Grateful 14 Mar: Training (1)

I had a long and tiring day today, conducting another round of training. But it was also a fulfilling day, as always, because I know I am helping my learners learn. So here is my gratitude entry for today. 

• Morning walk. I woke up at 5:40am, as usual, whenever I have to conduct training. I need to be ready by 8:30am at the latest, and I know I will be too caught up with the training until the evening. So I woke up early to do my daily walk. While I do not particularly enjoy waking up early, I did enjoy the cool early morning walk at 6am before daybreak. Today was especially pleasant for several reasons. Firstly, it was the weekend, so there was no weekday traffic to contend with and the park was quiet. Also, the March school holidays have started, so many people have probably taken leave or are sleeping in later than usual. As a result, I was able to do my walk without being disturbed by the usual morning joggers or families. All these factors made my walk extra pleasant and I am thankful. 

• Training. I had delivered today’s topic several times, and am familiar with the content - so familiar that I can deliver it “artfully”. Nonetheless, I was glad that I made the effort to review the materials again to ensure that I was sufficiently refreshed on both the content and the activities. I am thankful that the effort paid off. I was able to share more real-life examples in addition to the rather difficult content that I was expected to deliver. I strongly feel that providing real-life examples and sharing my personal experiences helps learners connect better with the theories. 

• Learners. Most of the learners were new to the topic and found it challenging to keep up as the day went on. Thankfully, I was able to adjust my pace to better support them. The day ended well, with every learner saying that they were comfortable with the pace of delivery and activities, and that they had learned something from the session. Of course, the real test of my effectiveness will be tomorrow when they sit for the assessment. Let’s hope every single one of them passes. 

I am glad I had enough energy at the end of the day to go through all the activity slides that the learners developed during the session, and to make sure they can use them as references in the future. It was a long and tiring day, but a meaningful one. I look forward to Day 2 of the module tomorrow.