Vindication!

Well, I'm happy to report that despite coming down with a stomach bug overnight (fortunately very mild and symptoms controlled with PeptoBismal), our presentation on early literacy (for early childhood teachers) today went much better than the last one! Not that there isn't always a little room for improvement, overall I was very pleased with it.

We applied the lessons we learned from the last time, and I scrapped the slides from before (which was recycled from someone else's presentation due to time constraints) and started from scratch, greatly reducing the number of slides, the amount of text on each slide and eliminating repetition. I had time to really think about what I was going to say and what examples to show, and we carefully selected which books and items to take so we weren't so overwhelmed. I think it was just about right this time, and while I was still a tad nervous, I was much more relaxed than last time.

It helped that we had an audience that seemed much more engaged than our previous one, and I'm happy to report that no one in the first session went to sleep! In the second session there were a few that were nodding off at times, but I think that had more to do with the fact it was after lunch, very warm in the room, and the attendees had been there since around 8:00 am, than it did our presentation. At least no one decided to just put their heads on the desk and blatantly take a nap like last time! We had more questions and comments than before, and quite a few attendees complimented us and sincerely thanked us for coming. 

Would I do anything differently next time? I don't really think so. I think this time I had the slides just right, and my delivery was much better, so it's just a matter of continuing to get experience and becoming even more comfortable with public speaking. 

In case you're curious, our presentation covered what early literacy is (and isn't!), early literacy skills/components, the five practices (talk, sing, play write, & read), tips for selecting books for preschool read alouds, tips for keeping kids engaged in a read-aloud, how your library can help you, and other resources.

The other cool thing was I got to meet John Archambault, co-author of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! He was the keynote speaker for the event, and was very gracious, posing for pictures and talking to everyone, and he autographed the sign that was on the door of our presentation room.