How Did My First Lecture Really Go?

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Discussion Overview

The thread discusses a participant's experience delivering their first lecture, including personal reflections on the challenges of public speaking, audience engagement, and the content of the lecture. The conversation touches on themes of teaching, social anxiety, and humor in educational settings.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • One participant humorously claims to be the "greatest lecturer in history" and shares anecdotes about audience reactions, including compliments and flirtation.
  • Another participant expresses a desire to lecture on complex topics like Mellin transforms, suggesting a light-hearted view on attracting attention through academic subjects.
  • Several participants share their own struggles with public speaking and offer encouragement, noting that practice can improve performance.
  • There is a discussion about the content of the lecture, which included an introduction to the importance of science, theories, and a math review.
  • Some participants inquire about the nature of the audience, questioning whether they are already educators or training to become educators.
  • Humor is a recurring theme, with participants joking about the challenges of lecturing and the reactions of students, including the idea of students leaving in tears or imitating the lecturer.
  • One participant mentions upcoming exams and the potential for humorous material in free-response questions.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the challenges and humorous aspects of lecturing, but there are varying perspectives on the effectiveness of public speaking techniques and the nature of audience engagement. The discussion remains open-ended without a clear consensus on specific teaching strategies.

Contextual Notes

Some participants express uncertainty about how to maintain audience engagement and the effectiveness of their own public speaking experiences. The conversation reflects a mix of personal anecdotes and speculative humor without definitive conclusions.

Who May Find This Useful

Individuals interested in teaching, public speaking, or those looking for humorous insights into the challenges of lecturing may find this discussion engaging.

Pengwuino
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WOOT! I just had my first lecture tonight, went 2 1/2 hours... with 20 minute break.

And......

My head hurts. I've never had to talk that long before in my life. I'm glad I brought water.

So how did it go? Well, I don't want to talk myself up too much, but I think I'm the greatest lecturer in history. One girl even thanked me after the lecture. Another asked me to marry her and a few just gave me their numbers and said they knew about discretion. Whatever that means.

All in all, I'm sex.

Actually, one girl really DID thank me, but I think she may just be a suck up.

DISCUSS.
 
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I always thought that lecturing on Mellin transforms would be a great way to attract salivating groupies.
Unfortunately, I haven't had the occasion yet, but congratulations to you, flappers.
 
Congrats. I have quite an issue with public speaking. I tried to get over it by doing poetry readings when I was a teenager but that didn't really help a whole lot.
 
What was your lecture on, Penguin? Also, congrats. :)

TheStatutoryApe said:
Congrats. I have quite an issue with public speaking. I tried to get over it by doing poetry readings when I was a teenager but that didn't really help a whole lot.

I spoke about overcoming social anxiety...it worked out well enough for me. As a general rule, the more you do it, the better you get.
 
Congratulations Pengwuino!

Speaking in front of an audience can be daunting (I go to Toastmasters myself and sometimes I still get daunted), but its great for any kind of personal development.

Bravo!
 
I'm teaching physics/chemistry for educators.

Normally in my labs as a TA, i would only need to talk for like 10 minutes and I wasn't really lecturing to them, just making the lab run smoothly and I would always get nervous the first day. However, when I went up there, I pretty much kicked *** and took names. It was HAWT.
 
Pengwuino said:
I'm teaching physics/chemistry for educators.

Normally in my labs as a TA, I would only need to talk for like 10 minutes and I wasn't really lecturing to them, just making the lab run smoothly and I would always get nervous the first day. However, when I went up there, I pretty much kicked *** and took names. It was HAWT.
Way to go, Pengy Bird,

Now can you "KEEP THEM ENGAGED", with your wit, wisdom, humor, technical knowledge. Remember, when things get tough and you find yourself grasping for words (it happens to all of us), remember what Feynman would say and do given the situation and you will be fine, I hope... hehe... :redface:

That's a tough course to teach, are these folks already educators, or studying to become educators ?

Rhody... :smile:
 
Pengwuino said:
WOOT! I just had my first lecture tonight, went 2 1/2 hours... with 20 minute break.

And......

My head hurts. I've never had to talk that long before in my life. I'm glad I brought water.

So how did it go? Well, I don't want to talk myself up too much, but I think I'm the greatest lecturer in history. One girl even thanked me after the lecture. Another asked me to marry her and a few just gave me their numbers and said they knew about discretion. Whatever that means.

All in all, I'm sex.

Actually, one girl really DID thank me, but I think she may just be a suck up.

DISCUSS.
So, what was the particular subject(s)/topic(s) of the lecture?
 
