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ticipants have stated time and again how much they enjoy this type of structure during the training. As one participant wrote on a feedback form, “I enjoyed the real-life examples as well as the frequent breaks from the instruction to work on the make- and-takes.” Having time between instruction and lecturing to participate actively, practice new strategies, and frankly, have a break from sitting and listening, helps to keep engagement and concentration up throughout the day! Furthermore, participants often attend these sessions in teams and take advantage of the time during material making to discuss the presented content amongst their workgroups. This allows for teams to brainstorm how they can apply the in- formation back in their setting in more specific, concrete ways based on the individual needs of their students. We see that a lot of good conversation and brainstorming occurs during this time! Another important component of the MATerial trainings is the fun factor! We strive to keep the atmosphere relaxed, com- fortable and entertaining. Personally, we enjoy attending ses- sions that incorporate these elements and feel we are more en- gaged and attentive at those workshops, so we strive to bring that into a MATerial. We play music during the make-and-take portions, we serve snacks and candy, we share funny memes, there are laughs when we describe our real-life examples (and failures!) and there are giveaways! Now, we are not sure if fun is necessarily evidence-based, but for us, it is a crucial way to get everyone relaxed, comfortable and engaged! Which is what we are striving for, because we are asking participants to get out- side their comfort zone to learn about and implement strategies that may be new to them. Doing anything new is hard at first and usually makes us feel uncomfortable. We want participants to feel at ease, ready to try something new and to be willing to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Keeping things fun helps us achieve this goal!
During a make-and-take training, another significant compo- nent is making the materials. We spend a considerable amount of time before the training deciding what materials to include, creating the materials and prepping the materials so partici- pants can assemble them during the workshop in a structured, systematic way. We provide materials in three different symbol sets - Minspeak symbols, SymbolStix symbols and PCS symbols. We chose these as most of our staff utilize one of these symbol sets in their classroom to support students with complex com- munication needs. Participants indicate which symbol set they prefer when registering for the training. Our team then preps the pre-assembled components of the materials, along with other training resources, such as the slide deck, references and resource handouts, in a folder so that everything is organized and easy to find during the training. Creating and pre-prepping the materials is a substantial time commitment. We work in a team to help spread out the workload and follow a checklist to keep us organized as we prep for the training. (See IMAGE 2) During the session, we found it works best to have a variety of instructions available detailing how to assemble the materials. We have pictures of the materials pre-assembly and post-assem- bly as a reference. We have fully created materials available for participants to see how the finished products look. We also cre- ate the materials together with the participants in real time so we can demonstrate how to assemble the materials. (See IMAGE 3) To increase the level of support offered during this portion of the training, we also include step-by-step written directions to further assist in the material making process. We have found that having a variety of written, visual and auditory supports help participants feel confident as they create the materials. Participants of the MATerial trainings leave with a variety of materials created around a single symbol set. However, in real- ity, we know that many professionals utilize a variety of symbol sets in the classroom to address the communication needs of
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