Advice for a quiet/shy person??

[Danger_Zone]

I have been offered a TAship starting in August. I don't know whether I'd be lecturing at all yet, but the idea of having to talk in front of a bunch of university students is really making me nervous! I've been slowly improving at talking in front of groups when I have a definite plan of what I'm saying (I think presenting at undergrad conferences has helped), but my thoughts and words get really jumbled when I'm put on the spot, especially in front of larger groups of people. I also have a naturally soft voice and have to consciously make an effort to talk at an above normal volume that would be needed when lecturing. Does anyone have any advice? I'm sure I would get used to things eventually and it would become easier, but I don't want this to interfere with my ability to teach or help students. (I should also mention I'm probably going to talk to a professional about this, but I know he/she wouldn't be able to give me TA-specific advice..)

Edited March 11, 2016 by Danger_Zone

[GradSchoolTruther]

Write detailed lecture notes and study them beforehand. Foster discussion, have in-class activities, and show interesting short videos.

[shadowclaw]

As someone who has long suffered from social anxiety, I very much understand your feelings. Back in the early days of my very long trek through undergrad, the hour or so prior to giving a presentation in class was filled with worry, quivering hands, elevated heart rate, nausea, and occasionally some vomiting. I have since developed a better ability to cope with the stress of talking in front of people (although to be honest, it was less about being in front of people and more about the fear of strangers thinking that I'm a complete idiot or me screwing up everything I say), but I still get nervous before presentations and before I teach my lab.

So my tips for you - first off, when doing a lecture, you will have a plan. Maybe you'll be using a power point presentation, maybe you'll be lecturing to them and writing some notes on a chalk board or white board. There are other situations as well, but since you're in history, those are probably the two situations you'll be in. Either way, you come into the classroom with a plan for what material you're going to cover, and ideally you will either go through your presentation slides/notes a few times and go over in your head what you will be saying, or you will practice out loud. I find that going through the presentation out loud helps me remember the order of material better and makes me feel more comfortable when I actually deliver the lecture. Since I only lecture for about 10 minutes before biology lab starts, it's not very time consuming to run through the lecture one or two times. If I had to lecture for a full hour, I might not have time to go through the whole thing once out loud, let alone multiple times. However, I would still want to read through my slides a few times and make a few notes.

My second tip is that it's perfectly fine to have some notes written/printed out on some paper with you to help you if you forget something or just to guide you along. Don't feel like you have to have everything memorized perfectly - maybe there are some numbers or names that you can't quite remember, and that's ok. Maybe you just covered something really interesting for 20 minutes and you can't remember what comes next - that's ok! Just look at your notes! I've seen TA's do this and I've seen seasoned faculty do this.

Third, break up the lecture if you can. No one enjoys talking for an hour (or more) straight, and no one likes listening to it, either. Plan for some discussion, include interesting materials to class if you can that will add to the lecture, like videos, photographs, even books that you might want to read a passage from. If you can, include some type of activity for students to do. 

Fourth, I also understand what it's like to have a quiet/soft voice. Depending on the size of the class and the acoustics of the room, it might not matter. It's probably best to encourage your students to let you know if they can't hear you. As long as you make it clear that they aren't being rude if they interrupt to tell you to speak louder, I find that students have no problem letting you know if you're being too quiet. A really good tactic to use though is to move throughout the classroom or stand close to/in the middle of the students instead of staying up front by the board or computer. A wireless clicker is great for this when doing computer presentations. If you're stuck handwriting on the board, you'll have to move back and forth. This will allow them to hear you better and if you move about the room, will probably keep their attention better, too.

[Danger_Zone]

1 hour ago, GradSchoolTruther said:

Write detailed lecture notes and study them beforehand. Foster discussion, have in-class activities, and show interesting short videos.

Good ideas, thanks!

[Danger_Zone]

51 minutes ago, shadowclaw said:

As someone who has long suffered from social anxiety, I very much understand your feelings. Back in the early days of my very long trek through undergrad, the hour or so prior to giving a presentation in class was filled with worry, quivering hands, elevated heart rate, nausea, and occasionally some vomiting. I have since developed a better ability to cope with the stress of talking in front of people (although to be honest, it was less about being in front of people and more about the fear of strangers thinking that I'm a complete idiot or me screwing up everything I say), but I still get nervous before presentations and before I teach my lab.

