{"id":837,"date":"2017-05-09T10:37:56","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T17:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/3.209.169.194\/blogs\/erin\/?p=837"},"modified":"2017-05-09T10:37:56","modified_gmt":"2017-05-09T17:37:56","slug":"public-speaking-presenting-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/erin\/public-speaking-presenting-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on public speaking \/ presenting \/ teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

A colleague of mine asked me this on Twitter the other day:<\/p>\n

When you started speaking did you know straight away that it was something you loved doing?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My answer: No.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a really good question, and I said I\u2019d go more in depth.\u00a0 We have to go way back in time.\u00a0 In asking the question, I believe my colleague was thinking about speaking in the SQL Server community, but for me it started before I found the SQL Server community.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think there are many people that love public speaking from the get-go.\u00a0 At the University of Michigan I had to take Communications 101 (a public speaking course) in order to graduate.\u00a0 I dreaded it.\u00a0 Most people did.\u00a0 But I took in in the fall of my sophomore year and got an A.\u00a0 (Yes, I went and checked my college transcript.)<\/p>\n

But the first time I really spoke to a group of peers and professors to explain or teach something was my first year of graduate school.\u00a0 We had a day to celebrate the accomplishments within the Kinesiology department, and I had been working on a grant that tested the effects of Botox on children with cerebral palsy.\u00a0 My advisor, Dr. Brown, wanted me to present our initial findings.\u00a0 I had 10 minutes.\u00a0 I created 10 slides and had a one minute video to show.\u00a0 I remember Dr. Brown telling me that she used talk about one slide for 10 minutes, she had no idea how I\u2019d get through all 10.\u00a0 I was terrified I\u2019d finish in 5 minutes.<\/p>\n

I have hazy memory of my talk \u2013 I remember what I wore, I remember thinking my voice was shaking, I remember feeling nervous, I remember nodding at Dr. Watkins to start the video\u2026and that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t remember any feedback, but I do remember thinking I didn\u2019t want to do that again.<\/p>\n

Flash forward a couple months to Dr. Brown\u2019s idea that I could teach the motor control section of the Movement Science 110 course.\u00a0 Teach to freshman and sophomores.\u00a0 People who were PAYING a lot of money to go to school at Michigan.\u00a0 Again, I was terrified, despite Dr. Brown\u2019s logic: I\u2019d get paid, I would experience teaching, and it gave me a chance to learn the material even better.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t even have to create the content \u2013 I could just use what she had already been using.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if I even tried to argue, I probably knew I wouldn\u2019t win (Dr. Brown was pretty persistent).\u00a0 So in the fall of 1997, I started teaching.\u00a0 On the first day I had student argue with me about theories.\u00a0 THEORIES!\u00a0 I was teaching science.\u00a0 I wanted to quit, but I didn\u2019t.\u00a0 I taught that class for two years, and I probably learned more than my students did.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward a couple years to my first job in technology, at a software company, providing technical support.\u00a0 I was soon asked if I was interested in training customers as well, as there was only one other person who handled training at that time.\u00a0 I said yes \u2013 voluntarily this time.\u00a0 I learned the software, I learned how to teach other people how to use it, and I got better.<\/p>\n

By the time I worked in the Database Services department at Hyland I sought out opportunities to teach.\u00a0 Every year there was a user conference, and during my first year on the team I asked a senior member of management if I could help with his presentation.\u00a0 Now, I don\u2019t remember the impetus, but we started co-presenting, until the year that he looked at me and said: \u201cYou can do this without me, I\u2019m about to retire.\u201d\u00a0 I taught that class at multiple conferences over the next few years.\u00a0 I asked to add database classes to the conferences and I developed and delivered those.\u00a0 I provided internal training and recorded material to be viewed by partners and users online.\u00a0 By then, I loved it.<\/p>\n

When I discovered the SQL Server community and found out there was a conference every year (the PASS Summit) my initial thought was, \u201cI want to present at that!\u201d\u00a0 And so I worked my way up.\u00a0 I presented to my user group in the winter of 2010, and then at the Cleveland SQLSaturday in February 2011.\u00a0 My first Summit was that same year, with a lot of other SQLSaturday events in between.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve now been \u201cpresenting\u201d off and on for about 20 years.\u00a0 And I put presenting in quotes because I don\u2019t think of it that way; I think I\u2019m always teaching.\u00a0 I\u2019ve gotten a lot of experience in those years, and as a result I\u2019ve gotten comfortable in front of a crowd and have developed my own style.\u00a0 And while I\u2019m proud of what I\u2019ve accomplished, I still work to improve.\u00a0 I tweak every session trying to figure out how to make an explanation even clearer.\u00a0 I change demos all the time, trying to get them *just right* so they easily demonstrate a concept.\u00a0 I continually read an audience and make adjustments on the fly when I can.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t end, and I\u2019m ok with that.\u00a0 I do enjoy presenting\/teaching now, but I didn\u2019t when I started\u2026because it was uncomfortable, because it was hard, because I didn\u2019t know what I doing.\u00a0 Because like everything else, it takes practice to become good<\/a>, even if you have a knack for it from the start.<\/p>\n

The greats weren’t great because at birth they could paint<\/em>
\nThe greats were great cause they paint a lot<\/em>
\n~Macklemore and Ryan Lewis<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A colleague of mine asked me this on Twitter the other day: When you started speaking did you know straight away that it was something you loved doing? My answer: No. It\u2019s a really good question, and I said I\u2019d go more in depth.\u00a0 We have to go way back in time.\u00a0 In asking the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,16],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThoughts on public speaking \/ presenting \/ teaching - Erin Stellato<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/erin\/public-speaking-presenting-teaching\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thoughts on public speaking \/ presenting \/ teaching - Erin Stellato\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A colleague of mine asked me this on Twitter the other day: When you started speaking did you know straight away that it was something you loved doing? 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