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July 28, 2005 09:57 AM
Top Ten Secrets for a Suc3/27/
1. Know your role.
The focus of a good workshop is building basic understandings, teaching key concepts, and allowing practice of some useful skills. Think of yourself as a workbook, not a textbook. The real genius of most workshops is the ability to take a complex topic and make it understandable and useful rather than to give in-depth "coverage" or to display one's commanding mastery of a topic. In writing, Stephen Jay Gould has done this with science � making difficult concepts understandable to the layperson. Take a good look at the strategies used by the For Dummies series lots of lists, lots of analogies, and an emphasis on the practical.....
You can and should build participants' confidence by being approachable and giving them respect not through overwhelming them with factoids, three-letter acronyms and long, detailed background information. Do not draw attention to small errors that you might make during the workshop �"Gee, I see I made a really stupid spelling error on this slide" or "I guess I forgot to include that in the handouts." Trust me, nobody notices these sorts of things until you point them out. People really do want presenters who know what they are doing - or at least appear to.
2. Limit your topic.
Although it is counterintuitive, your biggest problem will not be finding enough to talk about, but limiting what you will present. You have a topic � now take time to determine the 3-4 key understandings or skills you want people to leave feeling they have down cold. Remember, your goal is to empower, not overpower.
3. Be organized and communicate that organization.
Your key understandings or skills should be your presentation�s organizational road map, each understanding or skill building on the previous one. While it is important that you know where you are going, it is just as critical your participants know this as well. In your talk, slides and handouts, help both you and your participants stay focused. As you move from one understanding or skill to the next, take a moment to review the previous understandings.
4. Set out a problem or possibility then offer a solution or opportunity.
Obviously you think the information and skills you are teaching are important to the participants. Do they know that? Don�t assume so. One masterful way to develop both interest and attention, is to start with a seemingly insolvable problem or terrific opportunity, and then show how your workshop will help folks solve that problem or take advantage of that opportunity.
A short check at the beginning of your talk about the composition of your attendees will help you ingeniously �customize� your workshop on the fly. The examples you use might differ if your group is mostly librarians, mostly technologists, mostly classroom teachers, or mostly administrators � or the level of expertise the group my already have with a technology.
The short check can be as easy as simply asking at the beginning of the talk, �How many of you in here are classroom teachers? Librarians? Etc.? Another good way to get to know your group is by asking an open-ended question about your topic. �What is biggest difficulties your students face in doing good research?� or �Why don�t some students read voluntarily?� or �What problems do you encounter when trying to do digital photography?�
5. Be conversational and have fun.
You do not have to be a powerful orator to be a good workshop presenter. In fact, a formal speaking style will work against you. Instead, envision yourself in your living room visiting with a group of good friends and use the same conversation approach. Build a human connection between you and your group � whether it is five people or 500. Even if you have been given an introduction by a room host, take about three minutes (no longer) to let the participants know you are actually a human being � a brief summary of career, an experience that got you interested in the topic, etc. (Oh, the old advice to picture your audience naked does not work � depending on who is in the front row, you will either be so aroused or grossed out, you won�t be able to concentrate.)
Think about stories you can share that help you make your points clearly and effectively. All great teachers are basically effective storytellers. Not only do the concrete examples create interest and provide experiences to which the participants can relate, stories will build that human connection.
Finally, remember that if you are not having fun, probably nobody else is either. A good laugh, either intentional or unintentional, that comes as a result of either a comment by you or a participant is a very good thing. Humor helps create that vital affective bond between presenter and participant.
6. Good handouts and good slides that compliment rather than duplicate.
In Secret 1, I suggested that you should consider yourself the workbook, not the textbook. This is not to dismiss the fact that attendees may want detailed, complex materials for further study. Your handouts can provide that information through reprinted articles, annotated bibliographies, links to websites, or detailed charts and graphs.
When it comes to complex information, Edward Tufte in his short book, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information 2nd ed. Graphics Press, 2001) makes a great case for using handouts instead of PowerPoint. The other great material for handouts is as a guide to the activities that will be described in the next section.
My thoughts on good PowerPoint use are summed up in an old column Slideshow Safety so I won�t repeat them here. Succinctly, there should be a compelling reason for a slide to exist. It needs to contain a short key point, movie, graphic, discussion question, or activity prompt. Slides should not contain the entire text of your presentation so you can simply read them. I see too many presenters do just that and I just want to dope slap 'em. Less is more.
Do think about this: the visuals on your slides can be highly affective as well as cognitively informative. By association, your believability (and likeability) will increase if you use photographs of happy smiling students or teachers. For that artistic look, run them through a filter in an editing program. (The latest version of PowerPoint allows you to do this within the program itself.) As suggested earlier, a graphic �road map� helps organize your participants.
7. Less talk, more action.
I know without a doubt that I am never bored when I am doing the talking. I can't say the same for the folks in my workshops, so I try to give them every opportunity to do other things than simply listen. I once had a Bureau of Educational Research professional speech coach suggest to me that one never goes for more than 20 minutes without an activity that involves the participants. These activities can be as simple as "Share with your neighbor two ways" or "Jot down one way you might use this idea in your classroom" or "Everyone stand up and repeat after me." The id3/2
Posted by jena on July 28, 2005 at 09:57 AM in Effective Staff Development | Comments (0)
