Training Opportunity - October 28 -29, 2010 - New Haven, CT

I am about to start training people who want to make a good living presenting dynamic and interactive one and two-day programs in elementary and middle schools all around the World. We are recruiting for every metropolitan region in the US and Canada.

Attend Training in Person or as E-Learning - Only this one time training will be live. After that it will be an e-learning course that prospective presenters can purchase on-line. You are invited to the live training. Please tell your colleagues about this one time opportunity. I'm limiting the trainees to 15.

Content of Training - The training session in New Haven lasts four days, and we will video the entire program. The first two days, you will observe me teaching in a 3rd through 8th grade school, Hooker Middle School, in New Haven, CT. The first day, "Juggling for Success Day," I'll teach the entire school to juggle with scarves and beanbags, one grade level at a time. On day two, "Climate Change is Elementary Day," we'll explore climate change issues together following the same schedule. You will observe everything from teachers' meeting before school in the early morning on Thursday to Family Night from 7-8:30 in the evening on Friday. Then we spend Saturday and Sunday discussing the program, how to promote it, how to get bookings, how to bill and how to get paid for your work.

E-Learning Project - Once this program is "in the can" it does not make sense for me to get on the road and travel around the World presenting it over and over again, but rather it makes sense to use e-learning to replicate it elsewhere through dozens or hundreds of trainees. That means more people can attend training, since it will be available 24/7 on line and people can move at their own speed. It also means I travel less and burn up less carbon. And finally I can stay home and support trainees by creating our overall web presence, by helping with booking programs for you, by reviewing your videos of your sessions, and by helping you to get certified.

Your cost - I'll only be asking for a contribution of $99 per person. Training usually requires a $1,000 contribution to our foundation for your team, so this is a great bargain. Then you will be in on the start of the training program and you will get to ask the questions and be the live audience for my e-learning series. You will need to agree to be video taped in the series in order to attend this training course live and in person. I also will require your help in shooting the video, and if anyone has editing skills we can make a special deal I'm sure for some simple editing. Everyone who attends the live shoot will get a free download of the entire training program once it becomes available. So for $99 you get to be in the audience for the live program and you also get your own copy of the entire training program. The training program will include grades K-8 for both Juggling and Climate Change. The K-2 school is already in the can. Including the discussions on Saturday and Sunday this will include over 40 hours of video download. There is also an extremely well-researched Power Point presentation for use on the Climate Change Day and I have developed and will give you the CD of 36 instructional songs that really work for the Juggling is Success program.

Potential Earnings - How much can you make with this program? As with any program, there is no guarantee that you will make any money at all. Your earnings will depend on you and your team, but I get a $1,500 contribution to my Project at our parent foundation for a day in a school like either day described here. I get $2,500 for a two day program like the one you will be seeing. Certainly you will need to do ten schools at the $500 per day level to learn the program and ten at the $1,000 level to become really comfortable. I'll need to see video of your last schools and get letters from the principal before you get Final Certification. There will be a fee for that review and Certification of $299. After certification you can charge $1,500 or more per day.

Continuing Relationship - My continuing obligation once you are trained and certified is to help you to start a sub-project at our parent foundation and to work with you to continually develop the program so it stays current with climate change research and action. Our overall website will include a link to you so you can pick up all the referrals from your area. I'll be building a "funnel" to capture e-mail addresses of prospective schools to hand over to you for your follow-up.

Your obligation includes applying for sub-foundation status and to contribute 7% of your income directly to Climate Change is Elementary. This lets us continue to develop the program for all our benefit, but you are still your own boss working as hard as you wish to make your program a success, and changing it to suit your personality, regional variation, and in response to what you discover during your presentations. Also, please understand that we expect you to send us ideas and that this is not a top-down, headquarters-centered organization, but one that respects the experience and feedback from the field staff and will seek to incorporate the pearls you develop into the program wherever feasible.

