Category: Tools for trainers

Resources for Trainers, Tools for trainers

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

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“things that can be so handy when doing ice breakers or games in training”

A friend sent this as an email forward and I decided to post it here. These are the little tidbit sorts of things that can be so handy when doing ice breakers or games in training. Enjoy! I have no source for you and cannot verify that these are true tidbits (they are from an email forward after all…) but they are fun!

  • The longest one-syllable word in the English language is “screeched.”
  • “Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt”.
  • The symbol on the “pound” key (#) is called an octothorpe.
  • The dot over the letter ‘i’ is called a tittle.
  • The word “set” has more definitions than any other word in the English language.
  • “Underground” is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters “und.”
  • There are only four words in the English language which end in”-dous” tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
  • · The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
  • The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural.
  • The longest place-name still in use is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwenuakitanatahu, a New Zealand hill.
  • A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
  • There is a seven letter word in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters, “therein” the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein.
  • The letters KGB stand for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti.
  • The name for Oz in the “Wizard of Oz” was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence “Oz.”
  • ‘Stewardesses’ is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
  • The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
  • Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does arsenious, meaning “containing arsenic.”

Resources for Trainers, Tools for trainers, Train the trainer opportunities

That was fun!

bckhough
For trainers
For trainers

MaintainIT hosts monthly webinars for trainers. We talk about MaintainIT resources and share ideas for using them in training.  Today’s session was really fun (recording here) — lots of great people there, chatting about what makes online training work. There were people at the session attending their first ever online event and others who have presented online many times. One of the things I was most impressed with was everyone’s focus on the user… on the attendee experience. I know it might seem obvious, but when I was researching online presentations, most of the information I found focused on fonts and graphics and really specific details about how to make the presentation look. Great info and important stuff, but secondary.

Active Learning, Tools for trainers

23 Things — Minnesota Style

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Like all good Minnesotans who have moved away from the homeland, I see it as my duty to inform the rest of the world about my home state. If a MN company is mentioned in conversation, for example, (Best Buy, Target, Aveda, Hormel…), I make sure everyone knows it’s a MN company that has been mentioned. In conversations about music, I can almost always find a way to make a connection to Prince or The Replacements or Husker Du or Bob Dylan or some other Minnesota music maker. People often bring up Garrison Keillor, but I make sure they know Louise Erdrich, Leif Enger, and F. Scott Fitzgerald are MN authors, too. It is very important to me, therefore, to make sure you know how cool the recent Minnesota library learning program, 23 Things on a Stick, is. Even if not from MN, I’m sure I would be impressed with the way the Minnesotans have taken the idea and run with it in a big way.

Many, many moons ago my friend and hero Ruth Solie of the Northern Lights Library Network told me about an idea she and the other multi-type directors were considering… taking the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County’s 23 Things program and running it statewide. That little idea sparked a hugely successful project. During the first round of 23 Things on a Stick, many participated in the program and a good share of them completed it. By popular demand, a second round will run from May 15-September 15, 2008. Check out the project website to view some of the blogs and other projects that are the result of this program.

Resources for Trainers, Tools for trainers, Train the trainer opportunities

Lori Reed – WJ Webinar – June 10th

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Ooo! I am especially excited about this upcoming webinar! I am consistently impressed with Lori Reed’s ideas about training and am looking forward to getting to work with her more (she’s getting involved with some cool things we’re doing at MaintainIT). I’m definitely planning to attend this free WebJunction webinar next week.

Cultivating a Culture of Learning in the Library
6/10/08 11 AM-12 PM PT / 2-3 PM ET

How much time does your library spend on “training?” Statistics show that most learning takes place on the job or with a coworker, yet as trainers we spend an inordinate amount of time preparing for and delivering classroom training. In this webinar you will learn why you need to get your staff out of the classroom and instead focus on creating a culture of learning in your library.

We will explore:

  • The differences between training and learning
  • The benefits to libraries for creating a culture of learning
  • The key elements of a learning organization
  • Tips for creating a culture of learning in any size library

Presented by guest speaker Lori Reed, Training Specialist for the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County.

Tools for trainers

Snip, Snap, Snurr

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Does anyone else remember the Snip, Snap, Snurr books? I need to find them for my nephew.

There’s really no snurr in this post, but I wanted to say “snap!” for Snippy. The Librarian in Black blogged about this tool earlier in the week and it’s the kind of thing that’s simple, but so handy for trainers.

Snippy allows you to mark out a little region of a webpage that you want to copy to the clipboard and then paste into a training document. It’s one of those simple little things that can make a big difference to a trainer.

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