My student rushes into class flustered, says she's nervous about doing her presentation and It's not as good as the ones you do and I want to give her a big hug and say Oh sweetheart--I've been doing this since before you were born, but instead I help her get her file set up and I sit down and listen as she does her best not to collapse in sheer terror in front of the class.
And it's true--I've been doing presentations since overhead projectors were considered cutting-edge technology; I've juggled slippery transparencies and notes while trying not to knock the lens out of focus and I rejoiced when digital technology made the overhead projector obsolete. I've never claimed to be a master of PowerPoint but I've been honing my skills for a long time and I'm generally pleased with the results. I've seen talented students create slides that looked far more polished than anything I could hope to produce, but even the less flashy presentations are generally competent enough. I try to hold high expectations for student work, but I hope I'm not making students feel as if they'll never measure up.
Last week I watched a student presentation that made me marvel: the background looked clean and original, and the information was clustered to make the relationships between ideas especially clear. Two words were spelled wrong, but these students had designed something far beyond my skill-set. I expect to see more of this kind of excellence as my tech skills stagnate while students keep exploring new methods and programs.
I give a loud hurrah to students whose presentation skills surpass mine, but that doesn't mean I expect every student to excel in that way. They're students! They're still learning! If they do their best to fulfill the requirements of the assignment, conveying helpful information clearly, then they'll be fine. And if oral presentations really aren't their strong suit, then they'll just have to grit their teeth and survive to move on to more comfortable territory.
Everybody is good at something, but if the something they're good at isn't on display in my classroom, then I may never know what skills my students possess that I could never hope to equal. So when my student said I know it's not as good as what you do, I was reminded that I get to get up in front of people and do what I'm good at every single day--and I can only hope that my students will reach a point when they will get to do the same.
3 comments:
This was just a delightful post to read today!
As an undergrad, I doubt I ever spoke once in any class. Not if I didn't have to, for sure. I was terrified.
And then I had to, and had to speak in front of people in Spanish, and most were incredibly kind to me despite my poor Spanish, and at some point, I realized that at least in English I can usually get out a reasonable sentence. And that was that.
Practice!
(I still was scared to play violin for my teacher at my lessons, though!)
Thanks! I was horrible at speaking up in class as a kid too, but standing in front of a group with a prepared presentation is a whole different experience. I'm impressed with how comfortable most of my students are with the task.
I've done a few things with our music students, and they are just so self-possessed doing presentations or whatever. It's super impressive.
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