So my tips for you - first off, when doing a lecture, you will have a plan. Maybe you'll be using a power point presentation, maybe you'll be lecturing to them and writing some notes on a chalk board or white board. There are other situations as well, but since you're in history, those are probably the two situations you'll be in. Either way, you come into the classroom with a plan for what material you're going to cover, and ideally you will either go through your presentation slides/notes a few times and go over in your head what you will be saying, or you will practice out loud. I find that going through the presentation out loud helps me remember the order of material better and makes me feel more comfortable when I actually deliver the lecture. Since I only lecture for about 10 minutes before biology lab starts, it's not very time consuming to run through the lecture one or two times. If I had to lecture for a full hour, I might not have time to go through the whole thing once out loud, let alone multiple times. However, I would still want to read through my slides a few times and make a few notes.

My second tip is that it's perfectly fine to have some notes written/printed out on some paper with you to help you if you forget something or just to guide you along. Don't feel like you have to have everything memorized perfectly - maybe there are some numbers or names that you can't quite remember, and that's ok. Maybe you just covered something really interesting for 20 minutes and you can't remember what comes next - that's ok! Just look at your notes! I've seen TA's do this and I've seen seasoned faculty do this.

Third, break up the lecture if you can. No one enjoys talking for an hour (or more) straight, and no one likes listening to it, either. Plan for some discussion, include interesting materials to class if you can that will add to the lecture, like videos, photographs, even books that you might want to read a passage from. If you can, include some type of activity for students to do. 

Fourth, I also understand what it's like to have a quiet/soft voice. Depending on the size of the class and the acoustics of the room, it might not matter. It's probably best to encourage your students to let you know if they can't hear you. As long as you make it clear that they aren't being rude if they interrupt to tell you to speak louder, I find that students have no problem letting you know if you're being too quiet. A really good tactic to use though is to move throughout the classroom or stand close to/in the middle of the students instead of staying up front by the board or computer. A wireless clicker is great for this when doing computer presentations. If you're stuck handwriting on the board, you'll have to move back and forth. This will allow them to hear you better and if you move about the room, will probably keep their attention better, too.

That's all really helpful, I will definitely have to remember this during the school year. Thanks a lot! Sometimes I forget that I'm not the only one who feels this way.

[rising_star]

There are lots of great books out there on surviving teaching. Many have titles like "Your first year in the classroom" or something similar. Find and read through several of those which are targeted to new college faculty because they'll have plenty of tips about how to ease your way into the classroom, get comfortable being in front of students, etc. I also highly recommend The Courage to Teach, which is a good read. In terms of resources, McKeachie's teaching tips and Elizabeth Barkley's books on student-centered learning and classroom activities are both resources. I've found that, regardless of the discipline, engaging students in active learning activities takes some of the pressure off of you because you don't have to speak the entire time. In history, this could be running a Reacting to the Past game, having students read and discuss historical documents, or having them prepare for and participate in an in-class debate. 

If you're really worried about the anxiety factor, you may want to talk to your doctor about anti-anxiety meds. There are some which can be used situationally, which could be an option if the anxiety isn't pervasive in your life. It's really about finding what works for you, which could be listening to certain music before you teach, the level of prep and notes you need for class, etc. Sometimes my overly planned classes are some of the worst and the improv classes are some of the best, other times the improv classes flop and having a meticulous plan saves my a**. Even after teaching for years, I can't always predict which is going to be which. At a minimum, I like to have a bulleted list of what needs to get done in each class and some discussion questions to ask in case I lack other material. I also show a lot of clips (many of which I find on YouTube). 

You can do this!! You need to have that self-belief. Good luck!

[PoliticalOrder]

I just want to point out that it is very rare for TAs to ever have to lecture, especially for first year TAs. You might have to run discussion groups but this isn't really 'lecturing' it is facilitating/moderating discussions among the students. The only way you will have to lecture as a TA is if your prof needs to miss a class for whatever reason and even then you would still usually have the right to 'volunteer' whether you want to cover that class or not, i.e. it's not expected of you.

All this to say is chances are all you will be doing is grading exams/papers and having office hours. 

[Danger_Zone]

5 hours ago, PoliticalOrder said:

5 hours ago, PoliticalOrder said:

I just want to point out that it is very rare for TAs to ever have to lecture, especially for first year TAs. You might have to run discussion groups but this isn't really 'lecturing' it is facilitating/moderating discussions among the students. The only way you will have to lecture as a TA is if your prof needs to miss a class for whatever reason and even then you would still usually have the right to 'volunteer' whether you want to cover that class or not, i.e. it's not expected of you.

