(Untitled)

[bohemond]

When I first began giving lectures as a graduate student, I was firmly convinced that I made a better instructor than most, if not all, of my professors.  They may have a better grasp of the scope of the material, but I felt my skill as a presenter surpassed theirs.  In my arrogance, I managed to miss, almost completely, the challenging part of

Comments

[apollinax]

It was great to see you and to hear your talk.

[greymalkin42]

It was wonderful seeing you! I'm sorry I missed your lecture, but I'm positive it was great. I am looking forward to seeing you again in August!

I never really thought about the differences between grad student and professorial lecturing demands, but that makes total sense. I would expect that the grind will get easier as you build up your repertoire of solid lecture scripts, where most of the info and flow is the way you like them and then you can have more time and energy for refining and playing with them, adapting them to each new class. I suspect you'll enjoy that quite a bit.

[bohemond]

I always want to learn/teach something new, so that may be hard to say. Still, I always end up feeling that, if I had time, I would orientate my fixes towards content revisions rather than presentation/style. As for hearing me talk at some point in the future, I will just have to get another gig in the bay area.

[matt_rah]

He's aliiiiiiiiiiiive!

Very interesting post. To me, as someone interested in and involved in secondary education, lecture is not something I've been encouraged to think much about. The current vogue is basically, don't ever lecture more than 10 minutes in a period. Which I agree with actually, and I think I'm more effective at designing activities and organizing classes than I am at lecturing, even though I'm a good public speaker. But maybe that's just the groupthink brainwashing me.

Your post definitely reminded me that there are some forums where lecture is really the only viable method of presenting the material.

Matt

[bohemond]

For better or for worse my teaching style is, in many ways, ridiculously old fashioned. My best hope is that, in not moving, pedagogy will eventually come full circle and return to me.

[matt_rah]

I definitely wasn't intending to be critical of your efforts. While I think college students could in general benefit from less lecture, as I said there are definitely some formats where it's really all you can do, in which case it's very important to be the best lecturer you can.

Teaching is also incredibly ideosyncratic, which is something the bigwig Ed Theory people don't often seem to grok.

Matt

[kikibear14]

Congrats on the fantastic lecture! I'm glad to hear it went well...I'm not surprised in the least- you're such a great public speaker! I'm totally jealous- I get up in front of group of people and usually start stuttering...(old habit from childhood- most unfortunate)--so I am in awe of anyone that can hold their own up there...
I have to say- I disagree with your friend matt_rah...about only lecturing for 10 minutes at a time...especially as an older student--even now-- I still LOVE to sit and listen and take a BAJILLION notes while a knowledgable speaker talks about the topic at hand...I prefer it over group activities and student presentations...maybe that's just my personal learning style. I'm an aural learner- so I can sit and listen to people talk about interesting stuff for hours on end- I love it actually...as long as they're not monotone...ugh- that's brutal.

SO KEEP TALKING!

Give love to your lady for me- I imagine I'll be seeing you both on Friday..:)