While reading this week's pages in "Presentation Zen", I found it very interesting that Garr suggests to "Never go over." He says that if you have 20 minutes, use 18 or 19; if you have an hour, use 55 minutes. Leave them hungry for more. This might work in a professional/business setting but I'm going to just throw this out there....if I use only 18 of my 20 minutes or 55 minutes of my hour, I don't think, no matter how engaging or cool my presentation is, that my students will be begging for more. I think it might work if I'm presenting at a conference or an inservice showing faculty cool tech tools/sites/applications but I'll bet it doesn't work the same way with 14-18 year olds. :)
Another point that Garr makes is "Make a connection with your audience" and he suggests that when presenting that you don't use a podium. During my first year of teaching I found great comfort in my podium but haven't used it since then. I love being able to walk around my classroom when I'm presenting. I think by moving around I stay more enthusiastic while I'm presenting; if my body stays too idle, I feel like my energy & enthusiasm starts to become idle as well. Another point that Garr makes is to not turn the lights off; if the audience can't see you they can't make a connection with you. I never turn off all of the lights in my room but I do turn off the first row of lights so the audience can see the slides easier.
Garr also mentions "Kaizen" meaning continuous improvement. He says that very tiny improvements are important. I think that is the only way I can look at my presentations at the moment. It isn't realistic to think I'll be able to redo all of my presentations to be more Zen-like but if I make tiny improvements to each one and set a goal (like do 1 section in each presentation each time I use it), then I'll be able to get them all done in a fairly short amount of time.
When showing my redone presentation that we did for class a few weeks ago to a co-worker, she made a comment that I found to be very interesting. She said she really liked my presentation but didn't think it would be effective to make all presentations in that fashion because if all presentations were "Zen" then it wouldn't be anything "special". I can see what she means but what do you think? If all are Zen-like, do you think it will keep them more engaged or do you think presentations should be Zen-like here and there so it is like a "treat" to them. ??? Hmmmmmm...???
Becky,
ReplyDeleteI love reading your blogs, in that, some remind me of different things that have gone through my mind at times. For instance, the Zen idea of "Never going over" reminds me of the use of negative space in a slide. The audience needs time to process and be imaginative, to allow time and space to connect ideas to knowledge already acquired. I hope that makes sense. Also, a good entertainer always leaves the audience wanting more. I must admit, too often I am using too much time and space, bombarding my students with info and leaving little time for them to process, digest and make a connection.
As far as the "little" continuous improvements are concerned, I feel I will be a pretty good teacher by the time I am ready to retire. Until then, I must force myself to edit and tweak!
Your blogs are always so insightful! I couldn't agree more with what you said about "Making a Connection with your Audience". After I read that, I found myself watching the speakers at our Veterans Program last Tuesday. The speaker who stayed out in front of the podium and moved around while he spoke seemed much more personable than the one who stayed behind the podium. The elementary kids also paid a lot better attention to the speaker who did not use the podium.
ReplyDeleteI, too, leave some of my lights on, but turn off the front row in my room when I use my SMARTBoard every day. I agree that the lights need to be on to make a connection, but the kids complain that they can't see the SMARTBoard if I don't turn off the front row of lights.
Nice blog, Becky! You've made me reflect on some of the points that Garr made in Presentation Zen that I hadn't thought about - like continual movement (I have to admit - sometimes I hide behind my podium - I think it's a security thing!). In response to your colleague's comment, I think the main reason to "Zen" your presentation is that you aren't depending on the slides to give the information - that YOU are the source of information. That's pretty radical thinking for some people. It's much easier to read the slides than to ad lib your presentation with only notes to depend on. Perhaps that's what she was referring to!
ReplyDeleteHey Becky, great comments about the age factor when Garr speaks about the time issue. I agree that we have to consider our audience when it comes to timing issues, but when I present at our teacher's convention in October, it is awesome to be able to tell the audience that the presentation will be over early. What a sigh of relief for them and as long as I keep to my topic and agenda, what a gift for me as well.
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