Presenting a workshop at the state conference can lead you to amazing new ideas and leadership skills, but how can you get there? How do you create a workshop that student council members all over the state will learn from? Learn about how to create a workshop that will be good enough for you to take to the next level at the PASC state conference!
The first thing that can take your workshop to the next level is using different types of media. Putting pictures on the slides makes them more engaging to look at and can help you get your point across. For example, if you do a workshop about hosting a mini-THON and you have a student who has never been to one before, showing them pictures of students dancing all night from another school could help them bring the mini-THON spirit back to their school. Another type of media that can be useful in engaging students is videos. If you have a short video that is professional and relates to the topic, I would strongly recommend using it. For example, if you were creating a workshop about campaigning, you could use other campaign videos to show students how to create a campaign video and how other students have made them. Google has an endless amount of pictures, videos and even some funny GIFs can make your workshop stronger.
The next thing you can do to engage students in your workshop is by having them participate and practice what you are teaching them! One way to try this is to pose a question at the beginning of the workshop, have a few of them share out answers and then pose the question again at the end of the workshop to see how their answers have changed. You can incorporate having them participate with the media I have mentioned above, by having them compare and contrast examples of events or campaigns. Another way to engage them by participating is having them actually do what you teach them. For example, if the workshop you are presenting is about how to plan an event on a budget, you can create items with prices and they will have to figure out how to plan a successful event on the budget given. There are many other ways to engage your audience beyond these three, but this can be a start to a more successful workshop.
Creating a packet is a requirement for creating a state conference workshop, but if you take the time to make the packet a resource delegates can use and share with their council, your workshop will go to the next level. Your packet should include the information that was presented on the slides, you can format it in bullet points, fill in the blank notes or any other option you have for presenting information. You should give the students room to write their questions for you, ideas they came up with or the words that you say that expand upon the slides. You can also include your contact information (snapchat, instagram, email, etc) so the delegates can reach out to you if they take ideas from your workshop in their school. You should also include an evaluation on the back of the packet that delegates can fill out and hand to you at the end. This will help you improve for the next time you present your workshop.
Those are just three ways to improve your workshop to take it to the next level for the state conference! And always remember to be confident and prepared when presenting your workshop, because you’ve got this!