JOYCE LEE on sat 22 oct 05
Chris, I've heard you talk about your work to groups of friends=20
at NCECA .. always found your very informal presentation captivating.
If I wasn't part of the group, I eavesdropped anyway. I've seen your
work on your website and read your how-to description as far as you
took us. I was impressed by your work, enough that I told several
potter friends about it this morning at Saturday coffee. You
obviously know how to organize information for effective presentation.
As an educator who occasionally gave workshops I took my own=20
advice to spend four minutes in preparation for every minute I
planned to spend doing the workshop. When you're talking about a
2 or 3 day workshop, that may sound like overkill........ but it isn't.
AND preparing, of course, can be reviewing your materials, doing
an outline for each day, practicing on a friend or husband (babies
don't count) to see if information is clear ..... and finding an
experienced potter to discover what they get from your demo.
THEN don't simply ask your practice audience what they think.. they
admire you; they'll applaud you for sure...... but have a list of =
specific
questions moving from simplest to more complex that will give you
the feedback you seek. Have somebody willing and available who
will jot down materials you needed when presenting but didn't have.
Don't depend on memory for anything. Have a workshop notebook
and use it.
Many of the above areas represent your own personal strengths....
such as organizing material and keeping a notebook.... be grateful!
But prepare consciously anyway. =20
I've had folks speak of somebody as being "overly prepared." I never
agree with that. If they come off as mechanistic and cold, then they
probably needed to get feedback on that, too, and fix it. For example,
some first-time presenters (and we are talking about first-timers here)
write down every single syllable they're going to utter..... and then =
get
lost and confused when referring to their "notes." I found that IF I =
truly
knew my material, had done my homework, I could then use numbered
index cards with key words that I could check off as I completed those
steps in my demo.
I hope I'm not offending you, Chris, by seeming to assume that you don't
know these simple steps. Of course, you do. But sometimes it's good
to state and/or hear the obvious.
Joyce
In the Mojave desert of California USA
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