Nervous No More

Delivering an Oral Report in Class

    Many students shun the idea of presenting or delivering an oral report in class. I also did when I was still a college student. However, now that I have discovered an effective way of doing it, I am the one encouraging my students to report in front of the class. Reporting in class provides a unique opportunity for personal development such as: practice of speaking in English; facing and convincing an audience; and overcoming fright, to name a few.
    The key to giving effective and memorable reports in class is preparation. A student-reporter who is well-prepared can face any audience with his or her message.

Preparation

    You need to prepare physically, mentally and even emotionally and spiritually. For first-time reporters, be assured that it will be easier than you think. This is especially true in cases of reporting in class because your audience will be a group of people not stranger to you. For sure, you have friends among, or at least know some of, them if not yet all of them so you need not fear your audience. They are in the same boat with you so to speak. Be ready preferably at least 24 hours before the time of your report.
    The most important aspect of the report that you need to be ready about is the topic that you will be presenting. To have a really effective report, you should choose a topic that is close to your heart. If you have no control of the choice of topic, make the topic assigned to you close to your heart. Then gather as much information about the topic as you need to convince yourself of its merits: its importance or relevance to you (and hence to your audience); why your audience must lend you their time to listen to what you have to say. Exhaust every source of material available to you. Ask experts on the topic, including your instructor and/or adviser, for matters that need clarification in your report. Clarify any aspect of the topic that you still have some doubts about until all aspects of the topic are clear. At this point, you would have been already a believer of the topic you’ll deliver. In other words, you now have some form of ownership of the topic. That’s what will make the delivery as easy as sharing yourself in a conversation with a friend, your audience is simply greater in number.
    When you “own” the topic, you can think of the delivery as simply thinking aloud for “out of the abundance of the heart (mind) the mouth speaks” [Matthew 12:34]. When you are convinced of the importance of your topic, rest assured that you will find words to say what you mean even though you are already in front of the class. When you know your topic well enough, you can make yourself clear in front of anybody. You know you have an important message to tell and that awareness is enough for you to find words to say until you see in the eyes of your audience that they got your message.
When the topic is already clear to you, then you need to organize… write down the main points you want to bring so as to present the ideas in a story flow that will convince your audience just as you are already convinced. Aside from the main ideas or body of your report, select a beginning point or introduction to get your audience’s attention and more importantly the ending point or concluding part - the ideas you want your audience to remember. Let these be very clear in your mind beforehand. With these, you have an organized report. If you feel you still need to use notes, try small index cards as prompts during you’re your delivery. Write the salient points (use large letters) of your report in such cards for you to refer from during your presentation.
    You will also need to be ready with the materials needed during the presentation proper. Consider a summary of the main points of your report on a transparency (or equivalent) as minimum visual aid requirement plus necessary illustrations. When using slides, a maximum of only 8 lines per slide is good practice. Use visual effects to a minimum: just enough to add interest to the presentation but not too much as to divert the attention from the topic towards the visual effects. Feel free to include in your report whatever you think will enhance your presentation such as video clippings, posters, etc.
    And spend time in prayer for God’s guidance and providence.
On the day of the report, be also physically ready. Be presentable preferably in formal attire.

Reporting / Delivery/Presentation
    Ask somebody to introduce you, assuming that your audience does not know you yet. Including some aspects of your life or personality relevant to the topic can help set the tone for your delivery.
After your name is called, walk eagerly in front of your audience. SMILE! Greet them, then pause a little to get their full attention. Establish rapport with your audience by looking at their eyes. If you are feeling nervous (which by the way is normal), choose to look first in the eyes of friends but you should not look away from your audience. Then share what is in your heart about the topic. Stand in proper posture and speak boldly without hesitation. Remember, you have an important message to deliver them, a message that you yourself believe in. Be forthright and factual. Be sincere. Be sure to talk to the whole group by looking at everyone though you may prefer to look longer to your “friends” in the audience. Speak confidently from your heart and appropriate gestures will follow naturally (just like when you are telling a story).
    Choose what is close to your heart among the various ways of delivering report and then proceed. Vary your speaking speed and tone as to what you are saying. These are valuable tools for maintaining audience attention and for emphasizing major points of your topic. Avoid verbal mannerisms. Focus on your message! When you keep in mind that your audience needs to receive your message, you will forget yourself and your nervousness will disappear. Discern the reaction of your audience especially through their facial expressions. If they seem confused or even uninterested, make them understand… A good way of fostering understanding of the topic is to be able to site local examples or applications of it. Bear in mind that what is important is your message, and your audience’s need to understand it.
Be sure to speak only with the time allotted to you (your ability to speak within time limit is also indicative of your mastery of the topic.) Thank your audience after your delivery. Also, ask them if there is any aspect of the presentation that you need to clarify: answer questions honestly.
After your report, ask your instructor as well as others from the audience who are willing to give honest feedback to give you an evaluation of your oral report, with suggestions for your improvement.

