training Coordinators in December  of 2011. You can get the updated version online at  the Arizona Supreme Court's website . These revisions do not severely impact content, but they are significant enough that ETU requests you destroy any disc copies you may have on hand and access the updated versions online.

If you have any questions, concerns, feedback, or are unable to access this course, please contact us at [email protected].

 

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2012 Training Coordinator Conference Registration Now Open

 

Join us on Thursday, April 19th for the annual Training Coordinator Conference at the Judicial Education Center in Phoenix, Arizona.  The conference will begin bright and early at 8:30 a.m. and we will have you on your way back home by 4:30 p.m. This year’s theme is “The Coordinator” with an interactive agenda inspired by the new format of the online TC newsletter.
 

IN THE KNOW

             o   Important updates from Education Services and COJET

             o   News from regional committees JCCE and NACE

RESOURCE ROUNDUP

            o   Technology tools for developing and improving training delivery

            o   New curriculum available for check-out

CURRICULUM CORNER

            o   Train the Trainer of 2 ethics curricula

            o    Demonstration and discussion of curriculum on values

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

            o   Excellence in Education Awards Lunch

            o   Multiple opportunities to network with your peers

This conference is offered free of charge to our target audience of Training Coordinators and Field Trainers. For those traveling more than 35 miles, we will reimburse your mileage. For those traveling more than 50 miles, we will cover the cost of lodging the night before.

Click here for more information and to register.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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Need COJET Credit? Become Faculty!

 

As we near the end of the first quarter of 2012, thoughts of completing 12 hours of COJET credit are most likely far off for staff. Yet in the coming months, more attention will be given to how those hours are fulfilled and as a training coordinator, it’s helpful to have a diverse array of options available. COJET recognizes the educational mastery necessary to teach a course and values teaching by judges and court staff. Unfortunately serving as faculty is frequently overlooked by staff due to the misconception that it only involves standing in front of an audience and teaching.

The Arizona Code of Judicial Administration §1-302 defines faculty as:

 

An individual who plans, prepares, and presents an education program. This definition includes individuals who serve as moderator or coordinator of a panel, and individuals who perform pre-planning for one-to-one training activities with measurable educational outcomes.

Section E., Program Accreditation on page 5 of the code outlines the amount of credit that can be earned:

 

An individual may receive up to eight hours of faculty credit in a calendar year in accordance with the following criteria:

a.      Credit hours may be granted to faculty at the rate of three-for-one the first time a course is taught and two-for-one the second and each consecutive time that course is taught;

b.      Credit hours may be granted to a program facilitator at the rate of two-for-one for the time spent facilitating the program; and

c.       Credit hours may be granted for developing curriculum not to exceed four credit hours in a calendar year.

So how do you identify potential faculty? Check out the articles in Resource Roundup and In the Spotlight for some ideas!

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Finding the Hidden Teachers in Your Organization
– Tara Denton, Life Cycle Institute

 

“With so much learning happening every day between leaders, managers, employees and clients, it’s time to take a closer look at our roles and see how we may function every day as coaches, trainers, knowledge agents, and advocates for professional growth and change. 

This article looks at two types of hidden teachers. We’ll explore examples of how these hidden teachers might appear in your organization, and a few tips on how to improve their ability to facilitate learning and change in others to produce results.”

 

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Using Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) as Trainers

 

Here are some thoughts from instructional designers around the country (excerpted from The ASTD Instructional Design Network)

 ·         Identify the SMEs with the skills required to effectively teach. Providing some basic instruction techniques and rehearsing before presenting is paramount to success.

·         The biggest challenge is helping them understand the importance of needs analysis. SMEs want to teach everything they know and not everything the learner actually needs.

·         Create training content internally which means that the SMEs now have complete structured manuals available to them. This ensures that they know exactly what slides, exercises, activities and handouts need to be rolled out. 

·         We team an experienced facilitator with a SME the first few times the course is offered. That way, the SME observes the correct behavior. With each course, the SME handles more and more of the facilitation. Eventually, the SME can take over and run the course on her own.

