Step 4: Involve and Train your Staff

Part 4 of virtual learning expert and Pulse user Chris Loiselle’s blog series

Once you’ve taken the time to develop your MTSS Handbook, you are ready to plan staff training.  There’s an important first step in the training process however — creating buy-in!

Whenever you introduce a new process that will involve additional work, creating staff buy-in prior to training is critical and can easily be ignored or forgotten.  Creating staff buy-in, or acceptance,  will help to accelerate implementation, and also create an opportunity for an improved and welcomed training process.   If you think about your best and worst training experiences you would probably agree that training opportunities that made the greatest impact were those that you resonated with.  Training opportunities where staff are hungry for knowledge typically create the most impact and improvement in your operation.

So how do you create buy-in?  Start by getting staff involved.  If you’ve been following this blog you know that the school we’re observing did this several times – by getting staff input on student needs and supports.  Those conversations create interest and connection to your MTSS model.  Staff begin talking about their findings with others.  This creates a fertile ground for expanding acceptance. 

The school was also taking notes about tools and resources that staff had developed or found to help them support students effectively.  They moved to showcase those tools and resources best-aligned with the MTSS model within the MTSS Handbook.  Each staff member who contributed a tool or resource was given credit for that in the Handbook.  Other staff members were encouraged to use and contribute to the effort.  By getting your first-line staff working directly with students to contribute creates pride and a strong willingness to help implement the model.    A sample of a portion of the MTSS Handbook with links to those resources follow: