The HAPS Conference is quickly approaching and I am anxiously awaiting its arrival. I downloaded the app and have started to make note of the presentations and workshops I’d like to attend. If you haven’t downloaded the app yet, go get it from the Apple app store/Android Marketplace (it’s awesome!)
If you look through the presentation options, you will see that, yes, yours truly will be presenting Tuesday morning! 🙂 I am really looking forward to chatting and meeting with you! That being said, this year is full of a lot of “firsts” for me, and this will be my first professional presentation of this calibre. I am sure most of you are very well accustomed to presenting to your colleagues and superiors and am hopeful you have a mental checklist or tips you could share! While I am very familiar with presenting to a group of high school students, I’m afraid my typical engagement and reinforcement tactics may not work on the HAPS audience! (But I could be wrong… How do you feel about stamps, stickers, and perhaps mildly inappropriate jokes?) 🙂
My students will be giving their final presentations shortly after I return from the conference so while this is definitely going to be a learning experience for me, I’m excited to turn it into a teachable moment in which I can share my preparation tips and strategies for giving an important presentation. So, what kinds of things do you look for in a “stellar” presentation? How do you prepare for an important presentation, or what would you recommend to your students? What kinds of questions should I prepare for? And lastly, I would like to include my students as much as possible in this experience (because after all, they’re the reason I’m here), so is there any information or questions you’d be interested in knowing about them before the conference or during my presentation? I plan to chat with them a bit this week about the conference and get their perspective and ideas.
And as this week comes to end, let me be the last to say, HAPPY TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK! You are greatly appreciated for all that you do! Some of my most memorable and formative moments happened with and because of my college professors, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that. I hope you all received the recognition you deserve, and again, thank you!
Erin
We’ll see you there. If this is your first HAPS conference you will have to find me for the scavenger hunt. By the way we don’t really care for mildly inappropriate jokes. We much prefer moderate to severely inappropriate jokes.
I’ve never seen a motivational trick fall flat with a HAPS audience! I look forward to meeting you next week and hope you have a fantastic time at your first conference.