All this to say is chances are all you will be doing is grading exams/papers and having office hours. 

I just want to point out that it is very rare for TAs to ever have to lecture, especially for first year TAs. You might have to run discussion groups but this isn't really 'lecturing' it is facilitating/moderating discussions among the students. The only way you will have to lecture as a TA is if your prof needs to miss a class for whatever reason and even then you would still usually have the right to 'volunteer' whether you want to cover that class or not, i.e. it's not expected of you.

All this to say is chances are all you will be doing is grading exams/papers and having office hours. 

Honestly I thought there might be a low chance of lecturing, but at least during my undergrad we did have discussion/seminar groups which branched off from the larger classes and TAs were responsible for those. These classes didn't involve a lot of lecturing, but in any case I'd like to be prepared for whatever I have to do.

[Danger_Zone]

5 hours ago, rising_star said:

There are lots of great books out there on surviving teaching. Many have titles like "Your first year in the classroom" or something similar. Find and read through several of those which are targeted to new college faculty because they'll have plenty of tips about how to ease your way into the classroom, get comfortable being in front of students, etc. I also highly recommend The Courage to Teach, which is a good read. In terms of resources, McKeachie's teaching tips and Elizabeth Barkley's books on student-centered learning and classroom activities are both resources. I've found that, regardless of the discipline, engaging students in active learning activities takes some of the pressure off of you because you don't have to speak the entire time. In history, this could be running a Reacting to the Past game, having students read and discuss historical documents, or having them prepare for and participate in an in-class debate. 

If you're really worried about the anxiety factor, you may want to talk to your doctor about anti-anxiety meds. There are some which can be used situationally, which could be an option if the anxiety isn't pervasive in your life. It's really about finding what works for you, which could be listening to certain music before you teach, the level of prep and notes you need for class, etc. Sometimes my overly planned classes are some of the worst and the improv classes are some of the best, other times the improv classes flop and having a meticulous plan saves my a**. Even after teaching for years, I can't always predict which is going to be which. At a minimum, I like to have a bulleted list of what needs to get done in each class and some discussion questions to ask in case I lack other material. I also show a lot of clips (many of which I find on YouTube). 

You can do this!! You need to have that self-belief. Good luck!

Thanks for the book recommendations! I'll have to check them out. I know I probably won't have to teach a class for a while, but once I do I'd like to have a good idea of what I'm doing and hopefully make things interesting. I'm probably going to talk to a therapist about this and other things I'm worried about which I'd like to hopefully deal with before going to grad school. I'd like to avoid medication if I can but I have heard people recommend things like beta blockers as well? One thing I have been doing is cutting down on caffeine when I'm going to be in a situation I feel will make me anxious, but that's very hard to do as a student.

[rising_star]

47 minutes ago, Danger_Zone said:

 One thing I have been doing is cutting down on caffeine when I'm going to be in a situation I feel will make me anxious, but that's very hard to do as a student.

It can be done if you want to do it. I gave up both coffee and soda during graduate school and have never looked back. 

[xolo]

Whether you lecture or not seems to depend on the school/department. My first semester, first year, my department put me in front of a class of 40 students and I was the only "professor" in the classroom, teaching language. I might be a little different since I have no degree in Spanish but my school only takes PhD students, so my peers were often better prepared with a couple of years of teaching experience. A great life experience but a baptism by fire! There are a lot of good books out there. I also recommend any workshops that might be available.

I thought it is also common for grad students to teach in History departments?

Edited March 13, 2016 by xolo

[ashiepoo72]

You should also look for university resources for TAs. My program did a TA orientation that was required for all first years, for example. Graduate studies might have stuff you can look at, like TA handbooks. I would spend some time talking to seasoned TAs in your department before you start. 

From what I know, most history TAs do not lecture unless they get an instructor of record position, which is generally after advancing to candidacy. I've heard some TAs in my department do mini-lectures during section (in addition to facilitating discussion) but they aren't required to.

[Danger_Zone]

1 hour ago, ashiepoo72 said:

You should also look for university resources for TAs. My program did a TA orientation that was required for all first years, for example. Graduate studies might have stuff you can look at, like TA handbooks. I would spend some time talking to seasoned TAs in your department before you start. 

