{"id":570,"date":"2013-04-09T06:34:15","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T13:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/3.209.169.194\/blogs\/erin\/?p=570"},"modified":"2018-12-14T09:11:09","modified_gmt":"2018-12-14T17:11:09","slug":"t-sql-tuesday-41-presenting-and-loving-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/erin\/t-sql-tuesday-41-presenting-and-loving-it\/","title":{"rendered":"T-SQL Tuesday #41: Presenting and Loving It"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been on a TSQL Tuesday hiatus, which was completely unintentional.\u00a0 When I read Bob Pusateri\u2019s topic<\/a> for this month I knew I had to end my sabbatical and get back in the swing of these posts.\u00a0 Bob\u2019s question was, \u201cHow did you come to love presenting?\u201d\u00a0 Oh Bob\u2026how much time do you have?\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

It goes back to graduate school.\u00a0 I\u2019ve blogged before<\/a> about my mentor, Susan Brown<\/a>, and in my original homage I mentioned that I would not be the speaker that I am today, were it not for her.\u00a0 And I said that then, and still believe it now, because she found and created opportunities for me to speak publicly, and she provided feedback and encouragement \u2013 two things absolutely vital for any speaker to improve and succeed.<\/p>\n

During my first year of graduate school the School of Kinesiology<\/a> held a research day, designed to bring the entire department together to showcase our research efforts.\u00a0 It\u2019s very easy to have no idea what other researchers are doing not just within the University, but even within a small department like Kinesiology.\u00a0 The idea was to explain our research, what we\u2019d learned, and share ideas. \u00a0I gave a 10 minute session on the research we were doing with botulinum toxin (yes, Botox before it was cool for cosmetic reasons) and its effects on upper limb function in children with spasticity.\u00a0 I was terrified.\u00a0 I had spoken in front of groups before – I took a Communications (read: public speaking) class my junior year, I was a leader in my sorority (yes, you read that right) and spoke often, and I had done campus tours during my senior year (Bob has a great story<\/a> about tours in his post).\u00a0 But speaking to hundreds of people, who were my peers and professors?\u00a0 That was a whole new ballgame.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t remember how many slides I created, at least 10, before Susan told me that she typically used one slide for each 10 minutes of a talk.\u00a0 I remember thinking she was crazy\u2026talking for 10 minutes in front of the entire department (and many other researchers from different areas of the University) seemed like an eternity.\u00a0 [What\u2019s ironic is that I can\u2019t always finish recording a SQLskills Insider Video in less than 10 minutes these days.]<\/p>\n

At any rate, I remember standing at the front of the room in the Michigan League Ballroom feeling incredibly uncomfortable.\u00a0 Not only were there hundreds of people there, but I was wearing a dress (if you know me, you\u2019re laughing).\u00a0 I made it through my 10 minutes with one slight timing issue – I had someone play a video, which taught me the importance of having the entire presentation under my control – and I cannot remember if it was great or horrible.\u00a0 But I didn\u2019t walk away thinking, \u201cI\u2019ll never do this again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after Susan asked if I would like to take over teaching the Motor Control portion of the introductory Movement Science course<\/a> required for all Kinesiology students.\u00a0 The course was broken into three sections, Motor Control, Biomechanics and Exercise Physiology, with students rotating between the sections and a different instructor for each.\u00a0 This meant I would teach the same material three times in a semester, which sounds boring but was ideal as a first time instructor.\u00a0 And I would get paid.\u00a0 I said yes.<\/p>\n

Susan gave me all of her materials, and I converted all of her overheads (yes, overheads) to PowerPoint.\u00a0 Then I started reading.\u00a0 While I had taken the same class myself as a sophomore, had taken many advanced Motor Control classes since then, and was getting a master\u2019s degree in Motor Control, teaching the course was something else entirely.\u00a0 You have to know the information at a different level.\u00a0 During those early days I often thought of the learning model followed in medicine, \u201cSee one, do one, teach one.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019d learned it, I\u2019d been tested on it, now it was time for me to teach it.<\/p>\n

Some may state that teaching is not the same as presenting.\u00a0 If you get down into the details, that\u2019s probably true, but it\u2019s not a topic I want to debate here.\u00a0 To me, they are one and the same.\u00a0 For me, when I present at a User Group, a SQLSaturday or a conference like the PASS Summit, I am teaching.<\/p>\n

And that is what I love: teaching.\u00a0 And I realized it in graduate school, when I was teaching that introductory Movement Science course.\u00a0 It happened in the first semester, in the very first rotation.\u00a0 I cannot remember the name of the student, but she grasped what I was teaching, she understood<\/i>.\u00a0 She asked questions during class, she took notes, and she aced the quizzes and the test.\u00a0 I taught, she learned.\u00a0 That was pretty cool.<\/p>\n

Now\u2026do I believe that I had that<\/em> much of an impact on her learning?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Do I believe that if I weren\u2019t such a fantastic teacher that she wouldn\u2019t have done so well?\u00a0 Absolutely not.\u00a0 She was a smart kid, motivated, and interested in the material.\u00a0 She would have done well no matter what.\u00a0 But in those few weeks I realized that I had something to teach those who wanted to learn, and I realized that I wanted to be good at teaching \u2013 for them.<\/p>\n

As a student, I appreciated good instructors.\u00a0 Not every instructor is fully \u201con\u201d every single day \u2013 teaching is hard, and the semester is long.\u00a0 But there were many instructors whose classes I enjoyed, not just for the material, but for the way they explained it.\u00a0 Susan was that type of instructor.\u00a0 I wanted to be that type of instructor.\u00a0 So I worked at it.\u00a0 For some, teaching and presenting come naturally.\u00a0 For many, we have to work at it.\u00a0 And to work at it, you practice.\u00a0 I taught that same section of that same course for two years.\u00a0 Yes, 12 times.\u00a0 But that experience established a foundation upon which I\u2019ve been building ever since.<\/p>\n

In my first technology job I wore many hats, and one of them was software trainer.\u00a0 In my next job, I sought out opportunities to teach others, and eventually, I found the SQL Community and realized that I could present at User Groups, SQLSaturdays and conferences, like so many others.\u00a0 And here I am.\u00a0 I still love teaching, I love it when you see the light bulb go on for someone. I love it when you hear that someone took what they learned and applied it to their environment, and then learned something new.\u00a0 And I really appreciate it when attendees come back and tell me what they learned \u2013 as I have not seen every use case and am always, always<\/i> learning myself.<\/p>\n

One of the things that I value most about SQL Server is that it\u2019s vast and it\u2019s always changing.\u00a0 As such, my learning never ends, and the opportunity to find new things to teach never ends.\u00a0 As my good friend Allen White ( b<\/a> | t<\/a> ) always says, \u201cI can learn from all of you\u201d (and that means you, dear reader).\u00a0 If you want to share what you learn, I encourage you teach<\/a>.\u00a0 Don\u2019t think of it as presenting \u2013 that word can be scary.\u00a0 Think of it as teaching.\u00a0 Everyone has great and interesting experiences.\u00a0 Learn how to tell a story, and share what you know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been on a TSQL Tuesday hiatus, which was completely unintentional.\u00a0 When I read Bob Pusateri\u2019s topic for this month I knew I had to end my sabbatical and get back in the swing of these posts.\u00a0 Bob\u2019s question was, \u201cHow did you come to love presenting?\u201d\u00a0 Oh Bob\u2026how much time do you have?\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nT-SQL Tuesday #41: Presenting and Loving It - Erin Stellato<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How did I come to love presenting? It started years ago, back in graduate school, thanks to one great mentor. 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