If you’re a teacher, you present for a living. Each day requires a new presentation, and all presentations are comprised of 1) content, 2) delivery, and 3) visual design. Teachers: if you don’t acknowledge your job as a public speaker and do things to improve your presentation skills, you should be fired. And if you aren’t presenting well, you certainly better not call yourself a teacher.
My students take my Professional Communication and Presentation class. Unfortunately, then they have to go back to a bullet-riddled world of ineffective PowerPoints. Last week, I received an email from one of my May precious angels. She writes:
Mrs. Rister,
Let me begin by setting the scene:
My teacher speaks about presenting to an investor. He then shows a TED talk about how to present (Rose, 2007).
The TED speaker talks about minimizing words and bullet points as well as using a single photo on a slide. He then proceeds to discourage reading notes and encourages looking at the audience, making the presentation interesting, and so forth.
After the TED Talk, my teacher’s response was: ”Now this guy just told you the right way to present, everything I do not do (attempt at humor). I don’t need to do this because I’m not trying to sell you anything. I’m just teaching you.”
This class sucks. You were right.
Sincerely,
A student trapped in (Name of Class)
