PALM CARDS (1)

The best supports to use for recording speech prompts are small, easily accommodated palm cards – cards that fit snugly into the palm of one’s hand.



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Often, presenters feel the need to be “encumbered” by notes and pieces of paper on which is contained an outline of the presentation. It’s easy to see when over dependence upon notes exists, because presenters keep on referring back and back to their notes. In fact, the presenter can become so dependent upon notes that “spoken” speech is really “read” speech.

It’s easy to understand that people need the security of notes, but often they know a great deal more about the subject then even they understand. What needs to be said is already in the head and doesn’t need reams of paper to bring it out.

The speaker who presents without using copious volumes of notes builds confidence with his or her audience. They understand that the speaker is fully conversant with the subject been canvassed.

While notes may be necessary, they should be minimised. And they can and should be!

When presenting, taking into account the overall character of an audience is important. If the audience is young, exploratory and in the business of finding out new facts on issues for the first time, then language appropriate to their level of understanding is important. Similarly, if dealing with an audience well qualified in the area being canvassed, “speaking down” to them would be conciliatory and insulting. Audience specific language is important. That adds to the credibility and the respect held for the presenter. In this context it’s important to know what audience is going to be addressed and to have an understanding of the background prior to delivery is important.

Too often, presenters lose audiences by being far to “language specific” and talking in a way that sounds fantastic, but is beyond ordinary comprehension. It’s important to apply the “keep it simple, stupid” when dealing with audiences. Speaking of language level that’s appropriate to an audience is important if the message and its meaning is to get through.

Too often people “brag” about their language capacity and vernacular ability, before going ahead and losing the audience. So all is lost. And it shouldn’t be!

The second aspect of PowerPoint is that presenters can become so reliant upon its use as a method of distributing information, that they are totally lost without it. I’m not the only person who has been to forums where PowerPoint has gone on the blink, leaving the presenter in limbo land.

It is interesting, humorous, but however pathetically sad when the presenter is left without a knowledge of what to present because without power point he or she is lost. Knowing subject matter of being able to communicate to verbally or is of paramount importance.

“Death by PowerPoint” is an aspect or method of presenting that is still very alive and well. Everyone has an opinion about PowerPoint. My opinion is that PowerPoint as a support should be used very minimally. There is nothing worse than somebody presenting by reading entries from PowerPoint slide to PowerPoint slide. It becomes boring, monotonous, repetitious and seemingly never-ending for audience members.

Using PowerPoint to highlight major elements of the speech or to offer a succinct summary is fine. But for mine that should be it.

PowerPoint never be allowed to take over from the presenter with PowerPoint becoming the major aspect of the presentation, the presenter be being little more than an auxiliary.

Without doubt ‘uno’ (you know) takes the gold medal for being the most commonly and frequently inserted pair of words into conversations. ‘Uno’ comes up all the time when people are responding to questions or offering information on issues. This very common use of words in inappropriate contexts can be overcome if users are aware of its use.

You know, ‘UNO’ is best avoided.

A further downside with props can be the presented losing touch with his or her audience, while scrambling and scrabbling around trying to organise them for show and display. Props are usually planned to be presented sequentially, but can easily be mixed up, causing the presenter to become hot, bothered and dithery. The whole focus of a presentation can become lost. With props, minimalist use is the best option.

• It is impossible to fail preservice teachers who are not up to the mark when it comes to their preparation for full time teaching. Provided they satisfy academic requirements required, having them terminated because of poor or inept teaching in classrooms during practice teaching rounds. It seems that universities are prepared to graduate people who are in no way ready for teaching, leaving it to schools to which they are appointed to complete the training job.

• It is often impossible for schools to performance manage teachers who should be dismissed or retired for poor performance and who refuse to respond to collegiate assistance and support to improve. The performance management5 process is tortuous, long winded, time consuming and allows many possibilities for those being performance managed to disengage from the process while continuing in our classrooms. Processes are very heavily weighted in favour of those being performance managed.

• It is often impossible for schools to be involved as fully in staff selection to vacant positions as might be desirable. Government schools particularly, are hamstrung by the fact that teachers with permanent status have to be placed in positions. Misfits of people in to positions is left to school principals and leadership teams to manage. Finding positions for teachers, means departments of education have done their job.

• Staff performance is overdone in terms of paperwork required and time consumed by this as a formal exercise. The process generally involves a panel of two or three people sitting with the staffer and going through key performance indicators. The far better ways of working with staff in development is to sit and converse with a brief summative statement to guide and confirm the conversation. Far too much time is wasted on pointless process.