Congratulations pengy! :approve:

Did you get people to leave the classroom crying yet?? It's the fun part about lecturing :biggrin:

What was the lecture about??

Be sure to fail that suck-up, nobody can stand such people :biggrin:
 
  • #10
micromass said:
Congratulations pengy! :approve:

Did you get people to leave the classroom crying yet?? It's the fun part about lecturing :biggrin:

What was the lecture about??

Be sure to fail that suck-up, nobody can stand such people :biggrin:

Crying? I thought the sign that you'd arrived as a lecturer was when you caught someone imitating you in the hall.

And, yes, the smart-alecks are usually more fun than the suck-ups - especially if you have a big enough stockpile of knowledge that you have an answer for even the strangest questions. (I still remember coaching a youth soccer team and ending a talk with "Any questions?" and having one kid ask me why soccer balls had those black spots on them. I think he was kind of surprised when that question sparked a lesson on how reading the spin on the ball helps the goalkeeper and why I put so much emphasis on shots coming off the player's foot with no spin.)
 
  • #11
WOOT! Go PENG!

So did you make them laugh? Hey you could be the next Brian Cox!
 
  • #12
LOL! Wow Peng! Good work! :D Ha I have always wondered too how professors can lecture for so long.
 
  • #13
rhody said:
Way to go, Pengy Bird,

Now can you "KEEP THEM ENGAGED", with your wit, wisdom, humor, technical knowledge. Remember, when things get tough and you find yourself grasping for words (it happens to all of us), remember what Feynman would say and do given the situation and you will be fine, I hope... hehe... :redface:

That's a tough course to teach, are these folks already educators, or studying to become educators ?

Rhody... :smile:

They're studying to become educators. Now where do I go find some technical knowledge, wit, and wisdom? :D

Astronuc said:
So, what was the particular subject(s)/topic(s) of the lecture?

It was just the intro "why is science is important, this is what a theory is, this is how science works, and here's a quick math review" kind of lecture.

BobG said:
Crying? I thought the sign that you'd arrived as a lecturer was when you caught someone imitating you in the hall.

I thought that's when it was time you departed as a lecturer :smile:

And, yes, the smart-alecks are usually more fun than the suck-ups - especially if you have a big enough stockpile of knowledge that you have an answer for even the strangest questions. (I still remember coaching a youth soccer team and ending a talk with "Any questions?" and having one kid ask me why soccer balls had those black spots on them. I think he was kind of surprised when that question sparked a lesson on how reading the spin on the ball helps the goalkeeper and why I put so much emphasis on shots coming off the player's foot with no spin.)

OH so that's why they're made like that! Learn something every day :)

Evo said:
WOOT! Go PENG!

So did you make them laugh? Hey you could be the next Brian Cox!

Yup I made them laugh. Little do they know that will be the last laughing they'll ever do in my class :devil:
 
  • #14
Congrats Penguwino :D This rox!
 
  • #15
HeLiXe said:
Congrats Penguwino :D This rox!

Congrats Penguwino! :smile:

(I just Googled for Penguwino and only found another post of HeLiXe! :wink:)
 
  • #16
Anyway, are there tests or reports planned for the near future?? I need a laugh :biggrin:
 
  • #17
I guess I'm not discrete :-p
 
  • #18
micromass said:
Anyway, are there tests or reports planned for the near future?? I need a laugh :biggrin:

3 weeks until the first exam! There is going to be free-response questions. I may or may not have put them in there simply to have material to laugh about.

And thanks for the congrats everyone :P
 
  • #19
<wonders what a penguin accent sounds like>
 
  • #20
Congratulations Pengwuino!
 
  • #21
Did you wear a toga?
 
  • #24
What's all that brownish-looking stuff on the ice? Ewww!
 
  • #25
turbo said:
What's all that brownish-looking stuff on the ice? Ewww!

These are things penguins put on the ice so that they can be detected by satellites.
 
  • #26
Ewww! Poor kids.

Congrats Pengy bird. :D
 
  • #27
turbo said:
What's all that brownish-looking stuff on the ice? Ewww!

That happened when Pengwuino gave out his first homework assignment.
 
  • #28
This sounds bit kinky :smile: Anyway congrats to your succees.

Many years ago I did teaching as a temporary job for one semester and I got a couple of girls to cry when they got their test scores back and insisted that the tests was too hard hard and that previous teachers made much easier tests. Well there you go for playing with your cellphone in class.

/Fredrik
 
  • #29
Pengwuino said:
3 weeks until the first exam! There is going to be free-response questions. I may or may not have put them in there simply to have material to laugh about.

Will you be grading on a curve? 15.9% of the class may not be laughing after they see their grades... :bugeye:

:cry:
 

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