A new school and the inevitable fear of public speaking
by noel on Aug 24 2009 (4275 Views)Hello readers!
After 8 months, what seemed like an endless hiatus from school is finally over for me. Like many other schools that run on a semester system, my fall semester officially began as of today. And I'm terrified. Of teaching.
I was assigned to teach an accelerated gen chem course. And I will have about 80 students distributed among 3 sections. The upside is that I don't have to teach lab and make sure kids don't accidentally kill themselves and everyone around them. Downside is... I have to come face to face with my stage fright.
Throughout college, I paid my bills by overcharging wealthy Californian parents for tutoring their kids without shame. One-on-one, I am an excellent teacher. But due to the lack of experience to group teaching, I fear that what can go wrong will go wrong.
And as someone who had just gone through freshman year not too long ago, I feel that we (as TAs) have a moral obligation to perform the best we can to help and mentor these kids. They are not taking this class because they have to. They are all aspired budding science students like we were. Like I was. It'd be unfair to them to give them anything but our best after the hoops they had to jump through and the money their parents paid to support my education.
Anyway, I am terrified. I meet the class on Wednesday. Any suggestions on how to be an effective teacher/public speaker is wholeheartedly appreciated.
Noel
P.S. I had the pleasure of sitting through MANY "don't sleep with your undergrad" lectures in the past two weeks, but what I enjoyed the most is still how to evacuate in the event of a tornado. Hello midwet! Hello corn! I love corn.
I've done some tutoring for people who have way overpaid me before, like you. Almost makes you feel guilty doesn't it? Almost. I've never taught a class, but I did a lot of public speaking when I was in high school (teachers were obsessed with it) and did quite a bit in my brief stint as a poli-sci major.
Some very general things about speaking in front of a ton of people since you seem to be concerned more about stage fright than anything:
Don't be nervous. Are you standing at the front of the room? Are you in control of the multimedia equipment? You have their attention. Take your time.
Don't overuse Powerpoint.
Don't get into the habit of saying "um" or "uh" too much in pauses. Silence is better if you have to think about what you're going to say (an eternity for you is probably only a second for them), and you'll feel more confident when you don't hear yourself looking for what you want to say. It also gives people the illusion you're much smarter than you really are. It works in regular conversation too.
If you haven't figured out how to make eye contact with people in a crowd, focus on just the back row and front rows at first.
Content! If you think about what you're saying as you're saying it, you distract yourself from the stage fright and there's less chance of screwing up what you're saying.
Read this.
Did I mention not to overuse Powerpoint? That's important. Seriously, people hate that in any sort of presenter or instructor. I doubt you'd use it for Gen chem too much, the temptation is higher where you have to show a lot of structures.
You'll do fine. It definitely gets easier the more you do it. I've done the public speaking thing often enough that I can do it cold if I have to, even if I haven't had to in a while.
I'm horrible at public speaking as well. I usually just practice what I'm going to say a couple of times and hope for the best.
trading me earthquakes for tornadoes?
If you are going to appreciate corn, you need to get out in the fields on a regular basis - weekly - and year round. Then you can appreciate the cycles of the seasons, and even how corn differs from soybeans. For instance, once the corn is tall enough and the leaves spread wide enough, they shade the rows making it difficult for weeds to grow (except for the lovely morning glories which on on the ends of the rows). Soy is a short plant, so the weeds need to be tended to, either by hand or chemically.
When you see these things year and year, miles upon mile, you realize the power of nature and how small a role we play in it, just hoping that we can take advantage of it, but realizing that if it doesn't play nice, we can be squished like ants.
That's how I survived 4 years in Urbana, 150 miles of corn downstate of Chicago.
As for teaching: since you are good with one-on-one situations, make the lecture just that. Pick out 1 student and talk to just him/her (i.e., mentally block out everyone else). After 5 minutes of that student, move on to another one if you want. I'd suggest a student in the back of the room so that your voice is loud enough.
Yep, you're terrified now, but like many of my public speaking training students who start out terrified, my bet is you'll find yourself with a new problem in short order, and that is complete and total addiction to the group process of presenting/teaching/training.
Sure, there will be some of the usual difficulties associated with a school teaching environment, but I bet setting that stuff aside, you'll find yourself exhilarated by the process and when the school season ends, you'll be in withdrawals.
I suggest you begin to search for how you'll keep feeding your new addiction once school ends! Volunteer speaking is a good idea... each privately?
I know you don't believe me now, but when you're addicted, don't say I didn't tell you so!
Best,
David Portney