Continuous Improvement / Readiness
    Oprah Winfrey said, “Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.” So start trekking your road for improvement immediately. Be on the look out for matters of personal interest and make data gathering a daily habit. Grab the next opportunity to speak again in front of an audience. As in any skill, speaking in public in enhanced through practice. You’ll be glad you did! You can never tell how such an exposure will help you sooner or later, perhaps in you job or visa application interview …

And don't forget that the key to it all is to "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

~ Sir Magi

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Suggested Reading:
McFarland, Kenneth, Eloquence in Public Speaking Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1984

Learning is an Initiative

Learning Imperative

(Handout for my Students)

They who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

- Isaiah 40:31

The past is not so silent...
This is written in the hope of fostering an atmosphere conducive to learning, pleasant interaction and better understanding among us with the goal of personal betterment for us all. I believe that students take formal education in a university because of a purpose, a goal. You want to achieve and be successful at something! You want a better future for yourself and your loved ones. In light of such hope, it is my desire to help you in achieving your goals. And mind you, you are already endowed with the necessary faculty to achieve your goals. Yes, everyone does! History is a silent witness to the truth that for a human being, the future need not be a continuation of an undesirable past. Their past did not prevent Steve Jobs from making Apple computers; Ramon Magsaysay from becoming president of the Philippines; and, Abraham Lincoln from becoming president of the USA. The pioneering board topnotchers from Pablo Borbon Memorial Institute of Technology (now BSU) believed they could and they did.
How? By using the magnificent birth-gifts [1] all human beings have been given. Yes, all humanity is created equal: with the same gifts! The first of this is the freedom of choice. We have the freedom to choose our response to whatever happens to us and around us; response-ability. This power of choice means that we are not merely products of our past genes nor of how others treat us. They unquestionably influence us, but they do not determine us. We are self-determining through our choices.
Through the years you may have been convinced that you cannot do any better anymore. That is simply untrue! You can become a lot better when you exercise your freedom of choice. Your power to choose the direction of your life allows you to reinvent yourself, to change your future, and to powerfully influence the rest of creation. It is the one gift that enables us to elevate our life to higher levels. Many others have done just that.
As a college student [2], Louis Pasteur was called mediocre by his professors. But by age 26, he had completed a doctorate degree. He went on develop the anthrax “vaccine” and the “pasteurization” technique.
When Wilma Rudolph was 4 years old, her left leg was paralyzed. She later said, “the doctors told me I would never walk, but my mother told me I would, so I believed my mother.” Wilma’s mother made countless sacrifices to get Wilma the medical treatment she needed and in the 1960 Olympics, Wilma set a world record in the 200-meter run. She was later heralded as the fastest woman in history.
So, what do we use this freedom of choice for? As David Starr Jordan said, “There is no real excellence in all this world which can be separated from right living” we first need to choose to be in harmony with principles and natural laws, another of the birth-gifts. No matter what others say, the natural law is, “A man reaps what he sows” [3]. We need to plant before we can harvest. We need to study in order to learn, a passing grade comes as a give-away of learning.

Learning begins with us...

Every human being is endowed with the ability to learn. As Issler and Habermas (1994) put it, “God has made us creatures of curiosity. We all have a strong, built-in desire to learn… Motivation to learn is an inherent characteristic of being human. Like any other, it must be developed to its fullest capacity." All of us are endowed with the necessary faculties for thinking and understanding. And it is my sincere desire to help you discover, develop and enhance that ability. Limited and imperfect as I am, I believe that I can help you if you will let me, if you will help me help you. Thus, my teaching approach involves leading you in a journey towards training your minds to think critically and logically: be it reading a book or analyzing problems, as Socrates said, “I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.“ It is my aspiration that you begin taking for yourself the responsibility for what you want to learn and how you will learn, and reap its fruits in the process. This choice is your opportunity.
Confident learning begins with knowing yourself: your limitations and capabilities. Being sure of this, you should be confident that you can do those that are within your capabilities. Likewise, you can learn – at least one at a time – those that are still outside your capabilities. That is the essence of learning: adding to your storehouse of knowledge, skills and competencies.
You will learn through this process if you want to, if you will choose to. Overcoming the pull of the past - especially those that are already unwanted habits - is, as Covey said, “in large part a matter of having clear identity and strong purpose; of knowing who you are and what you want to accomplish. Poor performance can often be attributed to poor prioritization and organization. Weak resolve is easily uprooted by emotion, mood and circumstance” (emphasis, mine).
Learning appears to be a receiving but quite the contrary, it is much a function giving: of how much the student/learner gives, following the natural law. It is largely a personal quest beginning with a desire to learn. When the strong desire for learning is there, it will often be just a matter of time ‘coz “if there is a will there is a way.” I expressed this in the equation:

Learning =  Student’s input x (1 + others’ input) - some loss

Following this, my approach is “you study, then we discuss”. In this, you need to research and study all information relevant to the topics-at-hand. You are expected to read with comprehension and to try to understand what you read, to consult a dictionary if needed. In class, we just discuss the main points that need to be clarified as well as your queries on any aspect of the topics that you may not yet understand. So, class hours are opportunities for you to verify how you understood the topics that you studied: by listening to the discussion and asking questions whenever you have difficulty with any topic, either in class or one-on-one with me. Covey puts it nicely by saying, “If you don’t let a teacher know at what level you are by asking a question, or revealing your ignorance, you will not learn or grow. You cannot pretend for long, for you will eventually be found out. Admission of ignorance is often the first step in our education.” Though this approach entails some difficulties for you and for me, this is a good means of developing your confidence that provides a learning experience for all of us. Getting to know the information you need is usually a matter of asking the right questions.

the personal touch...

