If I were to give a score for my oral presentation it will be:
Preparations: 4/10
Presentation: 3/10
Teammates: 10/10
Those attending ES2007s know that Ms Lim is a very sharp tutor. Just as Superman eventually found kyptonite, i finally met someone more a perfectionist than I am. The habits that I was used to when doing presentations: the use of singlish, frowning to make a point etc were all unprofessional in Ms Lim’s evalution.
I was more conscious about myself, my gestures and the way I speak. Every sentence was corrected in my head prior to it being delivered, and it felt really tedious to do the presentation. Especially at the start when there was some technical error with the presentation, I stuttered because I was caught off guard! Being sick didn’t help with my concentration. I looked at Ms Lim, and her stern look intimidated me even more.
It was a relief when the audience laughed when Captain Planet appeared as our guest demonstrator. In my head, it was “Yes! Everything is falling in place!” When it was my turn to present I again, I was less self-conscious. My focus was on the smiles of my classmates, and how I could make them smile again.
I realized many things in the time leading up to the presentation. First of all, my teammates, Lynette and Wang Chen, were really awesome. They were accommodating with my schedule and encouraged me when I could not attend meetings because of my research project. They were willing to take my views and my comments into consideration during our preparation phase even though it meant an overhaul of our presentation or doing extra work. When I used to rattle off without thinking during presentation, I guess Ms Lim’s presence had a way of ensuring that I gave every word a thought.
When I thought I was good, I realized I could have been even better.
Hey calvin,
ReplyDeleteFirstly,it really heartening to hear that you have worked with a wonderful group of people(lynette and Wangchen) for your proposal!
The 3/10 and 4/10 for presentation and preparation you give for yourself however is way too low! Having worked with you for other projects like the peer teaching and other projects in past modules, I honestly feel that you are not as bad as you make yourself to be,in fact I think you are excellent!
For the oral presentation,I felt engaged throughout as there is always a charisma that you bring to the audience which I particularly enjoy,and the gestures and smiles just seem to come at the right time. Considering that you were sick at that time, I would give a 8 or 9/10 anytime:)
Looking back,Ms Lim's presence during the oral presentation had a effect be it adding to our nerves or in your case being more conscious, on most or not everyone in the class when they are presenting.Nonetheless I feel at the end of the day, having Ms Lim in class gives us good practice which we would need when presenting in our work lives.
Hi Melvis,
ReplyDeleteI have given myself a low score because I felt that preparations could have been improved for myself and my group. We could have finished our preparation for oral presentation earlier so that we had more time to rehearse and to come up with more questions to prepare in terms of Q and A so much so that all the members of the team will be on the same page in terms of Q and A.
Taking into account the context of the situation, I guess time was a luxury that my team cannot afford.
You are right, I am always harder on myself than on others because I believe in setting an example before I ask others to change. Personally, after reflecting on my presentation I felt that I had made some mistakes that I could have avoided if I had practised even more.
I also realised I tend to stutter whenever I am stressed or placed in an unfamiliar environment. That is something that occurs when I am supposed to be presenting in front of a camera or when I am speaking to native speakers of English from UK and US.
Yes, I guess Ms Lim's presence indeed changed many things. I guess when rehearsing we need to start putting Ms Lim's picture infront of us to simulate that stressful environment!
Hi Calvin,
ReplyDeleteHonestly speaking, your team's presentation had gave me a totally different experience on presentation. It was informative, persuasive and yet fun.
I enjoyed myself while watching the demonstration of the walkway system with Captain Planet. The demonstration is way more effective than presenting verbally. I am sure all of us were amazed by the creative and useful functions of the walkway.
Your presentation style is very professional. It gave me a feeling of watching presentation of TED website. The slides are concise and not crowded with information. As an audience, I was able to grasp the essential points that you were presenting.
Great job!! Good luck for your upcoming finals :)
Hi Wan Ting,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your compliments for my team. I am really glad that you enjoyed our presentation as much as we enjoyed presenting to the class!
On our part, we were really stressed out because we were unsure if our shift in presentation style will be welcomed by the class and Ms Lim, and whether the extremely simple slides can still bring the points across.
Thank you once again for your compliments! Let me know if you have any other pointers for improvement!
Hi Calvin,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing with us your personal reflection of your Oral Presentation, and a very critical one at that.
To quote a line from David Boud's book "Reflection: Turning Experience into learning", he shared that "...self-reflection must be both 'inwardly' critical, in the sense that it reviews actors' own self-formative processes, and 'outwardly' critical, in the sense that it reviews the history of self-formation and seeks to locate the ideological causes of self-misunderstanding..." - I believe you have done exactly that when you assessed yourself in terms of your preparation, presentation and teammates for the Oral Presentation. I also believe that introspection bears fruit when one is aware that one "could have been even better" - that is precisely the thirst that will propel one to greater heights, do you agree?
You are right: You were good. What I liked about your presentation was the extremely confident young man who was passionate about his Sky Walker’s System. No doubt about that. You were clear about what you wanted to share with the audience; you used strong, definite gestures (which conveyed a sense of purpose); your volume was good (loud enough to grab and sustain attention); tone was appropriate; words were pronounced clearly and language used generally appropriate (except once when you addressed the audience as 'guys').