• Formal school reports have become an exercise in the production of all encompassing voluminous documents due by a particular point in time each year. Countless hours involving a significant number of staff are devoted to preparing these reports for education departments that generally minimally inform central policies and directions. This time could be far better devoted to working toward school development and student outcomes. Far too much reporting is about cementing processes of accountability and justification. In essence it is energy sapping, time consuming and utterly frustrating to the intent of what schools should be about – developing students.

LONG TIME SHORT OR SHORT TIME LONG I sometimes ponder the phenomena of how what is touted as a long time is really quite short in length if considered from another angle. A person living to be 100 years of age is considered to have lived for a long, long time. One hundred years sounds a lot. Yet a centurion in years has a life span that has traversed only 36,525 days, including leap years. That sounds a long way shorter than representing the time as 100 years. Six weeks school holiday at Christmas, including the pre and post weekends before returning to school. Six weeks – WOW! Yes, all of 1104 hours, including the pre and post weekends. Put like that, this long break seems like a damp squib. The way a length of time is calculated makes a huge difference to the way it is conceptualised.

Props and support materials can help embellish a presentation. However, there are ONLY props supporting the presenter and should never, in their display, take centre stage. Listeners and audience members are there to hear the presenter, not to be entertained by a display of props. Their over-use can distract listeners from the point of the speech. There is a need top avoid sullying the presentation and taking from the prime purpose of the gathering.

Unless an object is being used to support a speech or conversation to a group, “hands-free” is a wise policy. An exception might be a pointer, a laser pointer or similar when this is being used to pinpoint or highlight something on a chart, transparency or PowerPoint .

Presenters can, quite unconsciously get into the habit of holding a pencil, or some other object in the hand as they speak. This distorts gesture and is very off-putting. It focuses the audience on the object in hand rather than on the speakers presentation. Something to be avoided!

If responsible for a presentation, it can be a good idea to have a glass of water handy. Sometimes when speaking,throats become uncontrollably dry. This can lead to hoarseness, speech difficulty, coughing, and other quite visible discomforts.

Having a glass of water handy and taking a sip can overcome the problem and alleviate the difficulty.

The water may not be used, but it’s a handy insurance to have. You don’t want to be remembered as the presenter who coughed and spluttered all over the place.

Variation in speech delivery is important. It can be easy to fall into habits that establish almost unconsciously.

This often relates to the commencement of sentences, where answers to questions are being provided.

A common response is an answer with the sentence commencing with the word “look”. If this becomes a habit, listeners won’t listen for the response; Rather they will listen for “look”.

“Now look” can, in the same way be an everlasting sentence beginning. “So” is another

The list goes on. Be careful when phrasing answers, not to fall into this repetitive habit.

The health and education department food police will be over the moon at the nutritious food options on offer at the Nightcliff Primary School canteen. (Bushranger, Sunday Territorian, 21/11). Queue controllers will need to be on hand to manage the enthusiasm of students hastening to purchase at the canteen during every break period.

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The CDU has been blessed by the appointment of Professor Scott Bowman as Vice Chancellor. He is a leader whose enlightened vision for the future of TAFE/ VET and tertiary education in the NT is being translated into outcomes blessing key sectors of business and industry through training being offered. In appointing Prof. Bowman as VC, CDU’s selection board appointed the right man at the right time to progress our university.

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Essington School with an almost 30% fee increase spread over two years (1920 to 21 and 1921 to 22) is benefiting from the Federal Government’s funding formula for private schools, calculated on parent income rather than socioeconomic factors governing the region from where students are drawn. It is no wonder that massive building programs can be planned. Do parents and staff realise that Essington started decades ago when the NT Government gifted the established Rapid Creek Primary School to Essington for peppercorn rent. Back then it was an independent community focussed school. Now it is an elite educational establishment

Michael Kingston’s column (“Classrooms no place for phones” Sunday Territorian 10/10) is one of the best and most pertinently relevant pieces on education that has been published in the media on education this year. Mr Kingston is absolutely right in calling for Education Minister Lauren Moss to oversee banning of mobiles in schools for because they distract and detract from teaching and learning activities. Phones have been banned by education departments in most states and the NT should follow suit. The vast majority of territory classroom teachers will applaud Mr Kingston for speaking up on an issue that has dogged and disrupted our classrooms for far too many years.

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All the very best to students and teachers returning to schools for the commencement of term four. May the final term of the year be one of great teaching and learning satisfaction. All the very best to our year 12 students who are preparing for their university entrance examinations in a few short weeks.

