Legal Observer Trainers Training
95 minutes

Materials: Cop hats, LO hats and/or armbands, LO Trainers Guide, butcher paper, NLG LO manual, sign-in sheet.

1. Intro (5 min)
•Who we are.
•We're not lawyers.
•Go 'round: What's your name, why are you at this workshop?
•What experience do people have going to and leading workshops?
•Anyone can do a Legal Observer training.  You don't need any special skills, acting ability, or legal experience.
•You don't have to take notes because we have handouts on all this information.
•Our goal for this training: you should be able to take these materials, practice for a little while, then give your own training.
•Do people have any anxieties about leading a legal observer training?[Write answers down on butcher paper]

2. Training Methodology (20 min)
What's made the the trainings you've been to effective or less than effective?
•Trainers keep people engaged
•Entertaining
•Short, to the point
•Anecdotes
•We use tools like role plays, brainstorms, etc. to keep people involved
•Equal participation

Demonstrate Legal Observer Training section two: Why do we legal observe? brainstorm
(clearly signal starting and ending the demonstration)

How do you lead a brainstorm?
1)ask the participants a question
2)affirm “correct” answers, clarify “incorrect” answers
3)on our training guide, we include standard responses and key points

We always elicit info from the participants rather than lecturing.  We do this because 1) we assume the trainees are intelligent and have experience that we don't (and we're skeptical about experts). 2) it's more interesting & keeps people engaged.

Role plays:
[Demonstrate the first cop vs. protester role play, where the protester can't disperse.  Have participants actively watch and take notes, then lead a super-brief discussion on what they saw.  Clearly signal starting and ending the role play]

What did you notice about using the role play as a teaching method?
•They are really really effective.   
•It can be hard for trainers to get up and be goofy in front of people.  
•Experiential learning:  People learn better by doing than by simply talking about something.  
•Debrief after each role play.  Answer questions and hammer home lessons.
•Feel free to repeat the exact same role play or a slightly different one, so participants can fix the mistakes you just pointed out.

Anecdotes:
•These are fun.  Real life examples relating to lessons are good teaching tools.  Beware of over-doing it!(give an anecdote about using an anecdote)

3. Going Over the Training (60 min)
[Hand out the LO training agenda and briefly go over it.]

	Break people up into groups of 3-5.  Once they are in those groups, have them count off  from 2 to 8 within the group.  Explain that those numbers tell them what section of the training they will practice giving.  For sections 3 and 8, they should also choose people to be the cop and LO/activist.  Try to switch around so that different people are being the cops and LO/activist each time.  (so in section 3, someone who role plays being a cop in the first vignette would be the LO in the second vignette)

	Go through agenda section by section, having participants lead the sections.  Tell participants that when they're “being” the participant in a section, do not just read the answers off their copy of the training.  This makes it more realistic for the person practicing being the trainer.

	All the groups should start each section at the same time to make it easier for trainers to go around and give pointers.  Trainers should model a section first for a group if necessary (especially for role plays/vignettes).  If a group finishes early, encourage them to have someone else lead the same section.

4. Misc (5 min)
Send around signup sheet to give to the NLG
Talk about the NLG LO Manual
Answer random questions

5. Evaluation (5 min)
Mention that their evaluation will look like ours.
Explain “pluses” and “deltas.”
Write our web address, the NLG website,  and our email on the board.