During class, you'll want to let folks take breaks (the attention span only last so long). Use your first break as a test to see how the class will respond to future breaks. For example, give them a 10-minute break, while putting a timer on the board. Pro-tip: use Google. Based on how quick people come back from this first break, use that information in future breaks. If they come back early, keep giving a 10-minute break. If they come back late, make the next one 5 minutes.
Additionally, to help manage your time, make sure to stay on topic. Tangents are ok once in a while, but too much and not only are you starting to lose time, but it becomes distracting to your audience - they are now trying to learn about more than one topic at once.
In the beginning of class, let everyone know where the following exists:
- Bathrooms
- Food
- Emergency exits/plans
- Parking lot (described below)
Just ask @hollenberry - he had a fire drill on the last day of one of his trainings!
To help your audience remain on topic, set up a parking lot before class starts. This helps them to know when they bring something up that's off-topic (maybe for now), that:
- You've heard them
- It won't be forgotten about
- It will be processed by the end of class
As one of the last actions you do (for a multi-day class do this daily), "process" the parking lot. Go through with the class and read through to do a check with them if this still needs to be addressed, if it was addressed, and if it still needs to be, how you will get it addressed (either on the spot or follow up). Pro-tip: doing this daily will encourage people to utilize it more because they see it's not just there to gather dust. Also, some crowds will need some help in utilizing this. Sometimes you need to add stick notes for them initially. As class goes on you can start guiding them to make a sticky and put it up there (which helps keep your flow going).
At various times across any course, no matter the topic or audience, you're going to have signs of distraction. Participants might be checking their phone more, having the typical deer in headlights look, etc. There are various things you can do to attempt to get them back on track with you:
- Move around the room - physically move more while you're talking
- Ask more questions - Ask people what they might expect to see after you run this command
- Switch talkers - instead of you talking, ask some off-topic question to a particular person and get them talking
- Switch modes - have them break into pairs or trios and do a short exercise or discuss a particular topic and come back to the rest of the group with a summary in 5 minutes
- Off topic deliberately - announce that your going to go off-topic and explore something that's not typically covered for a moment