What could have made it even better?
For one, facial expressions. I shared with you during the peer-teaching feedback that you looked very serious when you don't smile. In formal presentations, yes, it is important to carry yourself professionally. But that does not mean that smiling is prohibited. In fact, having a pleasant disposition is important in establishing rapport with your audience, that's how you build relationships. Smiling connects you to other people - it's simple, and it's true. When you smile, you look charismatic, when you don't, you looked, erm, pretty scary and very unapproachable.
That's so not you, am I right?
So work on those facial muscles and stop looking so serious, to the extent where you frowned at your own presentation.
Also, do consider how to maintain the team camaraderie your team has carefully built. For instance, during the Q&A session, it will be good not to interrupt team mates' responses, and not to add on to their responses. If it was a pertinent point, consider how you may go in later (say in response to another question, or right before your team concluded the Q&A session) to elaborate. If you encounter questions where you have no answers, what do you do? If you should bluff, would you be able to pull it off? You didn't look too convinced yourself handling one of the questions from the audience.
It will also be good to run your presentation through before you present to ensure that there are no glitches. Also, would your team consider using a wireless presenter? That would be one less distraction.
I guess I'm just nit-picking, but hey, that's what I'm here do to, hahaha.
Regardless, that was a good presentation, Calvin, and one that I enjoyed tremendously. Good job!
PS: No way am I a perfectionist, I am just a hypercritic who is hopelessly fond of making captious comments.
Hi Calvin,
ReplyDeleteI left you my comment yesterday, but now it's gone? Would you know what happened?
Hi Ms Lim,
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time and effort to comment. I was on the blog the whole day yesterday eagerly awaiting for your comment. I kept refreshing the page, but I have not seen your comment appearing.
My apologies for any technical issues that have occurred. From my understanding, Wang Chen was not able to comment on my blog as well. However, I am not well-versed in the use of HTML to adequately suggest an explanation.
Ms Lim, may I check with you if it is more convenient for you if I met you up or call you for comments?
Oh dear, oh dear. I was hoping that there wasn't a technical error. I posted the comment, saw it appeared in the comment page, and when I checked back today, it was gone. I was aware that when I first posted it, there was an error saying the file was too large (yes, it was about 2 A4 pages long), but when I refreshed the page immediately, there it was, nicely sitting there after your reply to Wan Ting.
ReplyDeleteLet me see if I have a temp file saved in my PC somewhere, Calvin. If I cannot find it, will give you a call.
Calvin, I could not find the comment in my PC temp folder.
ReplyDeleteCould you try this please? I searched Blogger for possible reasons why the comment disappeared, and wonder if it could be in your spam box:
"It turned out that the comments were being put into the new spam box that is supposed to collect spam but is instead collecting non-spam and letting the real spam slide through. So, the first thing you should do is check your Blogger spam box.
To access it, go to your dashboard located at http://www.blogger.com/home
and click on the "Comments" link after the "NEW POST" button and the "Edit Posts" link.
You will then see a tab at the top that says "Comments". Below it are two links, one to "Published" and one to "Spam". Click on "Spam". This is your spam box.
Then go through the comments in your spam box and check the ones that are not spam and click the "NOT SPAM" button. That will restore the comments to your blog."
If it is not there, we could have either a phone/face-to-face feedback. I will be in school tomorrow (16th Nov) at 10.15 am to meet a few students. We could have a quick chat then, say at 10.30am. Altnernatively, a phone-feedback is fine. Most evenings I am available.
Oh dear, Calvin, the same problem again. I left a comment earlier, and now I could not see it.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I checked my PC and could not locate the temp file with the comment. I then tried searching online for solution(s) to the problem, and came across a suggestion on one possible reason why comments disappeared - the comment may be in your spam box. Could you please try and see if the comment is there?
Here’s how you access your Spam Box:
"To access it, go to your dashboard located at http://www.blogger.com/home
and click on the "Comments" link after the "NEW POST" button and the "Edit Posts" link.
You will then see a tab at the top that says "Comments" highlighted. Below it are two links, one to "Published" and one to "Spam". Click on "Spam". This is your spam box.
Then go through the comments in your spam box and check the ones that are not spam and click the "NOT SPAM" button. That will restore the comments to your blog."
Let me know if you can find the comment there. If not, let's have either a phone/face-to-face feedback. I will be in school at 10.15am tomorrow (16th Nov) to meet a few students, so we could have a quick chat at 10.30am. Alternatively, a phone feedback is also good. I am available most evenings.
(PS: and I better start saving every comment I post to your blog so I don't have to re-type my comments, haha)
Hi Ms Lim,
ReplyDeleteI express my deepest gratitude and appreciation to the time and effort that you spent writing comments and reading each and every one of our blogs.
When I first signed up for the class, I will never forget how you have warned me about its heavy workload. I took up the challenge immediately because I realised I had reached a plateau in terms of writing and presenting, and I was usually creating powerpoint slides or drafting letters for the sake of completing a task quickly. Throughout the past 13 weeks, I was put to the test by the requirements of the module, and as a result, I have un-learnt and re-learnt the way I write and present.
Ms Lim, I hope you gained something after teaching us. Just out of curiosity, if teaching is your part time job, what then is your full time job?