For purposes of my subjects, research simply means finding answers to your questions. This is done primarily by data gathering from references and/or experts. When you think you have found the answer(s) to your queries, you must try to understand them, be able to restate your findings in your own words and to explain them to others. One of the best ways to verify how you understood a topic is to try applying what you have learned. Only then can you say that your research is done.
It is important to do your own research within the allotted time. Do not limit your resource materials to a few books or solely the internet. Ask the experts in the field, watch informative broadcasts, etc. Discuss with your classmates what you are finding out. That is very effective! Much of what I learned when I was in college came from trying to answer the questions of my classmates. They provided me with the questions that turned out to be needed for exploring the topics-at-hand, I did all I could to answer their questions and we all learned in the process. But don’t be hard on yourself for the things you don’t know yet for as Jon Holt said, the” true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do”
Yes, real learning requires discipline, the ability to keep promises and to honor commitments to yourself first and then to others. You need first to set a personal goal and then work to achieve that goal. You need first to choose to learn.
And take note that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…” [4].
As Lao Tze said, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step” let’s begin and enjoy our learning journey!

References:
1. Stephen R. Covey, in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Fireside, New York, New York, 1989 and Principle Centered Leadership Fireside, New York, New York, 1991
2. You Can Be a World Changer Lighthouse Inspirational Books & Gifts, Manila, Philippines, 2004
3. Galatians 6:7 (New International Version)
4. Proverbs 9:10 (English Standard Version)
5. Issler, Klaus, & Habermas, Ronald How e Learn: A Christian Teacher’s Guide to Educational Psychology Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1994

Learning Practice in the Classroom
I am aware that you may also be busy with other matters but we all are. It is estimated that students remember 10% of what is heard, 50% of what is seen, 70% of what they say, and 90% of what they do [1]. As Helen Keller said, “I am only one, and yet I am one. I cannot do everything and yet I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.” The following are intended as avenues for your practice of goal-setting, discipline and learning in my classes. These are also meant as extra sources of your grade for the subject if you will be diligent in doing them. But neglect of these requirements may also pull down your grade.
o Use a subject notebook. Write down chronologically all activities that you do for one particular subject in a notebook, be it research, interview, seatwork, solving problems, discussion with a classmate, etc. Include also your own personal comments or remarks about what you did, such as what you learned from it. Write name of the reference book for research entry. The name of the interviewee and the topics discussed must be written for interview and discussion entries. Identify the problems solved as Prob.No./Page No. Always bring your notebook to class for checking by your instructor. Your starting entries for each day of class must be your answer to: aided with the paradigm ___________________, my goals for this subject today are _______________ so I prepared for our class today by ________________.
o Many students shun the idea of preparing and submitting academic requirements not realizing that their outputs substantiate their claims. As Charlize Theron said, “There is only so much you can do, but if somebody doesn’t give you a chance there is nothing you can do.” In my classes, written reports serve as a student's presentation to me, just like any report you will make for your future employer or client. All of your works are expected to be neat and clean.
o Write using your own words. It is expected that your choice of words will be different from your classmates’. Thus, reports with similar composition or choice of words will have comparatively lower grades. Statements copied word for word from references must be enclosed in quotation marks adequately citing the author within the report or at least in a footnote.
o It is helpful to organize first your thoughts and ideas before starting to write your report. Prepare a draft of your report. Have a couple of introductory statements to begin your report. End with the concluding statement, or the essence of, your entire write-up. You can then write your final report to include the most important things you want to say within the allotted number of pages. Reports in my classes must have at least 3 paragraphs: (a) introduction; (b) main body; and (c) concluding paragraph.
Some students find these too taxing but then again Mark Twain said, “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So… sail away from the safe harbor. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Covey also emphasized what learning is all about when he said, “To know and not do is really not to know. To learn and not do is not to learn.”

~ Sir Magi

 (c.magi@yahoo.com)

References:
1. Issler, Klaus, & Habermas, Ronald How e Learn: A Christian Teacher’s Guide to Educational Psychology Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1994
2. Covey, Stephen R. Principle Centered Leadership Fireside, New York, New York, 1991
3. Covey, Stephen R. The 8th Habit Free Press, New York, New York, 2004
4. You Can Be a World Changer Lighthouse Inspirational Books & Gifts, Manila, Philippines, 2004

If this is worthwhile or helpful to you, leave a comment & tell others…