You’ll need to design a staff training plan that encourages collaboration, prepares staff to lead discussion, and elicits the staff’s help in planning for the rest of the summer. Depending on how much you expect your staff to do and know, you may need quite a bit of staff training. Columbia’s staff training lasts 30 hours and is spread out over five days before the program. Yale’s staff training is condensed to just two to three days. Much of Columbia’s training time is spent role playing, writing lesson plans for the summer, and planning for the academic year. Staff also spend time writing and preparing for student orientation. Outlined below are the major points you should cover in your training:
Building community and comfort in the classroom
Understanding the program
- Purpose, mission, goals of the program, and how we implement them
- Outline of full program
- Listing of staff responsibilities and roles at each level
Policies & Safety
- Clear expectations of staff conduct
- Outline of all student policies and how staff can implement them
- Appropriate and inappropriate consequences for students
- Review of Protection of Minors (POM) protocol and mandatory reporting procedures
- Emergency procedures (consult with public safety)
- Non-emergent medical attention (consult with your compliance office or campus advisor)
- CPR/AED/First Aid Training if necessary for residential staff
Pedagogy
- Teaching objectives
- Working with diverse student populations
- Building student relationships
- Putting students first
- Behavior and classroom management
- Lesson planning
Protection of Minors Training
Most schools also offer some form of training for Protection of Minors (POM), possibly as a webinar that staff may complete online and in their own time. POM training is typically geared towards preventing, recognizing, and reporting child abuse only. The POM training should clarify your staff’s reporting responsibilities if they suspect a minor is being abused. While you are not likely to be mandatory reporters by state law, your university may require mandatory reporting regardless. You should retain documentation that your staff has completed the required POM training.