Second in a series
Re “A New Kind of Mind May Be Coming to the School Board”
[img]2049|right|Suzanne Robins||no_popup[/img]In two words, what she likes almost more than anything else, says School Board candidate Sue Robins, is “figuring out.”
Well into the fully blossoming years of her profession, she says figuring out is a native talent rather than an acquired interest.
In the business world and education, Ms. Robins has applied the gift “in a number of industries, in bio-tech sales, in bio-tech marketing and trade show marketing. For awhile, I developed curriculums for St. Monica’s catechism classes. I developed courseware for that. I have developed courseware for non-profits.
“And, of course, for all the classes I taught, sixth and eighth grade,” said the former Middle School teacher from Silver Spring, MD.
As a technician, Ms. Robins was asked the main strength she brings to curriculum development.
“An ability to put together the thesis of what needs to be learned, what the starting point is, who the people are, who are going to be the learners, how best to reach them, how best to scaffold what they need to know. In other words, what is the ordering of the process, and how do you build them up?
Objectives: Absorption, Implementation
“In the corporate environment, the most important part for me is making sure that whatever is taught, actually gets used.
“I don’t know about you, but almost everyone I know has been through some sort of training program – maybe for one day, maybe for two. You’re all excited when you come out. And three days later, you are doing exactly what you did before you went into the training program.”
How, Ms. Robins, can that be prevented?
“One of the important components is authenticity. Another is relevance. In all of my training programs, there always is a performance test toward the end in which the learners have to do some of what they really will do with this learning in the workplace. They have to believe they really can implement what they have learned.
“The bulk of the proof for the buy-in is in their own minds,” Ms. Robins said. “They have to believe that they can do it because they actually have done it.”
(To be continued)