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It is sad that the Police Department hierarchy has decided that school basic constables are to be removed from urban primary schools and replaced by auxiliary staff. The school Based Constable program was the best of support programs from its inception in the early 1980’s, until ‘authorities’ started changing the operational model from around 2006. It has never been the same since; it has been totally skewed and rendered almost useless by unnecessary tampering.

From time to time, presenters get caught out talking away from the audience. Side on and even back on address to the audience occurs. That in my opinion needs to be avoided and at all costs. If m icing sideways or backwards, do it in a way that keeps you as the presenter front on (face on) to the audience. It can be too easy to get caught out on this point.

How people present often stands the test of time for far longer than what they say. Two examples.

• I remember 20 years later, a person normally articulate who was out of depth when presenting on a particular topic. There were 224 ‘um’ type utterances offered in 20 minutes. A record on my calculation that still stands.

• A very important leader stood on a stage, also 20 plus years ago, and addressed an audience. No, I don’t remember a word of the presentation. But I remember the one hand on the hip, with a coffee cup in the other. I remember the occasional coffee sips, the strutting back and forth across the stage, the overall body language. I remember it to this day.

First impressions can be more than last impressions ; They can be everlasting.

Media can play an important part in supporting feedback loops. If presentations are recorded either visually or orally, seek to view or listen to how your presentation went. A great deal about strengths of delivery and points from improvement will become self evident.

This approach is not overdoing self-focus. It is about each of us wanting to improve how effectively and efficiently, how empathetically and humanistically, we reach out to others.

POST PRESENTATION – LOOKING AT HOW YOU HAVE DONE

Self evaluation is important when considering how successfully one is at presenting to an audience. Several suggestions.

• Reflect

• Ask others for unbiased feedback

• Ask audience members to complete an evaluation form

• Invite contact by text or to an online address

• THANK those who take the time to offer feedback

• Seek and take advice from family members.

WORTHWHILE CONSIDERING

It would be more than worthwhile for many of our leaders across all fields of leadership, to consider their need for speech development. Many with important messages, are poor presenters on radio and TV. They are also poor speaking presenters in other forums. The way these people speak needs fixing, for they do a poor job.

EVALUATING SPEECH

This might be done formally or informally.

Elements evaluated and ratings might include the following.

* The general purpose of the speech was clear.

* The specific purpose of the speech was clear.

* Speech organisation including planning and structure.

* Material content supporting main speech points.

* Specific speech purpose reinforced by its beginning, middle and end.

* Confidence and sincerity of the speaker.

* Reliance on notes.

The English language, like all languages, is interesting. Unlike some languages,there is a strong differentiation between the theoretical study and the practical application of the English Language.

An intriguing element about language is the disconnect between its theory and practice. The theory of language can be reasonably straightforward and understandable as it is studied on paper : Language in practice and in day-to-day terms of usage can be a lot more tricky. In Australian contexts, there are idiomatic factors of expression, the way words are emphasised, nuances, hidden messages, the use of colloquialisms (expressions) and so on. As well there is pitch, rhythm, tone, intonation and volume. The way in which voice is used is a very big part of language expression.

The way in which speakers emphasise words makes a difference to the way an audience receives and interprets the spoken word. The emphasis placed on words causes the listening audience to focus greater attention on the emphasised element.

‘Today is Wednesday ‘. Emphasis can be focussed.

Today is Wednesday.

Today is Wednesday.

Today is Wednesday.

The usage of intonation is a way to lead an audience. It is often not used and therefore remains under-appreciated.

* Gesture needs to be ‘compatable’ with the presenter and magnifying of speech.

* Gesture is a tool that can help emphasise and reinforce points.

* Overdoing gesture can undermine conversation because recipients are studying aspects of body language rather than listening to what is being said.

Avoid ‘accidental’ gestures which are off-putting. These might include the following:

* Wagging a cordless microphone while speaking.

* Rocking from one foot to the other or swaying from the waist.

* Neck movement which is out of sync with general movement

* Eye contact which has you speaking in one direction, looking in another.

* Randomly putting on and taking off spectacles.

* Holding and wagging or twirling glasses while speaking.

* Doing similar with a pen, lazar pointer or some other prop.

* Pulling at collar, sleeves or any other aspect of apparel.

EYE CONTACT IS SO IMPORTANT FOR SPEAKERS

The eyes are the most important organs of gesture. They can reflect countless moods and signal everything from willing acceptance to absolute rejection. Some important reminders for those presenting to an audience.