·         My primary challenge has been to convince SMEs of the usefulness of applied instructional design concepts -- working to time-based objectives, building participant interactions over time, testing informally and occasionally formally for retention and use, building transfer into the learning framework, linking learning content to real world job tasks and problem solving. I've had greater success with SMEs who conduct repeat learning sessions.

·         Conduct a Train-the-Trainer where you highlight Action Learning, Adult Learning Principles and Outcomes Based Training.

·         I think SMEs are generally very passionate about their subject matter, and as a result, they sometimes go into too much depth when instructing. For learners who have no prior knowledge of the subject, this can interfere with learning by causing cognitive overload. I used to work with a tax SME who would insist on covering every single exception to a tax law, even though chances of the learners encountering clients with these unique tax situations were close to zero. So to deal with that, I persuaded the SME to use class time for only the top 3 client profiles, and then created a handout that covered the content for the other “exceptions” he would normally cram into class. In this way, the SME still felt like his material was “complete”, and the learners benefitted by having takeaways that they could review later when they had time.

·         Establish objectives for the training and a set of procedures (a training manual). It will keep the trainer and the learner more focused.

·         As people become experts in something they tend to become so fluent in the basics that they even forget they exist - it's not deliberate, it's not even something they are aware of or can 'retrieve from their memory. It's a natural part of knowledge and skill acquisition towards expert level.

·         Have you considered a learning chain - where people at a certain level of knowledge or skill train/coach those that are the 'level' below and on up or down the chain.

·         In most cases SMEs have no time to design a good lesson and very often they leave the attention to the learning phase in the last drawer. I'm convinced that we need to play as a team of learning methodologists and SMEs, if we want to achieve a really good performance.

·         Verifying the content with other SMEs for the same position is another check and balance that can be put into the content creation system.

·         I started as a SME trainer so I have a possibly different view. First some SMEs can make very good trainers. You need to train them with train-the-trainer events that are designed for SMEs. Second, you need to mentor them and only use those that really "get it". On the other hand, few SMEs make good instructional designers. Work with them for the instructional design, but let a real instructional designer do the design!

WHAT’S YOUR PERSPECTIVE?

Have you worked on a SME-to-trainer project?

What are 1 or 2 primary issues/challenges you've faced in doing so?

What advice would you give to someone just starting this type of project?

 

Send your answers to [email protected].

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ASTD Trainer’s Workshop Series

 
The Education Services Division (ESD) recently purchased the ASTD Communication Skills Training curriculum which is a comprehensive training program for improving interpersonal relationships, teaching negotiation skills, resolving conflict, and strengthening assertiveness.  This curriculum was shared during the first TC Webinar in February and is now available for check-out.

To check out this curriculum for a 2-week period, please send an email to [email protected]

The Communication Skills Training book is part of ASTD’s Trainer’s Workshop series which offers 21 complete, customizable, ready-to-use programs. Each book offer one hour, half day, one-day, and two-day workshop formats, as well as all the exercises, handouts, assessments, structured experiences, and presentations needed for effective delivery. PowerPoint slides and electronic copies of all supporting materials are provided online or on a companion CD-ROM.

ESD will be purchasing several additional titles from this series (i.e., Customer service, Time management, and Teamwork) and they will be available for viewing and check-out at the Training Coordinator Conference on April 19th.

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Edith Duarte of Glendale City Court looks “outside the box” to develop new in-house training resources

 

Have you ever asked, “Where can I find additional training resources for my court?” If so, you are not alone. One training coordinator met this challenge head on, looking to her peers within the Glendale Municipal Court to find an answer.

As Glendale City Court’s Training Coordinator since 2009, Edith Duarte has organized and implemented an innovative method to increase the flexibility, frequency and cost effectiveness of training at her court. We interviewed her to find out how she successfully created a Faculty Skills Development (FSD) Training Team comprised of 5 peer in-house trainers, who develop curricula and deliver continuing education training on topics identified by court staff.

