When we were running training for teachers in the Czech Republic in May I suggested a number of simple ideas that our hosts asked me to write up. It’s taken me a while, but this is the first of them. We’ll be posting the rest over the coming days.
The issue
Students don’t have the skills to run meetings themselves.
The suggestion
- Finish all your meetings 2 minutes early.
- In this time ask one question to all of the participants:
- What did the chairperson do well?
- Write all the answers on a large piece of paper.
- Put this up where the chairperson can see it at every meeting.
- At the end of each meeting ask the question again and add new responses.
The outcome
You have a growing list of tips for chairpeople, so more people feel confident to chair meetings.
Reflecting on what made the meeting go well ensures that the meeting is a learning experience.
Additional ideas
Once you feel you have a good list about chairing you could change the question and start coming up with new lists of tips:
- What did the adults in our meeting do well?
- What did we do well to solve problems?
- What did people do well to represent their classes?
Download this guide as a PDF: [download id=”244″]