Over the last month, we have published 2 blogs speaking about student orientation. The 4 Purposes of Student Orientation and What Should be Included in a New Student Orientation program.

I talked about how, for compliance reasons, we must provide the student a ton of information on or before the first day of school. Educators see this and think “how boring!”.  I question which side should win?  The compliance side or the fun side?  And my answer is… both!  We have to deliver the content.  There is just no way around it.  What we have to consider is HOW we deliver the information.

You have to get outside of your box, move away from the traditional lecture and start to think, how can I make all of this content interactive?

Yes, you do have to “lecture” at some point simply to share all of the information, but how you share it isn’t set in stone.  Ask yourself, how can I deliver orientation making it more fun and interactive? 

Here are 10 ideas for you to try out.

1. Engaging PowerPoint. At a minimum drop the content into a PowerPoint or Prezi and walk the students through the information. I stress walk them through, don’t read to them.  Talk to them about the content and discuss why it’s a policy and what it means for them.Now when I say create a PowerPoint, I’m not talking about death by PowerPoint – you know the PowerPoint that has tons of words and very little color.  Use images, use keywords, make it colorful.  There is a Rule of PowerPoint called 10 20 30.  This means that a PowerPoint presentation should have 10 slides, last no more than 20 minutes and contain no font smaller than 30 point.

2. Bite-Size Segments. You probably just thought… I have way more than 20 minutes of content to deliver.  Yes, I get it.  What you have to do is divide up the content into short segments.  This generation of students like short snackable bits of information.  Share some content, stop and do an activity.  Share some more content and play a game.  Make the content bite-sized.
3. Create a Video. Consider taking some of the dryer content such as your Rules of Conduct and make a fun video.  Get your current students on board with them and have them help you.  It could be something where you have one student share one of the Rules of Conduct and then have them explain why it is important to follow that rule.  Make it funny, make it silly, put some music behind it.  Take a look at videos students love to watch and get ideas. The content is serious, but the delivery doesn’t have to be.
4. Enlist Current Students to Help. Speaking of having current students help with videos, have them help with new student orientation.  Have them come in and talk to your new students about a variety of topics.  Help explain school rules, the curriculum schedule, dress code and so on.  Perhaps have a panel of current students that sit in and allow new students to ask them questions like a press conference.
5. Give Prizes. When reviewing the content encourage the new students to engage and when they do, toss them a fun little prize.  Something as simple as a piece of candy, hair clip, styling comb, nail file and more.
6. Create a Scavenger Hunt. Instead of telling the students all about the school facility or even doing a tour of the building, turn it into a scavenger hunt.  Put them in teams and give them a list of things they must find such as the break room, the smoking area, the stockroom, and even Ms. Smith, the student salon educator.  Give them a time frame and tell them they must take a picture of the item, space, or person.  Then have each group share their pictures with the rest of the students.  Give prizes out to the team that found the most, the one that was the fastest and even the one with the most creative picture.
7. Incorporate Icebreakers. Make sure to incorporate icebreakers where the new students meet each other.  Encourage all of the school staff to come in and participates in this activity. If the new students are joining other students in training, get them involved as well.  Again, have some fun with this.  Play a game like 2 Truth and a Lie to find out interesting things about each other.
8. Party Environment. Make it into a festive atmosphere with welcome signs, balloons, noisemakers, and even donuts or cupcakes.  Get some sparkling cider and dollar store champagne glasses and toast to the student’s new endeavor.
9. Identify Learner Types. Take some time to find out what type of learner the new students are.  Do a simple test to identify if they learn best through listening, watching, or doing, then be sure to share that with all of the educators.
10. Keep in mind that students are really excited to start school, because they are excited to do the technical work.  But the first day can be discouraging because it is all talk talk talk.  There is no reason why you can’t allow them to have some technical fun during orientation.  For your cosmetology students give them a long hair manikin head and let them play.  Give them 20 minutes to create an updo.  No cutting, no coloring, no chemicals, just style.  See what they can do.

One bonus idea:

You could even do something as simple as playing your favorite industry related movie.  Make some popcorn, get some sodas, and watch the movie together.

If you don’t have time for a full movie, consider playing a few clips from different movies.  Such as:

• Beautician and the Beast – the fire scene
• Grease – Beauty School Dropout
• Congeniality – the scene where they do her makeover
• Steel Magnolias – any one of the salon scenes show the relationships that we build with our customers.

Just a quick disclaimer, always watch the videos first and make sure the language is appropriate for your school.  We are a professional establishment.

If you are sitting there thinking I could never pull that off, perhaps you are not the one who should be delivering the orientation.  But I guarantee you, there is someone on your campus that would love to have some fun with this concept.

You want to let students know exactly what we expect of them.  We must identify the behavior that we want to form with our students.  If we don’t set expectations, and then let them know what our expectations are, we should never be surprised when they don’t live up to what we expect.

Remember, orientation is more than just telling them about school rules and regulations. You want to introduce your students to the culture of your school.

Too often we feel we don’t have the time to do this.  In reality, you don’t have the time not to!

What have you done to make your new student orientations fun?