What gave you the idea to develop an in-house faculty pool?
I annually attend the training coordinator conferences to network and share training resources with peer coordinators and field trainers.  In 2010 after attending the Training Coordinator Whistle Stop Workshop, I returned to my court with ample curricula and training ideas, yet found myself with limited time to develop the resources and deliver training alone.  I assessed my local options and tapped into a local resource within my own court, enlisting in-house trainers, to accomplish my goal of providing needed training to staff on a regular basis. I stepped “outside the box”, to work with existing resources and develop their potential. The result has been astounding!

How did you get started and receive support?
I brainstormed and came up with a plan to develop a Faculty Skills Development Training Team (facilitator committee).   I started by approaching my supervisor and subsequently the presiding judge and proposed an idea to recruit my peers within the court who like to train, to assist with developing existing curricula and collaborate to teach on a rotation basis throughout the year.  I believed this would enable me to make use of the resources obtained from training coordinator conferences and offer added training on a more frequent basis.  My supervisors were supportive of the idea with the stipulation that staff participating in teaching would adequately carry out their court assigned duties while offering their services as faculty. 

I emailed an announcement to staff recruiting interested potential court trainers, requesting one representative from each court department. After approval from supervisors, I enlisted four individuals. Currently I have five court personnel on my faculty team.  Glendale City Court FSD Training Team members include: Edith Duarte, Jennifer Wildeman, Court Supervisor, Teresa Clay, Kori Aguilar, and Sharon Marcus, Court Clerks, and Steve Kolessar, Court Accountant.

What do you require from in-house faculty?
New faculty are required to attend a Faculty Skills Development program, (offered through the AOC) prior to teaching.  Training is offered once per month and trainers rotate teaching. Faculty are responsible for developing class materials and delivering training. Each agrees to teach one class per year and teach an additional class at the local in-house judicial staff conference in June. Trainers are given support by team members and teach a pilot class to prepare for training.

How do you organize your trainings?
The FSD Training Team meets regularly. The members are representatives from various court departments and they work in partnership to review curricula, plan the yearly training calendar, decide on which classes to teach based on needs assessments from staff and management, and provide each other support with materials and feedback. The committee sets training goals in January outlining the training calendar. Classes are taught once per month and at the Judicial Staff conference in June.

What have been the challenges?
There have been very few challenges. The process has worked very smoothly. Trainers are very dedicated to the success of the training calendar. There has been no resistance from staff in participating as trainers. Many employees were looking for a professional challenge and management has been very supportive. 

What successes have you had?
Previously court staff had to travel off-site to meet their training needs, which increased time away from work and incurred occasional registration costs. Now, their training goals are accomplished conveniently at the Court at no cost, thereby saving time and resources by eliminating travel for education activities. 

In 2011, Glendale Municipal Court employees completed 1100 COJET hours among 45 employees. Some staff received up to 30 hours of training. The facilitator committee was nominated for the Judicial Achievement Award and featured in the 2011 Glendale Municipal Court annual report for their work and success in training delivery. They were praised for cost efficiency, innovation, and encouraging professional growth within the court.  The City of Glendale has also written an article about the committee and has asked trainers to potentially teach for the City in the future. The Glendale FSD Training Team now conducts at least one training class per month on a variety of judicial education topics to supplement the Court’s ongoing training calendar.

What trainings have your faculty offered?
Among other trainings in the works, the team has taught Critical Communication Styles, Generations in the Workplace, Criminal Case Disposition Reporting, Domestic Violence Documentary, Telling Amy’s Story, Budget Training, and Bilingual Training.

What advice do you have for others interested in working with their courts to develop a network of in-house trainers?
Communicate your needs/goals clearly. This gives management a full picture of what you are trying to accomplish making them more inclined to show support.

Take the time to query your co-workers to determine if there is interest to collaborate with you on providing in-house training. We are very fortunate in Glendale to have staff who are willing to go that extra mile and be willing to learn a skill that will enhance professional development. Be enthusiastic, supportive, and re-assuring to your team so that you instill that confidence for them to be successful when teaching and display great pride in the provided training. 

Training coordinators who are interested in starting a network of in-house trainers are welcome to contact Edith Duarte at (623) 930-2440 or [email protected] for more information on how to get started.  Thank you Edith for sharing your experience!

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