A Skype with Dr. Cindy Becker!
As part of our Professional Skype series, our Year 8 Core Group recently Skyped with Dr. Cindy Becker, Associate Professor within the Department of English Literature at the University of Reading. Dr. Becker is also an author of books on presentation skills aimed at university students.
I asked her if she'd be interested in speaking to a much younger audience as our Year 8 Core Group are currently working on their research projects and will be presenting them to the class after the Christmas holidays.
It was an amazing Skype lesson and we took away tons of great advice on presenting from Dr. Becker. These tips included:
Smiling when beginning a presentation to show confidence and to put your audience at ease.
Breathing techniques to reduce nerves.
Rehearsing at least six times to calm nerves and to avoid using words like "basically" and "like".
Using little to no text on your presentation slides. Relying heavily on images and using your notes to explain your topic.
Showing enthusiasm which will become infectious. If you are not interested in your topic then your audience certainly won't be.
Not worrying about making eye contact with everyone, focus on a few points around the room (without staring!).
Avoiding plagiarism and respecting copyright.
And much more.
We had some amazing questions from our students and Dr. Becker is clearly an expert in her field. A great experience that I know will translate to their presentations in January!
I asked her if she'd be interested in speaking to a much younger audience as our Year 8 Core Group are currently working on their research projects and will be presenting them to the class after the Christmas holidays.
It was an amazing Skype lesson and we took away tons of great advice on presenting from Dr. Becker. These tips included:
Smiling when beginning a presentation to show confidence and to put your audience at ease.
Breathing techniques to reduce nerves.
Rehearsing at least six times to calm nerves and to avoid using words like "basically" and "like".
Using little to no text on your presentation slides. Relying heavily on images and using your notes to explain your topic.
Showing enthusiasm which will become infectious. If you are not interested in your topic then your audience certainly won't be.
Not worrying about making eye contact with everyone, focus on a few points around the room (without staring!).
Avoiding plagiarism and respecting copyright.
And much more.
We had some amazing questions from our students and Dr. Becker is clearly an expert in her field. A great experience that I know will translate to their presentations in January!
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