Your Project at CDPrograms.org - There is also a set-up fee of $349 payable to the parent foundation www.cdprograms.org. That gets your own separate sub-account started and gets you instant 501c3 (non-profit) status. There is also an 8% administrative charge that keeps you from having to deal with any "admnistrivia." This charge covers federal and state foundation registration, getting and keeping 501c3 status, bookkeeping and payroll, bill paying and accounting, administration, legal and all reports and government forms. In similar fiscal sponsorship arrangements, just these services usually cost around 20% of your gross foundation income. You get CDPrograms plus my continued guidance for only 15%.

More Questions? - To find out more details about training, how to set up your sub-foundation, and how this program benefits from our sister program, Juggling for Success™ please check the FAQ on this site. If you still have questions, please send an e-mail to davefinnigan@yahoo.com and we will send you information as soon as it becomes available.

Qualifications

It is important to put together a team to undertake the program. It would be great if these team members could all train together. Certainly everyone should review all the videos so you all understand the details of the program. Here is the make-up of an ideal team. Possibly two or three people are needed to do the job right, although I've done all of these jobs myself.

One team member must be organized and must be willing to keep the others organized.
One team member must know the climate science backwards and forwards and must be able to make it easy for kids to understand.
Two team members must be comfortable with presenting in a fun and interactive way with kids from Kindergarten through 8th grade.
Everyone must be absolutely safe around kids. A background check and police clearance will be performed on all trainees.
Everyone must be totally acceptable to your average elementary principal, teacher and parents - no outlandish hairstyles, piercing, tattoos, or behaviors that are offensive to the educational community.
Team members must be comfortable working with one-another without bickering or harsh words.
Team members must be willing to "be the change they want to see in others" by adopting a low-carbon life-style.
Team members must be willing to go to state level and regional conventions of teachers, parents and principals at their own expense and stand in the booth representing the program.
At least one team member must be comfortable on the phone calling schools and talking to teachers and principals about the program.
The team needs to own a portable sound system, an I-pod and a projector and a computer for the slide show. Schools provide the screens.
Teams must be willing to buy promotional brochures at cost.
Everyone who appears in a school must genuinely love kids and be able to relate to them with understanding and empathy.

How the Climate Change is Elementary Day is Structured

(Note: This is the description of a one-day program for Climate Change is Elementary. It is very similar to the flow of the day when Juggling for Success is presented as a one-day stand-alone program. The two-day program is always preferred; and it includes Juggling for Success™ on Day 1 and Climate Change is Elementary™ on Day 2 with one Family night at the end of the second day.)

We start before school with a teachers meeting where the program is introduced and the day is explained.

Then the Presenter or Team takes over the gym or cafeteria for the day. Kids come in one grade level at a time for 30 to 40 minute classes.

The classes use music, movement, slides, dance, games and constant interaction. The kids are up and moving from the start. This is not a lecture or a slide show, it is an event - a happening!

Each grade gets a piece of the climate change puzzle. One grade becomes trees and critters in the rain forest. One grade becomes penguins waddling around Antarctica, and another becomes polar bears, crawling on the arctic ice. We have different fun and interactive games and activities that are appropriate for each grade.

Then the presenters tell the story of the carbon cycle in terms kids can understand with lots of movement and drama.

We save 40 minutes at the end of the day for an all-school assembly. The kids come in to music. They dance, they sing and they get to show off a little bit of what they have learned as we share their "puzzle piece" with the entire school.

Then the presenters tell the story of the carbon cycle in terms kids can understand with lots of movement and drama.

Kids get deputized as heroes and take a pledge to "Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle and Respect."

The kids go home pumped up to bring their families back to school that evening. We usually have a good turnout, but if we can combine Juggling for Success and Climate Change is Elementary into one Family Night we usually outdraw any evening event the school has ever had, bringing back 50 to 60 percent of parents. Our evening program is a chance for the kids to show the parents what they have been learning. Then the whole family sits down on the floor together and comes up with a Family Sustainability Checklist that they take a pledge to follow. If they do not already have one, from that day on the school has a green team that helps connect parents and kids to activities that save energy and water. To the extent that they wish teachers may participate in the program, however in most schools the PTA does most of the work. Teachers already have enough to do.

How to enroll

Please contact us and we will send you an official application.

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