From what I know, most history TAs do not lecture unless they get an instructor of record position, which is generally after advancing to candidacy. I've heard some TAs in my department do mini-lectures during section (in addition to facilitating discussion) but they aren't required to.

Yeah that's a good idea, thanks!  I'm also sure I will get more information regarding the TA position once I make an official acceptance. But I'll definitely talk to some other students once I have the chance and get a better idea of what is expected of TAs. If it's anything like my undergrad school, I do expect TAs would be leading smaller discussion groups, but I suppose that leadership role itself - not just the idea of lecturing - might make me a bit nervous.

[Sigaba]

On 3/10/2016 at 0:26 PM, Danger_Zone said:

 Does anyone have any advice?

Pick a minor outside field in that allows you to take classes in Purdue's School of Education. http://www.education.purdue.edu/Academics/graduate_programs.html

 

 

[Danger_Zone]

4 hours ago, Sigaba said:

Pick a minor outside field in that allows you to take classes in Purdue's School of Education. http://www.education.purdue.edu/Academics/graduate_programs.html

 

 

That's a great idea as well, thank you. I haven't looked much into minor fields yet and hadn't actually considered doing one outside of history. But I've always loved learning/reading about education so it might be something to look into.

[apartmentnomad]

I'm a quiet person and have issues with this kind of thing, too, but at least in terms of having a soft voice I think it's something most of us can change. A lot of it is breathing properly (we're supposed to breathe so the abdomen expands, rather than the chest area) and enunciating. I'm practicing. 

Or you could bring a loudspeaker to class. It'd be funny. 

[Ethan M]

I can totally understand. Addressing a class full of students can be intimidating at times. I am also sailing in the same boat as you. I have just embarked my teaching career and more often than not I end messing up my lectures. Initially, I was very embarrassed of my shortcomings as a teacher. But off late, I came to realize that there is a certain leaning curve in teaching and you only learn when you make mistakes. Making notes prior to the lecture, practicing your lecture in front of the mirror, running through your lecture among friends can help big time. The key is to not get nervous and having self belief. I know it is easier said than done. But eventually everything will fall in place. Be ready to embrace your failures. There will be quite a few goof ups in your initial lectures and you have to be brave and patient enough to go past them. I recently read this essay on public speaking and it did help me. Hope it helps you too. Good Luck!   

[Cat_Robutt]

@Danger_Zone I also have communication apprehension, and...I have taught Public Speaking for a year and a half! In my classes, when I lecture I have prepared notes, discussion questions, etc. and do many activities where the class is split up into small groups in order to get them talking. I've found fostering an encouraging classroom environment where I know my students, they know I know them, and they know each other makes both my anxiety lessen, and their anxiety lessen.

This has worked for me personally, and your mileage may vary, but my students know that I am both shy/have anxiety and that I'm dyslexic. This makes me more of a person like them--especially my shy students--and when I inevitably misspell something on the board, they point it out instead of snickering. It's a small detail that has radically changed my classrooms.

I would also encourage you to check out "flipped classrooms" where students are more verbally engaged with material, and to perhaps check out Dan O'Hair's A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking as it contains some tips on managing anxiety.

[Danger_Zone]

9 hours ago, Cat_Robutt said:

@Danger_Zone I also have communication apprehension, and...I have taught Public Speaking for a year and a half! In my classes, when I lecture I have prepared notes, discussion questions, etc. and do many activities where the class is split up into small groups in order to get them talking. I've found fostering an encouraging classroom environment where I know my students, they know I know them, and they know each other makes both my anxiety lessen, and their anxiety lessen.

This has worked for me personally, and your mileage may vary, but my students know that I am both shy/have anxiety and that I'm dyslexic. This makes me more of a person like them--especially my shy students--and when I inevitably misspell something on the board, they point it out instead of snickering. It's a small detail that has radically changed my classrooms.

I would also encourage you to check out "flipped classrooms" where students are more verbally engaged with material, and to perhaps check out Dan O'Hair's A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking as it contains some tips on managing anxiety.

Thank you! That is very helpful. Unfortunately it seems no matter how much I try I will always be a shy person, I just don't want it to interfere with my ability to TA or be a grad student. It sounds like I won't be teaching my own class for a few years, so until then I'll do my best to improve my public speaking skills. I'll definitely check out that book and might look into some sort of public speaking class.

[sjoh197]

Seriously Lana, call Kenny Loggins because you're in the Danger Zone....