You don't just whip out a PowerPoint presentation when you don't have to. Really.
Today I arrived at my career counseling class, psyched that I would blow away my "3 minute informal talk about someone who inspires you" speech with my wit, charm, and glossed lips. Until.
The first student gets up with a freakin' fifteen minute PowerPoint presentation, with tons of pictures and energetic segways into her points. AND THE PROFESSOR LOVED IT!
What the heck? Informal? Three-to-four minutes? How does that translate to fifteen minutes and twenty slides of graphs, photos and heart warming quotes?
So, I wait, hoping for a fellow student to have my back and get up there and wing it with a three minute speech about their father. Nope.
The next five freakin' students had PowerPoint and obviously had given it tons of preparation. The only student who did what was assigned told the story of his best friend who was some Olympic gymnast. Great. He took 3 mintues, but showed a youtube video of his best friend nailing the bars and winning the bronze in Beijing.
I started to sweat. How could this be happening to me? I am the best damn public speaker in this class. THIS WAS MY TIME TO SHINE!
But no. Less impressive speakers kicked butt with their stupid presentations. Don't they know it's more difficult to get one's point across in 3 minutes, and that's the challenge!
Fortunately, half the class took their fifteen minutes of fame, and now I have until next week to produce a youtube video or flowery presentation.
This brings me to the subject of my blog: THERE ARE RULES.
It's unspoken, but you don't just go above and beyond on an easy class assignment, because then everyone will be graded accordingly.
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4 comments:
I TOTALLY agree. You know my whole "secret rules" thing, so I am feeling you on this one. And I'm sure that power point or no, you and your shiny lips will knock all their socks off. No hiding behind power points, overachievers!
Hey Katie: Props on the new blog! This is fun!
This particular post reminds me of my college Calc class. The professor always assigned either odd or even numbered problems for homework. Then at the beginning of each class, he set aside 15 minutes to answer questions. One girl (who wore pigtail braids and ribbons on more than one occasion) never failed to ask questions about the problems that were not assigned. I found that beyond annoying...in fact, I still do. It's pretty bad to suck up to the teacher AND waste every other student's time in the process. Argh.
Why not some pyrotechics and fog machines? Maybe a musical dance number?
Sheesh! Can't they follow directions?
For the record, I am not the kind of teacher who will set a new, higher standard because some brown-noser comes in with the razzle-dazzle. Promise. I always have a rubric and whoever meets the criteria, however informal or low-key, wins points.
Excellent #1 rule.
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