Survival of the fittest? In the 21st Century, survival requires much more that that. Humans must develop complex, higher order cognition skills, such as the ability to communicate and embrace interpersonal relations. And, of course, they still need to develop literacy and numeracy skills and the ability to leverage technology. Neuroscience tells us that optimum learning for human beings takes place in a social context, which means that students learn best when they are interacting with both the material to be learned and with each other as well. Learning is a social activity that is heavily influenced by…interaction with the larger social environment (Caine and Caine 1995). A classroom where students interact comfortably and see themselves as part of a learning community is optimal. The research on cooperative learning suggests that working in groups addresses the human need for interaction, enhances interpersonal skills through practice, and...

At some point during the class you ask learners to find their “sole mate”—the person in the room whose shoe size is closest to their own. On an 8½ x 11 piece of paper, each learner traces their shoe. Using the page where their soul mate traced their foot, learners capture how, when and where they intend to “walk” (or behave) differently as a result of the class. Toward the end of class, sole mates exchange papers and agree to mail the “shoes that were made for walking” back to them in 30, 60 or 90 days. The assignment then includes emailing the instructor to share where they have “walked their talk” and truly applied the new knowledge. Betsy Allen is senior vice president at The Bob Pike Group.

Graffiti Board: A fun revisit or closing activity that helps students learn new content area vocabulary words. The bulletin board can be kept up for the duration of the unit. - Students write the key vocabulary words in a unique graffiti style on construction paper - They sign their designs and place on the bulletin board - Example of math content area vocabulary: Classify, compute, simplify, re-group, estimate, calculate Sample standard: Grade 6: Students use their knowledge of word origins and word relationships, as well as historical and literary context clues, to determine the meaning of specialized vocabulary and to understand the precise meaning of grade-level-appropriate words.

What’s New at The Bob Pike Group? Designing Lessons that SCORE Introducing the newest one-day seminar from The Bob Pike Group! Designing Lessons that SCORE was designed with educators in mind. In this highly interactive workshop, you will experience effective openers, closers, revisiters and energizers that you can use immediately with any level of students, including adults... Certified Partner Corner Area Education Agency 267 in Iowa joins The BPG team of Certified Partners. On January 10, four members of the AEA staff completed the certification process to enable them to train Research-Based Creative Teaching Strategies...

Asked: I am looking for successful ways to present webinars, tips to make them more effective, etc. Is there such a class or seminar? Answered: We do have materials and a session on making remote training interactive that is currently offered as a one-day in-house. We do not have this as a public seminar at this time. Another idea that may give you some great ideas is...

Want an opportunity to earn or WIN FREE books and resources for your training library? Take just two minutes to send us one of your best creative training tips, and we might be sending you some of our fabulous BPG resources such as books on openers or closers or a subscription to Bob Pike’s Creative Training Techniques newsletter. Your tip can be an adaptation of one of ours or your own creation. Most creative tips are not revolutionary, but if they work well, we want to hear about them!

Opener: Silly Hats Purpose: Openers are key in setting the stage for what is to come and a great way for trainers to break the ice while providing focus on the topic. Audience: Any size Time: 10 minutes Materials: 2 sheets of newspaper per participant, one roll of tape per small group Application: Helps participants become better acquainted and relieves tension associated with the topic.

BPG Launching Educator E-zine The Bob Pike Group will be sending out its inaugural quarterly e-Zine with articles and tips just for educators in February. E-learning Best Practices How long should an e-learning course be? Chris Bennett, founder and CEO of Ah Ha! Media, offers his thoughts on some simple guidelines for producing an e-learning course. They include: have an interest in your subject... Productivity Tips of 2007 Of course, the end of the year always provides hundreds of articles on the best and worst of the prior 12 months. Rick Broida, blogger for BNET... Banish Webinars? Wow! One of my favorite lists put out each year is the list from Lake Superior State University of words banished for overuse or misuse. Business terms to be banished this year? “Webinar” and phrases such as “X is the new Y.”... Recession-Proof Your Career Training and development always seems to be one of the departments hardest hit during recessions...

“The sky is falling!” Chicken Little shrieked. When it comes to business forecasting, you don’t need Doppler radar to know more storms are ahead. Even though the business horizon looks ominous, it isn’t enough to simply sound the alarms. Before clouds gathered, Noah was busy building the ark. Today’s most enlightened leaders are busily preparing to address several critical workforce issues with the combined potential to wreak as much havoc...

With so much discussion on the large numbers of employees expecting to retire in the next few years, there is a focus on the loss of expertise and how to bridge that gap. According to statistics from the Federal Reserve, 19 percent of employees are aged 62 or older. The answer for many seems to be women who are looking to return to the workforce after having been absent for a period of time.