* Look at people. Don’t look over them, under them or around them.

* Engage people individually and collectively through eye contact. Rest on individuals and cover the audience.

* Make your eyes friendly, encouraging and inviting.

* Avoid flat or hostile eyes.

* Eyes are the most important parts of the anatomy when it comes to gesture.

* A CONVERSATIONAL VOICE is engaging. A listening audience is reassured to hear program presenters speaking in a relaxed manner. Many listeners are working through the hassles of the day. A calm and relaxed manner coming at them over the airwaves is relaxing and reassuring.

* Using pause, allowing your audience time to digest and reflect on what you have said.

* Projection and outreach, avoiding ear burst and fade-out, which imposes ear strain.

* Use words to paint pictures, stimulating the listener’s imagination. Successful radio and media communications are those which, by their appeal, draw listeners to programs.

* If working on a presentation from within the broadcast studio, IMAGINE you have people with you as guests. Work as a radio presenter in the same way you would if others were there.

Following on from my last share, I strongly suggest employers and managers consider organising speechcraft (speech and speaking development) go go programs for employees. These sorts of programs are available and information can be sourced from online inquiry.

While there may be some cost associated with such programs, employees will be appreciative. Their development of speaking and listening skills will enhance the organisation because of the enhanced way they present to those making contact with the company.

First impressions are lasting impressions. The way in which customers and potential clients are greeted can value add to (your) organisation. In that context, everyone is a winner.

Those who are in leadership positions in organisations, would do well to reflect on benefits that accrues when employees are careful, accurate speakers, careful listeners and accurate, empathetic evaluators of the efforts of others. To this end, encouraging them to join organisations promoting these skills would be wise. The way in which employees present to the public and those with whom business is done, can build goodwill and appreciation for the organisation they represent.

This area of need is overlooked far too often by those in organisational leadership positions. That should not be the case.

There is NOTHING better to support and assist in the development of reactional speech response than learning to ‘think on

IMPROMPTU SPEAKING

There is NOTHING better to support and assist in the development of reactional speech response than learning to ‘think on your feet’ with spontaneous and rapid response to a question, topic or in general discussion.

This is an exercise that teachers can develop with students. It is an approach that can be used in workplaces or among members of a group to develop fast response times to topics.

Having to respond to or speak on a topic for up to two minutes without having time to prepare stimulates thought processes in often untried ways. Having someone evaluate the impromptu presentation can help.

People, when trying this approach are nervous at first but confidence grows. Impromptu speech is sharply stimulating of cerebral processes.

feet’ with spontaneous and rapid response to a question, topic or in general discussion.

This is an exercise that teachers can develop with students. It is an approach that can be used in workplaces or among members of a group to develop fast response times to topics.

Having to respond to or speak on a topic for up to two minutes without having time to prepare stimulates thought processes in often untried ways. Having someone evaluate the impromptu presentation can help.

People, when trying this approach are nervous at first but confidence grows. Impromptu speech is sharply stimulating of cerebral processes.

MORE ON THE ‘UM’ FACTOR

Ah’s’, ‘um’s’, ‘er’s’, ‘aw’s’, and other speech fillers are diminishers of oral skill. Consider the following as extending this tendency.

* ‘okay’ at start or end of sentences.

* ‘guys’ as a word of address to a mixed audience.

* ‘gonna’ rather than ‘going to’.

* Don’t overdo ‘so’, particularly as a never ending joining word.

* ‘could, could’ (double clutching)

* ‘I was, I was’ (double clutching)

* ‘Wh, when’ and simillar double vocal movements.

* ‘and, um’; ‘um and so’; ‘you know’ ad infinitum.

* ‘um and or” ‘um it’s it’s …’.

* ‘aaaand’; ‘o n e’ (word stretching).

Interspersing speech with ‘um’s,’ ‘ah’s’, ‘er’s’, and ‘or’s’, is distracting and off-putting to listeners. These hesitations, space fillers and time grabbers can distract listeners. Indeed, some might divert their attention completely from presenters, listening for and noting down each speech imperfection on some sort of a mental (or physical) tally sheet.

Variations to the ‘um’ count include the following:

• Beginning each sentence with ‘look’.

• Interspersing ‘you know’ through the verbal speech text.

• ‘Double clutching – ‘um, um’.

• Using ‘and’ ad nauseum as a sentence stretcher and space filler.

The list goes on. ‘Listen’ when listening and you will hear what I mean.