10 things that every trainer should have in their BAT© utility belt
Nowadays the market is full of ready-made trainer kits that seem to be full of koosh-balls, stress toys, clappy hands and smelly pens. Here is a DIY kit of things that are all entirely practical; some of them you’d expect to be provided by the venue but let’s face it, it’s better not to rely on that, isn’t it? These are thing that I keep in my case all the time……
1. A kitchen timer- for setting a time for exercises or breaks; if you get one that counts down AND works as a stopwatch this can be doubly useful for certain exercises.
2. A big blob of blutak or whitetak or similar stuff to stick flipcharts (or an ice-box/parking lot) to walls with….or put a blind over the fish-tank panel in the door or to cover up the clock to stop people clockwatching!
3. A set of flipchart marker pens on standby for when the ones on the easel dry out (as they always seem to do!)
4. A set of very clearly marked whiteboard/drywipe pens to save you using permanent marker pens on the whiteboard and getting billed for several hundred pounds worth of replacement NoboBoard.
5. A handful of cheap biros or pop-a-point pencils to “lend” to delegates who have come to the training room without anything to write with (to save you lending a delegate your expensive Cross ballpoint which you then never see again!)
6. A couple of spare AA and AAA batteries for either your kitchen timer or the remote control for the projector/TV video in the room (if these happen to be in a universal phone charger then all the better)
7. A magic cutter for removing flipchart paper neatly from the pad rather than tearing through your neatly lettered handiwork
8. A couple of pads of post-it type notes of different colours…these are invaluable for either sticking notesnotes or getting people to each fill one out etc.
9. A small bell, gong, clanger-whistle, kazoo or similar to allow you to get everyone’s attention without having to SHOUT above the hubbub of the coffee break (or whistle!)
10. Some ibuprofen and paracetamol for when you get a thumping headache at the dog watches of the day.
11. A sport bottle of water for you to sip on to avoid getting a dry mouth if you are presenting a lot.
12. An old radio aerial to use as a pointer either on flipcharts or projected slides
…what else do you always have with you?
“BAT=Been Around Trainer”
4 Responses
Training kit
Good list – also:-
Regards
Dominic
QED Training qedworks.com
Wallet
As well as all the excellent examples above…3 things you should never be without are…
Plan B
Plan C
Plan D
Because things rarely go according to Plan A
Masking tape!
Some great suggestions already!
I always have a roll of masking tape in my trainer box which I mostly use for marking out lines on the floor for active learning exercises. Of course, the tape can also be used to stick flipchart paper to walls in the absence of blutak!
Andrew
Training Kit Items
Great items and I would like to add:
My own green laser pointer and batteries. The red ones aren’t as visible.
Elizabeth