Tuesday 8 November 2011

My First Webinar (and some backstory)

Today I got to do something that, when I was a kid, nobody ever would have believed possible - I did my first live webinar (thanks to SimpleK12.com :-).

See, when I was a kid, up until my early teens, I was painfully, brutally shy. I was all elbows and knees, spiky hair and freckles like a raccoon mask around my eyes and there would have been NO WAY that you could have made me even THINK about doing something like this!

Now I teach a public speaking class and have given many pro-D sessions an tech training workshops face-to-face with hundreds of teachers.

So what changed? I remember the day that I changed how I saw myself. I realized that I was being my own worst enemy. I realized that walking around looking at my shoes was like wearing a sign that said "please pick on me!". And I realized that humor makes a pretty good shield sometimes :-). I raised my eyes up and started making eye contact with people. I walked taller. I started using my sense of humor more and over time, my self-confidence grew.

Now I'm absolutely not afraid to try new things. I need to challenge myself to keep honing my skills to become a better teacher, but I had never given a live webinar presentation before and I felt a healthy case of nerves leading up today. I realized how much I use my audiences' body language and posture to gauge my presentation by. With those cues removed, I felt a bit like I was flying blind, but it felt SO good to do it that now I'd gladly do it again!

So try something new. Really, what other life are you waiting for? You've got a chance? Suck it up and give it a go!

- Posted from my iPad

Sunday 6 November 2011

Pre-CYOA Webinar Nerves :-)

So tomorrow's going to be an interesting day indeed. I have volunteered to do a webinar for SimpleK12 and tomorrow is the tech check before we go and do it LIVE on Tuesday! Hope the lab cooperates with me tomorrow :-)

The webinar is about the CYOA project mentioned on this blog. As I've said before, every 4 weeks I do a different video-based project with my students (on a 3 block cycle). Now for the past 2 blocks, my friend and colleague Maggie has been handling the project portion of my class while I teach a CAE test prep class, and she's done a FANTASTIC job with each project, including the CYOA one...but it means I'm feeling a bit rusty :-) I think Maggie and I have a good system going and she's definitely got the skills and personality to make everything go, so in that respect I'm very lucky - some of my staff members are card-carrying Luddites who still feel uncomfortable with the photocopier :-)

Speaking live without being able to see people's faces is a whole different animal from what I'm used to, so I feel a tad more nervous than usual. My PowerPoint is prepped and ready to rock, so I'm just going to go for it and hope I explain everything clearly. Glad it's going to moderated :-)

SimpleK12 rocks! It's THE place where I can actually get some pro-d that fits my tech needs that go with my Ed-Tech coordinator position. Highly recommend a look if you've never seen their stuff before.

More tomorrow!


- Posted from my iPad

Location:Victoria