By Rebecca Shemesh | July 30, 2015
ETR Consultant Trainer

This activity can be easily adapted for use as an opener, energizer or closer. It gets participants up and moving, interacting with each other and rocking to your own special playlist. It’s a great way to build excitement at the beginning of a training day, help participants reinforce learning in the middle, or consolidate learning and intentions at the end. Highly adaptable and lots of fun.

By Debra Christopher, MSM | June 30, 2015
Director, Professional Learning Systems, ETR

OK, I admit it. I’ve been around for awhile. I taught health education in the classroom for four years early in my career. Then I made a shift, and for the past 25 years I’ve worked to support adult learners who deliver health education programs to youth.

The essence of my mission: create change (in adult instructional savvy) to create change (in youth behavior).

By Joan Singson | May 18, 2015
Program Manager, ETR

Picture yourself standing in front of a room going through the talking points of your training design. You pan the room and notice a few heads bobbing. The bodies they’re attached to twitch as they fight training fatigue. You see glazed-over stares of participants whose minds are somewhere between the training room and a warm bed.

It’s time for an energizer!

By Tracy Wright, MAED, & Annika Shore, MPH | April 20, 2015
Project Director, ETR, & Professional Development Consultant, ETR

One of the essential hallmarks of a successful training is participant engagement through planned activities. Trainers know how to do this well in in-person trainings. But, for many of us, designing and delivering activities in the virtual environment can feel less certain—even intimidating.

Here are 5 guiding questions that will help you design successful virtual training activities.

By Annika Shore, MPH | April 16, 2015
Professional Development Consultant, ETR

This upbeat activity has some of the best elements for any training—movement, music and conversation. It engages brains, energizes participants and helps them personalize the learning.

By Rebekah Saul Butler, MBA, MPH | April 13, 2015
Co-Executive Director/The Grove Foundation

My business school marketing professor once said, “The airlines need to think more like a taxi.” Get people where they need to go when they want to go, and make it easy to get there.

As a frequent business traveler, I’ve often thought of those words while stranded in an airport or waiting for everyone in front of me to get their bags down and exit the aircraft. Air travel feels impersonal—like it’s designed to be convenient for the airlines, not the flier. And the industry hasn’t made much progress in 15 years.

I can’t say I’m any more enamored with the taxi industry. I’ve recently started using a ridesharing app and can understand perfectly why the sector is growing exponentially. And what’s this got to do with sexuality education?

I’d like to see sexuality education teacher training become more like a modern ridesharing business: technology based, customer centric and widely accessible.

By Debra Christopher, MSM | March 31, 2015
Director, Professional Learning Systems, ETR

Are you a learning specialist? A teacher, trainer or technical assistance provider? In other words, are you charged with teaching people to do something they have never done before? Or do something differently? Or do something better? If so, I hope you will read on.

Understanding the What, Why and WOW of effective professional development is going to help you do better in your work.

By Kathy Plomer, MPH | March 19, 2015
DASH Professional Learning Collaborative, ETR

This is a great activity to kick off a session. It gets people talking, laughing and sharing experiences related to the training topic. It’s fast and fun.