| title | tags |
|---|---|
Teaching vs Presenting |
Teaching Research Prep |
A teacher makes sure that their students truly understand the information and take action with it.
A teacher is someone who has lesson plans and strides to the front of the class to actively share a lesson with his/her class. He/She doesn’t turn his/her back on the class. Instead pauses as he/she teaches to make sure his/her students are following along, grasping the concepts. Great teachers make learning fun and focus in on details when needed and seem to make difficult subjects palatable.
A teacher would have an outline that detailed everything she wanted to get across and have the highlights of that outline on a handout for everyone. A teacher would systematically go through the outline, stopping along the way to ask questions.
A teacher would demonstrate, ask others with experience to demonstrate and then when done, ask the class to demonstrate what they learned to make sure everyone now knows how to weedeat properly.
A teacher would go over even the simplest of all details and not be afraid to point out the obvious because she realizes details matter.
A teacher would hand out a quiz and grade them.
A teacher would frequently check on her students days, weeks and months later to make sure they are weedeating correctly and praise those who are in front of the whole team.
A presenter just dumps information and doesn’t pay any attention to whether it’s understood or not. Teachers make a difference and change people’s lives. Presenters are often forgettable as they aren’t engaged enough to make that big of an impact.
A presenter is someone who just reads from a piece of paper or just demonstrates, without having a feel for if the audience or the student is actually grasping the concepts. He shares his presentation and walk away, failing to engage the audience by asking questions and to get those present excited about the knowledge or information.
Think about the teachers in your life that you liked the most, think about the ones who helped you improve. Work to be that kind of teacher. Don’t be a presenter who just gets up in front of everyone, dumps a bunch of information and leaves. Be a patient, detail-oriented teacher who gets his students involved and excited about learning. Your team will appreciate your efforts and your profits will improve as a result of some properly equipped teammates.
Tips:
- Have at least two "Ah ha!" moments.
- Keep your slides very minimal.
- Have pictures - they are worth a thousands words.
- Never read off your slides.
- Be funny.
- Tell short stories - it helps people relate to the concepts.
- Keep your code sample short.
YOU are the presentation, not your slides. Think about learning in a classroom. Yes, the way a teacher teaches does make a difference, that's true - we all have our favorite teachers; but, the content that they are teaching is not unique to them. What they teach is freely available and not what makes classroom learning so fantastic. Learning from a teacher and not out of a book on your own is so much better because you can ask questions and get clarification. The value of the teacher is the depth of understanding, the ability to field questions, and the desire to explore problems on the fly. The value of the presentation is purely in the information.