In short: in a course that I teach over multiple weeks I repeat each time :

At the start:

• Emotional weather report

• Course overview and dates

• Plan for the day and why this content matters

At the end of the day

• Visual synthesis hand sketched of what matters the most

• Course overview and dates

• Assignment for next time

• Stars and wishes feedback for the future

Context

There are courses that I teach which happen roughly once every one or two weeks over a semester. As learners have been busy with other courses in between I like to have an introduction and conclusion to each class that repeats key information.

The intro pieces

At the start I roughly share the following this:

• Emotional weather report: each participant shares how he feels today. Super useful to adapt the tone when people are going through difficult stuff (death of a loved one, sickness, etc.). It also helps everyone contextualize the reactions of the colleagues.

• Goal of the course

• Grading criteria

• Calendar overview: how does today's course build on the previous sessions and how it prepares us for what's to come.

• Day overview: the big chunks of what we'll do today.

• Why it matters: zooming out to show why what we learn and practice is important for a Service Design practitionner.

This looks like a lot but you can do it in roughly 20-30 minutes. It's also time well invested as it allows people to fully arrive in the course and let all the rest outside during the day.

The conclusion pieces

At the end of the day I also have conclusion elements that I re-use almost each time:

• Live-sketched summary of the key learnings

• Overview of what has been done today

• Overview of the calendar

• Reminder of the assignment for the next session

• Stars and wishes: a short written feedback shared on sticky notes about what was good today and what is wished for the future.

Backstage: written and illustrated by hand

This article was first written and illustrated by hand using a refurbished Remarkable II tablet. The hand written text was transformed into typed text using the Remarkable Connect service. If you are curious you can download the original note in PDF below.