Personality Of Teaching

Lets dive into the first topic, Content is King, of a 5 part series in becoming a better teacher and public speaker.

Ideas are the basis of every lesson, whether you are teaching the idea of Newton’s law, the idea of appropriate dating or the idea of running a more effective office meeting an idea is the foundation. Everything else is just supporting the idea being taught. It is easy to get caught up in the facts, the experiences or the argument we are sharing, and allow the idea to get lost under it all.

Before we ever stand up to teach we need to ask ourselves a question: ‘Is the idea (or main point), I am about to stand up and present, new and beneficial to my audience?’ If the answer is yes then you know you have a lesson that is headed for success. If the answer is no then there is no number of facts you can present, or entertaining story that you can tell that will make your presentation successful. People may be entertained by it but they won’t be changed.

Identify the idea you want to present and then identify some possible ways your audience could benefit from a better understanding or the idea. From there base the rest of your lesson around what you have identified. A new and beneficial idea isn’t exposing some new universe altering theory or doctrine on a subject maybe your idea is simply advocating another way to look at an old problem. Or a new mindset to have when dealing with relationships. Or maybe its just proving that your idea is more important then people thought. Just make sure that you are presenting something that hasn’t already been done and driven into the ground. Rehashing old ideas is a sure fire way to turn your audiences’ ears off.

The content you present will be the foundation of your presentation that everything is built on and around. So it is easy to see why it can immediately make or break your entire lesson. The new content of your presentation will rule how successful it turns out to be, let whatever it is rule your presentation.